Steve Reed OBE MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
Steve Reed is the Labour MP for Streatham and Croydon North. He was first elected in a by-election in 2012 having previously served as leader of Lambeth council from 2006-12. He was the Secretary of State for Food, Rural Affairs and Environment following Labour’s election victory in 2024. In September 2025, he was appointed the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Sir David Robinson, OBE, Co-Founder and Co-Lead, Relationships Project
David Robinson is a community worker, co-founder and co-lead of the Relationships Project. The Project gathers evidence, makes tools, runs support networks, and is leading the development of the Relational Practice Academy – a new centre for applied learning in relational practice.
David also co-founded and led Community Links from the kitchen table to the Community Enterprise of the Year award, Discover – the UK’s first story centre for children and their families, and Shift – applying behavioral insight and award-winning design to social change. He helped to create the Social Impact Bond, chaired the first SIB funded project and led the Prime Minister’s Council on Social Action. He was the first Practitioner in Residence at the LSE’s Marshall Institute, is an Ashoka Senior Fellow and was once described by the Guardian as “the godfather of the community sector, equally admired on the left and right”.
James Arrowsmith, Head of Social Care, Browne Jacobson LLP
James Arrowsmith is a Partner at Browne Jacobson where he leads the Social Care and Risk team. James is passionate about social care and the contribution it makes to supporting people in our communities. James leads a team whose purpose is to support clients in the sector to keep delivering their best. He and his team work with private and public sector clients on social care provision, and safeguarding practice, including supporting them when things go wrong or disputes arise.
James regularly speaks at live and online events on the subject of integrated care, social care and care reform, for organisations such as EM Lawshare and LLG. He has published articles in Municipal Journal and Local Government Chronicle. He works with organisations such as LGiU and New Local to explore opportunities to continually improve social care, bringing that learning into the advice and support he provides to clients.
Emily Brook, Director of Innovation, Care City
Emily joined Care City as a Senior Project Lead, where she is currently working on projects looking into experiences and improvements needed in hospital discharge processes and gaining insights into the drivers behind those living in social isolation across Barking and Dagenham.
Emily is an expert in the design and delivery of strategy and policy. She has held senior leadership roles in the UK and New Zealand public and VCSE sectors, including within the NHS and Local Government. She has significant experience of working across partnerships and policy areas to shape cohesive strategy in complex, political environments. Emily has also led major change programmes in areas including digital, organisational design and development, and data.
Emily is passionate about all things people and has a particular interest in the role that communities play in shaping and delivering change. She is founder member of the Greater Manchester Policy Development Network and the Chair of Trustees for a digital isolation charity in Glossop and Tameside.
Dee Brooks, Jeder Institute
Dee is the co-founder and Director of the Jeder Institute and an internationally recognised facilitator of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). For more than three decades she has worked alongside communities and councils across 20+ countries, blending ABCD with participatory leadership and person-centred practices. Dee is the International Liaison for the ABCD Institute at DePaul University in Chicago and is also active in the International Association for Community Development (IACD) community. Dee’s practical wisdom and infectious energy have helped countless communities turn possibility into action.
Carl Brown, Systems Practice Manager, MEAM
Carl provides bespoke systems-focused support to help local areas tackle problems related to multiple disadvantage. Before joining MEAM Carl worked within the homelessness sector in a range of frontline services including Housing First and 18 months as an evaluator for the national Housing First Pilot. As someone with lived experience of homelessness and multiple disadvantage he is passionate about his work. Carl has experience working within transformational teams, applying systems thinking methods to bring about positive change and working with the police and social housing providers.
Claire Burnham, Assistant Director – Neighbourhood Reform and Skills, Wigan Council
Claire is the Assistant Director, Neighbourhood Reform and Skills, at Wigan Council. Claire is passionate about ensuring that all residents in the borough, whatever their background, are given the opportunity to reach their and aspirations.
