Making Waves – Jules Twells on shaping inclusive, safer, stronger spaces in aquatics

Across every chapter of Jules Twells’ career, inclusion has been the common thread.

Now, serving as National Inclusion and Wellbeing Manager at Everyone Active, Jules is helping make swimming and sport more inclusive and representative for the communities who need it most.

“I started off in the fitness world as a Lifestyle Coach,” Jules shares. “My degree was in Sport and Business, and one of my first roles in the leisure industry was working for LA Fitness, focused on membership sales, where I introduced a membership for older adults.”

This then led into disability sport when Jules joined Activity Alliance, working on the Inclusive Fitness Initiative, a nationwide programme that supported leisure centres to become more accessible and welcoming to disabled people.

Grounded in inclusion, guided by experience

While disability inclusion was her entry point, Jules quickly recognised that many of the barriers faced by different marginalised groups, including LGBTQ+ people and ethnically diverse communities, share common roots.

“Whether it’s fear, a lack of visibility, or not feeling like you belong, the challenges are often the same. That grounding in disability inclusion gave me the foundation to approach other aspects of diversity with empathy and intent.”

That understanding deepened further during a six-year period working in the mental health sector at Mind and Samaritans, before Jules took on her current national role at Everyone Active around two and a half years ago.

Now, her work spans internal equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy, partnerships with national governing bodies and direct community outreach.

“We’re not just looking at what happens inside our centres,” Jules explains. “We’re actively going out into communities, taking a place-based approach to meet people where they are.”

The power of allyship

Though relatively new to supporting aquatics professionally, Jules has a personal history with the pool.

“Swimming was my sport growing up, until I hit puberty. Like a lot of young women, I dropped out from competitive swimming. Looking back, I wish I’d pushed through.”

It’s that lived experience that now fuels a deeper motivation: helping people find lifelong connections to sport, especially those who don’t feel seen in traditional settings.

“Inclusion means creating options, so LGBTQ+ communities, for example, don’t just feel safe in one specific session, but in all sessions. We’re trying to shift away from siloing people, and instead build spaces where everyone belongs.”

From events to sustainable pathways

Last year, Everyone Active partnered with Pride Swim to deliver family-friendly swim sessions for LGBTQ+ communities.

“It worked well in some places, and less so in others,” Jules admits. “But those one-off events need to be complemented by longer-term pathways. That’s where we want to go, working with Swim England and others to embed inclusive practices across the board.”

Whether that’s ensuring staff are trained, designing facilities with inclusive access in mind, or creating community programmes that reflect local demographics, the vision is clear: aquatics, and all sport, should feel like home for everyone.

Advice for the next generation

When asked what advice she would give to someone considering a career in inclusion or working with a leisure operator, Jules didn’t hesitate: “Be curious. Push through barriers. And recognise that there are so many ways to make a difference, you don’t have to be an elite athlete to belong in sport.”

For Jules, swimming still holds a special place. “I miss galas. I’d love to dive back in the pool and swim competitively. For me, it was the best sport for fitness, and connection at a crucial time in my life.”

Whether through advocacy, strategy, or simply leading by example, Jules Twells is proving that meaningful change doesn’t always come in waves, sometimes, it starts with one person asking: ‘How can we make this better?’

With a career rooted in inclusion and a future focused on equity, Jules Twells is helping shape a more welcoming, visible and connected world in aquatics, one lane at a time.