Meet Team Kind
Get to Know Your Kind Currency Founders
Meet Michelle Jones
I live my life with four values; Kindness, Hope, Gratitude & Community. These values have been born from facing my own adversity.
I am a Mam and a homemaker, I've been self-employed for 14 years in both the care and creative sector. I have had several charity and voluntary roles including being Chair of a charity for 10 years and in school governance for over a decade.
My focus has always been on closing the disadvantaged gap, inclusion and equality. I also manage several chronic illnesses and invisible disabilities including mental health illness. I've seen life in the darkest of moments, where I just existed, to today where I use my experience to create change and support others; this also helps me when I am struggling with symptoms and their effect on my world.
I have lived a life under the poverty line, skipping meals, using credit to pay for essential bills and preventing access to treatment not available from the NHS, with employment seriously impacted by disability and being self-employed in a sector that doesn't value people, working at time two or three roles to get by. The idea for Kind Currency came from sadness, anger, shame and frustration.
Everyday I see good, kind people protecting people and society that are struggling with adversity and living in deprivation with no support or help. And I also witness greed take advantage of kindness, abuse their privilege creating dangerous impact.
We live in a society that has put profit before people and the planet. It's not fair, and I can do something about it, to level up the kindness, by fighting the poverty crisis with climate action.
For my work across my communities and sectors, I’ve been recognised:
As an #ialso100 most inspiring female entrepreneur 2022
On the Northern Power Women Future List 2022
As an Entrepreneur For Good 2022 Finalist in the Great British Entrepreneur Awards
Meet Gina Buckle
Throughout my life, I've been on the receiving end of opportunities and privileges that have set my life on an upwards trajectory. Growing up in the South, having access to a good education, feeling financial stability, and being surrounded by incredible role models meant that being able to thrive was made just that little bit easier for me.
Despite this privileged upbringing, I’ve understood from an early age that the systems that made my life easier were not available to everyone in society. I’ve always seen it as my responsibility to use my headstarts in life to support others who suffer at the hands of the same systems that I benefit from.
Using the experience, skills, connections and education that my privilege has allowed me to access, I've spent her career working to address imbalances across society, but in particular throughout the North East.
I'm currently the owner of a sole trader copywriting business, Gina Wrote It. In this business, I'm able to pursue her passion for writing full time. From having started a passion-led business herself, I understand that many businesses are prevented from growing and achieving goals because of their online business presence. Within Gina Wrote It, I can work with these businesses, bringing her language and marketing skills to bring real value to important projects.
Alongside this business, I'm also a Director of the Power of Women campaign, an organisation that works to lift and shift the aspirations of young women and girls across the Tees Valley. In her previous role, I was the Content Executive for Northern Power Women, an organisation committed to addressing gender imbalances and inequalities across the North of the UK.
For my work, I was recognised on the 2023 Northern Power Women Future List.