She has 26 years’ experience working for Wigan Council across a variety of roles, working with children, families, communities and businesses, both as a front-line practitioner and as an operational and strategic leader. As a qualified Social Worker, Claire is committed to ensuring that the skills delivery in the borough tackles inequalities head-on and provides pathways into employment, building resilience and better health outcomes and supporting people to live happy and healthy lives.
To this aim she is also dedicated to working alongside residents, communities and VCFSE partners to ensure that we recognise and build on the strengths that already exist in our neighbourhoods, whilst also inviting in partners and services who can work alongside them.
Dan Crowe, Director, 3ni
Dan is director of 3ni, a social value partnership between Local Trust and Capacity CIC. 3ni brings together policy, practice, and the latest research and cutting-edge data and diagnostic tools to support local government and public sector partners to work with disadvantaged communities to transform neighbourhoods across the country. 3ni is currently working with a number of councils in helping shape their approach to the Pride in Place programme, and also hosts the national network for neighbourhood improvement, sharing promising practice to support community-led regeneration.
John Denham, Professorial Research Fellow, Department of Politics and International Relations and Director, Centre for English Identity and Politics , University of Southampton.
John is a Professorial Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations and Director of the Centre for English Identity and Politics at the University of Southampton. He was Labour MP for Southampton Itchen (1992-2015) and served as a Minister (1997-2003 and 2007-2010). John’s final Ministerial role was as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. He chaired the Home Affairs Select Committee from 2003 – 2007). Outside the University he was a founding Director of the Southern Policy Centre, an independent regional think tank. John co-authored New Local’s 2024 report, Place-Based Public Service Budgets: Making Public Money Work Better for Communities, with Jessica Studdert.
Claire Dhami, Head of Systems Change and Inclusion, West Midlands Combined Authority
Claire is an accomplished leader in the public sector, renowned for her innovative and inclusive approach. As the Head of Systems Change and Inclusion at West Midlands Combined Authority, she has driven significant policy changes and secured substantial investments, including £23.8 million for the Inclusive Communities pillar and £39.6 million to develop a new secure facility for children. Claire leads the Public Sector Innovation agenda, transforming public services across areas like early years, youth unemployment, health and social care, and homelessness. Notably, she established the first Violence Reduction Unit with both a unique faith alliance and a sports partnership. Claire has a strong background in public service reform, inclusive growth, and equality, diversity, and inclusion. Her instrumental role in driving initiatives has promoted equity and sustainability across the region. Claire’s dedication to social justice and her impactful contributions have made a significant difference.
Sarah Evans, Associate Director (Regional Economies) (Wales Lead), CLES
Sarah leads CLES’s work in Wales, alongside managing other projects across the UK and Ireland. Her areas of specialism include:
- Social economy development
- Social value
- The development of anchor networks
Her recent project work includes supporting Westminster City Council to review and embed its approach to social value, including the development of its annual social impact report. Sarah is also leading a number of projects across York and North Yorkshire, including mapping the region’s social economy, supporting the Mayoral Commission on Community Wealth Building, and delivering trailblazer-funded work to review the role of anchor organisations and good work.
Sarah has contributed to several government task and finish groups, including the Business Wales Task and Finish Group, and is currently a member of the Irish Government’s Working Group on social procurement.
Prior to joining CLES, Sarah worked at Cwmpas, where she led the development of work across local economic development, social value, social care, and learning and development. She has also held roles within local government and academia, leading European social enterprise development projects focussed on areas such as the internationalisation of social enterprise, and the role of minority ethnic women in the social business sector.
Sarah holds a PhD in local government management from the University of Wales.
Jessica Finnin, Cohesive Communities Manager, London Borough of Havering
Jess Finnin is a Community Cohesion Manager at the London Borough of Havering, working within Communications & Engagement. She leads programmes that build trust, strengthen relationships, and support resident‑led change across diverse communities. Jess works closely with residents, faith groups, voluntary organisations and public sector partners to design inclusive approaches to engagement, co‑creation and participation. Her work spans community cohesion, equalities, place‑based working and large‑scale community events, with a strong focus on shifting power to local people and supporting communities to shape decisions that affect their neighbourhoods.
