For more than 15 years, I have worked alongside young people while building, leading and strengthening organisations rooted in community, creativity and social change.
My experience spans youth work, serious youth violence prevention, safeguarding, organisational development, strategy, governance, social enterprise and cross-sector partnership working.
Co-founder, Head of Quality and Innovation & Serious Youth Violence Specialist | 2011 - Present
Art Against Knives [AAK] is where my frontline practice, organisational leadership and belief in the power of creativity come together. As a co-founder, I have helped build a youth-led charity that works alongside young people and communities affected by violence, exploitation and exclusion.
My role spans strategy, quality, innovation and organisational development. I work with young people, staff, trustees, funders and partners to strengthen the organisation, develop sustainable opportunities and ensure that the people closest to the issues help shape what happens next. My lived experience, frontline practice and commitment to anti-oppressive, relationship-led work have helped shape the organisation’s culture and approach.
I have built and stewarded long-standing partnerships across community, public, charitable, cultural and commercial sectors—working with senior local-authority leaders, commissioners and service directors across youth justice, children’s services and education, as well as partners including the Home Office, Liberty, Apple, Gucci, Universal Music and London College of Fashion. These relationships have helped connect young people with support, opportunity and greater influence over the decisions that affect their lives.
Focus: Organisational strategy and development · Governance and trustee engagement · Financial stewardship and sustainability · Fundraising and income growth · Programme portfolio leadership · People, culture and workforce development · Youth-led practice · Safeguarding · Serious youth violence and VAWG
ART AGAINST KNIVES
COMMUNITY SOULS
Founder and CEO | 2013 - 2023
I founded Community Souls to create fair, flexible employment for people too often excluded from the job market. Starting with a £500 donation and one employee, it grew into a community-conscious cleaning social enterprise serving clients across London.
As Founder and Director, I led strategy, operations, finances, recruitment, workforce welfare, client relationships and business development—building a commercial model that placed social value at its core. Community Souls developed trusted client relationships across the charitable, community and public sectors, including the London Community Foundation, YMCA and the London Borough of Barnet.
Aligned with the principles of the Public Services [Social Value] Act, Community Souls showed how commercial services could create wider social and economic value: combining high standards for clients with employment, support and progression for people facing barriers to work.
Focus: Founder leadership · Social-enterprise strategy · Operations and financial management · Earned income · Workforce culture · Employment pathways · Social value · Community wealth building
Expert Review Panel Member | 2026–present
Providing practice-informed review of youth mental-health resources, with a focus on accuracy, safeguarding, accessibility and the experiences of Black and racially minoritised young people.
Trustee | 2026–present
Contributing to governance, strategic oversight and accountability, bringing experience in youth development, safeguarding, community engagement and organisational leadership.
Non-Executive Director and Advisor | 2020–2022
Supported governance, board structure and operational development during the organisation’s start-up phase. Power to Connect works to tackle digital exclusion by redistributing technology and supporting digital skills for children, young people, families and communities.
Co-optee, Effra Grant Team | 2019–2022
Supported grant assessment and funding decisions as part of the Effra Grant Team, contributing frontline and community insight to conversations about investment, inequality and social change.
Youth Battersea / Battersea Power Station
Consultant | 2022
Supported the delivery of youth-focused work connected to Battersea Power Station and the local community.
Purpose-Led Propositions Consultant | 2021–2022
Part of the Insight and Innovation team, supporting the development of new, financially sustainable products and services. The work applied a user-led, creative and collaborative process, drawing on Samaritans’ existing expertise, networks and insight.
Bayes Business School and St George’s, University of London — Aspiring Chief Executive Programme, 2025
Anna Freud National Centre — AMBIT: Adaptive Mentalization-Based Integrative Treatment, 2019
MAC-UK — Integrate Training Model: trauma-informed mental-health approach, 2019–2020
The Thinking Environment — Foundation and Thinking Partnership accreditation, 2014 and 2018
Executive and specialist development
Recognition and Development
Recognition
Gucci Changemakers London — Art Against Knives programme lead, 2023–2024
London Youth — Youth Professional of the Year, 2018
UnLtd — Award winner, 2016 and 2018
School for Social Entrepreneurs — Graduate, 2015–2016