About us

The Free Talk Intervention CIC is a grassroots organisation, dedicated to helping both
young people and adults facing a wide range of challenges by utilising the lived
experience approach.

Our work started when our founder and CEO, Shadene Keeling (AKA ‘Diamond’), started a sweet shop in south Bristol. Due to her personal warmth, strong community spirit and desire to help others, she soon found that as many people were coming in to ask for life advice as well as sweets.

This, combined with her own lived experience of living with people with addiction and gang violence, and her academic background in Criminology, led to her developing a programme that could be used to support others in personal growth and change.

Over three years, as her work became more structured and more people started to attend sessions, she set up formally as Diamond’s Social Community Hub CIC, then Diamond’s Social Enterprise CIC as she searched for a business name that reflected the range of services offered. In 2023, she finalised her programme and the name for the company - The Free Talk Intervention - based on the idea that everyone could talk freely, without prejudice or fear of reprisal.

Now based in St. Paul’s, Bristol, The Free Talk Intervention CIC offers a wide range of services for adults, young people and parents/carers, and has worked in partnership with the Ministry of Justice, Change Grow Leave, Barnardo’s, NIHR, NHS, CARGO and Avon and Somerset Constabulary.

A respected community member, Shadene is recognised for her experience working with young people involved in gangs, county lines and grooming as well as knife crime and understanding the motivations and drivers of the young people involved. She is now joined by a dedicated team, many of whom have lived experience, to undertake these valuable services in the community.