Judith Garfield MBE, Executive Director, Eastside Community Heritage
Judith has been at Eastside Community Heritage (ECH) since 1998, overseeing the organisation’s core work programme. A passionate advocate for community-led heritage, she has trained hundreds of groups and has developed and led on a Cultural Heritage programme of training for young people and delivered hundreds of community heritage projects focusing on working class communities, regeneration, transformation, placemaking and community engagement.
Before joining ECH, Judith worked as a set designer and stage manager at the renowned Theatre Royal Stratford East. In recognition of her outstanding contribution to Community Heritage, Judith was honoured with an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2012.
Martin George, Acting editor, LGC
Martin is an award winning journalist who previously worked in politics and education. After graduating he became a researcher in Parliament, before moving into local government as political advisor to the leader of a London council. After three years teaching English in Japan, he retrained as a journalist, starting at the Surrey Comet in Kingston-upon-Thames. He later specialised in education at the Eastern Daily Press and Times Educational Supplement, before joining the Local Government Chronicle in 2019 as features editor. He has led LGC’s coverage of the Local Government Pension Scheme, and became acting editor (maternity cover) in January 2026.
Lee Griffiths
Lee Griffiths is a facilitator, systems-change practitioner, and community development leader with the Jeder Institute. With more than 20 years’ experience across local government and the non-profit sector in Australia and the UK, Lee works at the intersection of community-led change, social infrastructure, inclusion, and public sector transformation.
Grounded in lived experience and a deep commitment to justice, Lee has worked across homelessness, domestic and family violence, disability, LGBTQIA+ advocacy, community engagement, strategy, and co-design. His practice is shaped by a belief that lasting change happens when institutions shift power, listen deeply, and walk alongside communities rather than designing solutions for them.
Lee brings warmth, clarity, strategic thinking, and a strong facilitation presence to his work. He is passionate about creating the conditions for communities to recognise their own strengths, build connection, and lead change on their own terms.
Richard Holmes
Richard Holmes is a leader in community-led systems change with over 25 years’ experience at the intersection of community development, trauma-informed practice, and cross-sector collaboration. As founder of Go Together and Board Member of the ABCD Institute at DePaul University, he works nationally and internationally to help organisations shift from doing “to” communities towards approaches that are “with” and “by” communities, drawing on asset-based community development, appreciative inquiry, and relational practice.
Alongside his consultancy work, Richard is undertaking a PhD exploring how communities respond to collective trauma, with a particular interest in the practices that support healing, connection, and recovery. He brings a thoughtful, practical, and values-driven approach to his work, grounded in the belief that lasting change happens through relationships.
Eve Holt, Head of Policy and Implementation, GMCA
Passionate about people, participation, place and planet. Previous roles include being a Manchester Councillor, VCFSE leader, Director for GM Moving and public law solicitor.
Victoria Hughes, Emerging Futures Programme Lead, JRF
As part of the Emerging Futures team Victoria supports changemakers and pioneers who are working to expand our collective sense of what’s possible, imagining and building alternative scenarios in their communities for more equitable and just futures, free from poverty. Victoria focuses on place-based work in York and the wider region.
Previously, she worked as a Senior Civil Servant in Whitehall across departments, including the Treasury, in roles spanning Policy and analysis and Ministers’ offices. She started her career as a social researcher, working with communities in the North East with local Universities.
She is a Trustee at Redhills in Durham, otherwise known as the ‘Pitmen’s Parliament’. Proud of her mining heritage and conscious of its detrimental impact on our environment, she’s deeply committed to work which supports just, green transitions beyond our current economic and social models.
Niccola Hutchinson-Pascal, Co-Production Collective
Nicc loves being part of the Co-Production Collective working to support authentic co-production of research, service and policy development. She is passionate about co-production, about all parties communicating on a level playing field, sharing power and ensuring organisations are aware of the value gained from this way of working. She is a bit obsessed with coffee and when she isn’t working can usually be found running around with her son!
