Our Small Changes Ambassadors
Avril McDonaldAvril McDonald is the award-winning best-selling author of the Feel Brave series of books (little stories about big feelings for 4-7 year olds) and founder of ‘Feel Brave’ The vision of Feel Brave is to give all children access to tools that help them manage tough emotions and reach their potential. Avril’s books are well loved all over the world and have been translated into Greek, Finnish, Turkish, Romanian and Chinese. Each book tells a story about a real life situation that children may face, and offers a really simple strategy to cope. It’s like: ‘Peppa Pig meeting Tony Robbin’s’ for kids!
Avril is a trained primary school teacher, business woman and a mum. Her free wellbeing programme is now used by over 250 schools across 10 counties. She is a patron of the Westminster Children’s University and an official partner of the Life Education Trust New Zealand. Website: www.feelbrave.com |
John Parsons![]() John Parsons is an Internet Safety and Risk Assessment Consultant to schools, the private sector and the health sector, providing specialist advice and direction on the safe use of Digital Communication Technology.
He works alongside Police, Children Young Persons and their Families (CYF) and Health Professionals delivering training in child protection to attendees who come from a wide range of professions. The focus of this work is the reduction of child abuse in New Zealand. He delivers cyber safety workshops to those who work with young people in areas of health, education and safety. John also delivers parent/caregiver cyber safety workshops through school or community based initiatives. John's book, Keeping Your Children Safe Online, can be purchased by contacting John via Facebook to request a signed copy here. Website: www.facebook.com/johnparsonsS2E |
Walter NeilandsWalter Neilands is a television host, writer and MC. Walter is well known for his energetic and fun personality. He's been a host on Sticky TV, New Zealand's most popular youth TV show, as well as Cadbury Dream Factory. Walter is currently a competitor on the New Zealand Dancing with the Stars.
Walter has been hosting and writing Television since 2010 and in this time gained a large connection with New Zealand youth in this time. |
Danijela UnkovichDanijela is a Registered New Zealand Nutritionist based in Auckland, currently working across community nutrition, private practice and corporate wellness. As a part of her community nutrition role she manages an organic garden and cooking program, with a wide-age range of youth.
She is a passionate foodie, pursuing culinary training last year, and loves spending time in the kitchen cooking up a storm. As a creative outlet, she runs a health and wellness blog - Healthy Always - where she shares recipe ideas and writes blogs on topics of nutrition. Website: www.healthyalways.co.nz |