The Evolution of SAND

What started as a small community enterprise project has grown into a college, cafe, creative hub and many small enterprises promoting the skills of our individual trainees.

Our trainees learn to become entrepreneurial and prepared to earn money for themselves. We lead by example. Our trainees are not charitable causes and we believe they are highly capable and add huge economic value to the community and businesses. Our aim is to send this message to local industry.

We are devoted to promoting greater opportunity and life choices for those with learning or life challenges.

Sand College
Sand Bay

Meet the Team

Kate Wilson

Head of Creation
and Business Strategy

Marita Bianco

Head of Operations

Beki Tonks

Head of Transition
and Corporate Relations

Nicola Chatham

Facilitator

Libby Manville

Support Facilitator

Calum Brown

Writer In Residence

Company No. 11040905

Copyright © 2022
The Sand Project

Important Links

SAND Bay & College

1 Thorn Rd,
Worthing,
BN11 3ND

SAND Hub

38 Lyndhurst Road,
Worthing,
BN11 2DF

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Kate Wilson

Head of Creation and Business Strategy

Energetic, passionate and tenacious, Kate’s day to day life consists of many hobbies (tea blending is her current favourite), but most importantly she spends time finding the joy and brilliance in everyone and helping them turn it into a business (basically, she’s the Lord Sugar of Worthing Town Centre).

SAND has a huge list of accomplishments thanks to Kate. She counts her greatest as being the many incredible people she has convinced to become part of the SAND family.

Marita Bianco

Head of Operations

Marita teaches all things food related, and supports the progression of individual enterprises. She helps the SAND Project run smoothly and sees that all trainees and facilitators have what they need to get the most out of their work.

It’s great that this thoughtful, honest and funny lady teaches cooking, as it’s something she loves so much, especially cooking complicated dishes. Her work in the kitchen with the trainees has resulted in some great recipes and a terrific range of Frozen Ready Meals.

There are many things that Marita is proud of, from the positive relationships made at SAND – helping trainees to overcome phobias, manage emotions and foster relationships – to setting up, building and continuing to grow a college which supports young people to stride towards independence.

Beki Tonks

Head of Transition and Corporate Relations

Beki guides and supports the trainees during a very scary period in their lives – the transition from education to the working world.

Her reliability, supportive and positive attitude helps to find the best in our trainees and prepare them to achieve great success after they leave SAND.

One of the biggest accomplishments from Beki is the creation of the SAND Mentor Community, which is an innovative community of people from the world of work, who support and engage with the young people. This achievement cemented Beki as a real asset to the team.

Nicola Chatham

Facilitator

Nicola is a vital member of the team, someone you can always count on to deliver the goods, particularly when leading sessions on life and living skills as well as community work.

She loves to experiment and create yummy food, whilst also helping young adults cook up some magic in the kitchen for friends, family and SAND Bay.

Libby Manville

Support Facilitator

Libby’s primary role is to support the learning of our trainees, either in groups or one-to-one, whilst also designing accessible learning materials.

They were like the workplace cat to begin with, distant at first, but soon became adorable and comforting to all. Now they work alongside the Sixth Form group, helping to find and develop trainee skills.

Supporting the journeys of the trainees has been an absolute pleasure for Libby, seeing their progress and confidence grow is one of their favourite parts of the job.

Calum Brown

Writer In Residence

Calum is the Writer in Residence at SAND, who helps to get everyone’s creative juices flowing, resulting in the creation of fun, exciting and sometimes silly stories.

Always full of energy, Calum has used his friendly, engaging and caring personality to inspire all trainees at SAND to believe they can achieve anything they put their mind to.