Mathu Jeyaloganathan, Chief Investment Officer, London Borough of Camden
Mathu is the Chief Investment Officer of the Camden Community Wealth Fund, running the country’s largest participatory investment fund. Previously, she was Head of Investments at UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs where she launched the UK’s first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion focused social impact investment fund. Prior to UnLtd, Mathu was the Social Finance lead with World Vision, where she helped to launch and operate World Vision’s impact investing funds focused on emerging market economies. Mathu enjoys eating, cooking, and climbing.
Evie John, Managing Director, Prosperous Places, Inner Circle Consulting
Evie John is a Managing Director at Inner Circle Consulting (ICC), a UK-based management consultancy that supportsthe public sector and its partners to navigate complex challenges and deliver purposeful change. ICC brings design, delivery, and innovation expertise that enables different tiers of government to create public services and place-based outcomes which make a difference to the communities they serve.
Evie has worked for over 20 years in UK local public services with a focus on transformation, design, and complex programme delivery. Evie leads ICC’s place-based services team which focusses on designing interventions across economic growth, regeneration, housing, and investment to deliver impact at a regional, city, and local level.
Pauline Johnston, Community activation specialist, Civic and Social and An Actions Common CIC
Pauline Johnston is a community activation specialist and runs Civic & Social, a creative place-shaping consultancy that “makes good things happen in our neighbourhoods”.
A nationally recognised and multi award-winning place-based innovator, she’s behind Greater Manchester’s first ‘active neighbourhood’ scheme and is the founding director of Station South - a once-dilapidated railway station turned award-winning cycle café and active travel hub, dubbed “the cyclé café for everyone.” Her pilot project On The Way Play recently received the inaugural Child Friendly Place award at the Pineapples Awards. She is currently working with Stockport Mayoral Development Corporation to help shape social infrastructure approaches within regeneration schemes through creative work with communities, partners and stakeholders.
She is also Director of An Actions Common CIC, supporting communities and civic partners to collectively reimagine and steward underused spaces. As a founding member of the Mycelial Network, her work cross-cuts culture, climate resilience and grassroots action – connecting people, places and partnerships through creative neighbourhood practice, whilst having a bit of fun doing it.
Liam Kelly, Chief Executive, Make CIC
Liam is Chief Executive of Make CIC, a socially trading organisation based right across the Liverpool City Region. Make’s mission is to help people turn their passions into prosperity and does this through a collection of creative-focused workspaces, community assets, and support services.
In addition, Liam is a non-executive director of the registered housing provider Magenta Living. This community housing association houses more than 10% of Wirral’s population and is one of the borough’s largest employers. Liam is chair of the People, Culture, & Change committee.
Liam is an expert in grassroots “place” work and in April 2026 was appointed to Chair the Birkenhead Central Pride in Place board.
Between 2017 and 2021 he spent five years as chair of the Baltic Triangle Area CIC helping steward the areas extraordinary journey from abandonment, to cultural stalwart. Additionally he acted as a commissioner for the LCR Metro Mayor, Steve Rotheram, on both the LCR Town Centre Commission and LCR Land Commission. Liam is part of a national town centre property innovation programme & think tank, convened by Power To Change, called Platform Places, supporting communities to access town centre property.
Most recently Liam joined the board of Governors at Liverpool John Moores University in the portfolio of social entrepreneurship.
Nick Kimber, Director of Public Service Reform, Cabinet Office
Nick is the Director of Public Service Reform (Place, Design and Innovation) within Cabinet Office where he leads the Test, Learn and Grow programme, focused on place-based innovation and how that can drive ‘re-wiring’ within central government. He is on secondment to HMG but his day job is Director of Strategy, Design and Insight at the London Borough of Camden. He leads on corporate strategy and is responsible for service and policy design, taking a leading role in introducing new digital and design capability into the Council and local government more generally.
Between September 2022 and December 2021, he was the senior Council officer responsible for the Camden’s Renewal Commission, chaired by Cllr Georgia Gould and Mariana Mazzucato, which developed four community-led renewal missions which are now embedded within the Council’s strategic plan. He was formerly a Policy Fellow in the IIPP Policy Studio at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) and was the co-author of the Missions Critical report, a collaboration between IIPP and FGF. The report makes recommendations about the implementation of missions at a national level.
