14 Years in Education
The Origin Story
Built From Experience.
Driven by Purpose.
I'm Blake — an Inclusion Support Teacher and the founder of VIGA, the Van Isle Guild of Adventurers. My work has always centred on the kids who need a little more: more structure, more patience, more of a reason to believe that social connection is something available to them.
Over the years, I've learned that the most powerful skill-building doesn't happen when you sit kids down and tell them what to practise. It happens when they're genuinely engaged in something they care about — and the skills grow as a natural result. Give a kid a real project, a real challenge, a real reason to work with others, and you'll see more growth in an afternoon than in weeks of direct instruction.
"The moment I realized I could use D&D the same way — as a vehicle, not just a game — is when VIGA started to take shape."
I've been playing Dungeons & Dragons for six years. It's a game I've loved for the way it brings people together — the way it requires you to listen, to collaborate, to think about what the person across the table needs. Those aren't just good gaming skills. They're the skills we're trying to help young people build every day.
After running D&D programs in school settings and watching what happens when a quiet kid finds their voice at the table — when the kid who struggles in the hallway becomes the one leading the group through a critical moment in the story — I knew this was worth building into something more intentional.
VIGA is that something. A program designed from the ground up to make those moments happen on purpose.