Max McGrorty

Max McGrorty

Mentor

Hello, my name is Max and I am delighted to be working with MindJam.

From a young age I spent a lot of time around people with additional needs and Autism, both of my parents worked in care and routinely involved my brother and I in various work events, regularly meeting and building friendships with people that they supported. It did not take long for me to decide that this is something I would be very interested in doing myself once I was old enough to work.

I eagerly left school at sixteen, having not particularly enjoyed my time at school, I was very excited to start working at a day service for young adults with Learning disabilities and Autism. Our focus was using fun activities to engage and create a safe environment for the people who attended.

I spent a total of six years as a support worker for young adults with Learning Disabilities as well as Autism and ADHD. I found that games served as a great way to bond and build connections with a variety of people from diverse backgrounds. This felt like second nature to me, growing up playing games since early childhood, a large portion of my own social interactions growing up were done through the medium of video games. I truly understand the positive impact that gaming can have on someone’s mental wellbeing.

In recent years, I have also found a great passion for film, I studied and achieved a First Class Honours in Film Production at Brighton Film School. This has resulted in me working on various projects, from small-scale promotional videos for local businesses, to high budget advertisements that have been aired on television.

My passion for games and my passion for film share a common theme, they both allow me to be creative in any way that I want, in a completely free and unrestricted manner. This is something that I personally feel is very important to me. I believe that everyone should be able to freely express themselves in any way that they feel is right for them. I have seen first hand how these forms of media can positively affect someone’s life and this fits in with the ethos of MindJam, something that I wholeheartedly support.

I am enhanced DBS checked and hold several, relevant training certificates including:

 

o   Safeguarding

o   Online Safety for Teaching Staff

o   Understanding Anxiety and Stress In Children and Young People

o   Data Protection and GDPR 

 

Favourite Games

Pokemon Emerald, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Original Trilogy, Halo: The Master Chief Collection , Last of Us 1 & 2, Subnautica, Stardew Valley, Borderlands Trilogy, Fortnite, Ghost of Tsushima , Sudoku.

Hobbies

Playing Games, Watching Films, TV series and Anime, Filming things on my own camera, Editing, Flying my drone, Photography, Digital Art (Procreate & Blender), Cooking & Baking.

We'd love to hear from you.

If you would like our team to get in touch with you to discuss how we can help you and your young people through our services, please feel free to fill out our contact form, and we will be in touch as soon as possible to talk you through enrolling with one of our mentors or counsellors

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