Cate McLaurin, Head of Local Government, Public Digital
Cate is a senior director heading up our Local Government practice at Public Digital. She is a digital transformation expert, supporting leaders to adapt their organisations to the internet era and better meet the needs of users.
Cate has deep experience in delivering agile, user-centred services within the public sector. Her expertise includes leadership coaching and development, facilitating conversations across organisations and systems, and supporting leaders to be bold and brave in leading change.
At Public Digital, she works across public sector organisations, local authorities, healthcare companies and charities, including the NHS, Arup, Greenwich Council and the charity Change Grow Live.
Cate works with Board leaders across the NHS and Integrated Care Systems to build their confidence in enabling digital transformation agendas, leading a programme of bespoke leadership development sessions. Cate’s work helps Trusts to produce robust digital strategies and lead effective delivery of new services, as well as steering them to prioritise efficiently and work cohesively as a team. Feedback from the work shows that Cate’s team helped Board leaders to deliver a step change in their digital transformation.
Cate led a recent engagement with Arup to review their digital ambitions, working closely with Arup’s digital technology leaders and the group board to identify key opportunities and devise robust recommendations for change. The result was a significant shift in the organisation’s strategic approach to digital transformation .
Cate also played an instrumental role in our work with the Royal Borough of Greenwich, where Public Digital was brought in as a trusted partner to help the Greenwich digital team assess progress against their ambitious digital strategy. Cate’s deep experience in local authorities enabled her to provide robust and constructive challenge and advice to the digital team.
Prior to joining Public Digital, Cate was Head of Delivery at the London Borough of Hackney, where she built an agile and user-centred culture to deliver new services. She held this role through both the Covid-19 pandemic and the response to a major cyber attack which brought down systems and resulted in the theft of data, working with the security services, central government and police.
Jennifer Van der Merwe, Senior Place Advisor at the Office for the Impact Economy
Jen and the Kindred team work with socially-trading organisations (STOs) to grow their businesses and their individual and collective social impact across Liverpool City Region.
After spending nearly a decade running a large socially-trading organisation in Liverpool, Jen understands the opportunities and challenges facing STOs and the vital role STOs play in the revitalisation of neighbourhoods, communities and people’s lives.
Jen has set up and led partnership programmes with community-based organisations and not-for-profit organisations internationally, pioneering programmes with Stanford University and The American Institute for Foreign Study. Jen spent eight years working in the township communities of South Africa, gaining an understanding of transformational impact that the social economy can have on communities and life chances of those reaping the social benefits.
Jen holds a MA in Cities, Culture and Regeneration and a BSc. in Geography from the University of Liverpool.
Jen is a mum of two young boys, enjoys spending time with family and friends and travelling.
Fiona Miller
Fiona is a facilitator with the Jeder Institute who brings creativity, warmth, and a knack for sparking connection. She has worked across early years and adult education, arts, inclusion, and both rural and urban community development, often partnering with local government to strengthen relationships and amplify community voices. Fiona is passionate about graphic harvesting and visual storytelling as ways to bring participation alive. She serves on the ABCD Asia Pacific Network and a range of not for profit networks and boards. Fiona is known for her playful courage and her ability to help groups “see” their own strengths and possibilities.
Anjali Moorthy, Service Design Lead, Care City
Anjali Moorthy is Care City’s Service Design Lead. Over the last decade, she has worked globally in schools, prisons, public hospitals, and with local authorities – wearing many hats, from educator to manager to designer.
In India, she worked on understanding and redesigning the experiences of nurses in public hospitals and researched myths and misconceptions that stop people from practicing healthy behaviors. She uses storytelling, service design, and ethnographic research, to surface unmet needs challenges and co-design solutions. She’s also created empathy rooms, cooperative games, and immersive installations to help people engage with complex issues like digital exclusion, healthcare and social care in innovative ways.
