Joanne Lord: Building a Future Where Everyone Belongs — Target NEL

Joanne Lord has spent over 35 years working in education — with children, adults, and families. She’s opened inclusion units, written courses, and taken people from school to university who started with no qualifications at all. Joanne is autistic. She has ADHD. And she’s spent a lifetime navigating a world that wasn’t built with people like her in mind.

About 20 years ago, she walked up to one of the country’s first academies, stood at the door, and couldn’t go in. “It was overwhelming. I walked out and said, ‘I’m not working there. It’s too much, too big.'” That moment stayed with her — not as a failure, but as a turning point.

Target NEL: doing things differently

In her 59th year, Joanne told her husband: “When I’m 60, I’m going it alone.” She left a secure job, spent a year learning how community interest companies work, and founded Target NEL — a project born from lived experience, designed to do things differently. Target NEL works with neurodivergent young people and families, offering project-based learning, mentoring, and practical support. It’s also training the next generation of youth workers through a programme called Train to Employ. Three of Joanne’s trainees have recently moved into paid employment.

Train to Employ

Train to Employ is a 12-week programme for over-18s who want to work with young people. Participants complete safeguarding, DBS checks, and courses covering trauma, mental health, young carers, and criminal exploitation — while gaining hands-on experience. “These people come with special skills. Whether it’s Lego, sewing, cooking, bricklaying — the work we do with children is project-based.”

Website: targetnel.co.uk