Before Care City, Anjali worked with the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI), collaborating with hundreds of colleagues across London local government on complex systems including Adult Social Care, Housing, Net Zero and Planning.
Cllr Doug Pullen, Leader, Lichfield District Council
Leader of Lichfield District Council and has promoted a shift towards community-led initiatives by encouraging the council to take a step back and allow residents to lead. Under his leadership, the council supported projects like “Back the Track,” where a local group is working to reopen a disused railway line, and “Lichfield Litter Legends,” a volunteer network tackling litter. His former office was handed over to local history group “Lichfield Discovered” to be used as a museum.
Wietse Van Ransbeek, CEO and co-founder, Go Vocal
Wietse Van Ransbeeck co-founded and is the CEO of Go Vocal, a global company that offers a digital democracy platform. This platform assists governments in building public trust by improving participatory processes and ensuring decision-making is more representative, transparent, and responsive. Go Vocal has strengthened community engagement in over 500 governments across 20 countries globally, including cities such as Oslo, Copenhagen, Vienna, Dublin, Seattle, St. Louis, and Kansas City. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer used the Go Vocal platform to host the largest public dialogue on the UK’s National Health Service, engaging over 100,000 UK citizens online. Wietse, a civic entrepreneur, champions pluralism as vital for democracy and leverages his expertise in participatory democracy to empower other changemakers.
Dr Michael Roberts, Research and Learning Lead, Care City
Michael works as our Research and Learning Lead, with a background in the housing and mental health sectors. Before joining us, Michael worked as a learning partner and shaped community-led projects at Shift Design and ExtraCare Charitable Trust, with a focus on mental health, loneliness and social investment.
He is also the founder of social enterprise The Mindfulness Tree, with experience running mindfulness-based events, training and coaching. Michael completed PhD research in 2014-2019 into the ways that meditation practices can enhance self-knowledge and support academic research.
Michael is passionate about connecting with and understanding the needs of communities and individuals, and translating those into real-world change.
Liz Twigge, CEO and Director, HF Works CIC
Liz is the CEO and a director of HF Works, which is a CIC created solely by residents who live on the Higher Folds Estate in Leigh. Liz has over 30 years’ experience of working alongside communities and 20 years specifically in Higher Folds.
Liz is really trusted in her community where she lives among friends and peers. Throughout her time working in her neighbourhood, Liz has developed her own way of working alongside residents, peers, services and businesses. She is inspired by those that surround her, both geographically and from other agencies. Liz passionately develops strategies and creative ways of working that celebrate the communities she serves.
Liz believes in people and can see the strengths that everyone brings and knows that with a bit of belief people can do brilliant things. Liz believes that by working together people can create the magic that is needed to help people to live their best lives. She believes we can all do better if we work together.
Lauren Wallace, Senior Partnerships Manager – Changing Futures, Making Every Adult Matter
Lauren has over twelve years of experience working directly and intensively with people who have experienced multiple disadvantage, and in partnership with the services supporting them.
Prior to MEAM, Lauren held a range of roles at Fulfilling Lives Islington and Camden (FLIC) throughout the lifetime of the project including VAWG Lead and Operational Development Manager. Before that, Lauren worked in substance misuse and criminal justice settings. She brings with her an interest and experience in working within a reflective, trauma informed approach.
James Norris, Head of Skills and Employability, Walsall Council
James Norris is the Head of Skills and Employability within the Children’s Services Directorate at Walsall Council, where he leads the strategic development of skills, employment, and workforce initiatives across the borough. Working closely with internal teams and a wide range of external partners, James is responsible for shaping and delivering the Council’s approach to improving opportunities for residents and strengthening Walsall’s skills landscape. With more than 16 years’ experience in the Further Education sector, James spent 14 years at Walsall College as an Assistant Principal, overseeing Adult Skills, Apprenticeships, Community Learning, and a broad portfolio of stakeholder and employer partnerships. His work has focused on aligning education, training, and employment pathways to local and regional economic needs. James is an influential figure within the wider skills system. He serves as Chair of the Walsall Employment and Skills Board—a position he has held for over a decade—and is a Board Director at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP). He also contributes to strategic skills development at a regional level, representing Walsall Council on multiple West Midlands Combined Authority Skills and Employability groups. In addition, James sits as an Education Board Member for an Independent Training Provider. Before entering the Further Education sector in 2008, James held senior director-level roles in industry and successfully ran his own business, bringing valuable commercial insight into his later leadership positions within education and public service.
Erika Rushton, Strategy Director, Kindred LCR
Erika works part time for Kindred alongside running her own business, Creative Economist, which specialises in creative and community entrepreneurship and its capacity for transforming places. She consistently makes creativity applied, viable and inclusive and has championed community ownership of land, property and wealth by leading from the front and taking direct action. She is the founder of successive community-led and owned property companies, investment funds and supports hundreds of creative and social businesses to make their individual and collective dreams reality. Erika has been widely recognised for her contributions to the creative and digital sector, the social economy and gender equality. She most recently won Northern Power Women’s Transformational Leader Award, Insider North West Property’s Game Changer Award and is listed as one of NatWest’s national 100 WISE women and a finalist for its Wise Investor Award. She is a founder and strategy director of Kindred and works on the Liverpool City Region Social Investment Pathfinder alongside partners Power to Change, Capacity, Livv Investment, the University of Liverpool, Fusion21, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and BlaST. The Pathfinder is designed to complement Kindred funds with linked scale up and property investment and support for the region’s growing STO movement. She is also a founder of the One Day network – a group of women who rewrote Liverpool City Region’s economic strategy from a women’s perspective, to benefit everyone. Erika mentors creative women leaders internationally, lectures internationally and works voluntarily to address intersectional gender discrimination in the UK.
Adam Cooper, Director, Threads in the Ground
Adam is Director of the climate hope organisation, Threads in the Ground. Threads’ make opportunities for more people to be good ancestors. Their programme includes the world’s first fungal sculpture trail; an immersive theatre piece exploring the idea of inherited climate impact; and a feasting-centred exploration of sustainable food. Their goal is to engage 8 million more people in climate hope by 2030. Threads also deliver consultancy and training around climate hope. Adam draws ideas from technology, nature, and social movements to create inspiring climate hope projects.
Sarah Morton, Community Investment Manager, Peabody Community Foundation
Sarah Morton is a Community Investment Manager with extensive experience in delivering place-based programmes and partnerships across multiple local authority areas. She specialises in co-designing initiatives with residents, managing community assets, and driving social impact through strategic investment. Current priorities include co-designing a 10-year One Pembury strategy with residents and colleagues on this estate and working alongside residents, the VCS and social value partners to create a Community Hub within a school.
Shahda Khan, Founder, Repower Collective
Shahda Khan is a senior civil society leader and independent cross sector strategic adviser with over two decades of experience working at the intersection of communities, government and resilience in the North East. She was the Strategic Cohesion and Migration Manager at Middlesbrough Council, leading nationally recognised work on cohesion, counter-extremism, interfaith engagement and gender-based violence. Most recently, Shahda was founding Director of Borderlands, an Arts Council England Creative People and Places programme, rooted in community resilience and creative place-shaping across Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland. Through Communities of Possibilities, she initiated and championed reimagination practice, as a way of unlocking citizen agency and collective hope in places navigating profound change. She is the founder of Repower Collective, an independent practice focused on community repower and civic resilience.
Rachel Solomon, Head of Community Investment, Peabody Community Foundation
Rachel Solomon is Head of Community Investment at Peabody, where she leads the Community Foundation’s place-based programmes, putting communities at the heart of everything they do. Her team works across London and the South East, partnering with residents, local authorities and community groups to create fairer, more inclusive neighbourhoods. With extensive experience in youth and community development, Rachel champions approaches that give real power to local people. She is committed to collaboration and sharing best practice across the sector, helping to shape stronger communities and lasting change.
Isadora Schappell, Consultant, Inner Circle Consulting
Isadora is a consultant at Inner Circle Consulting. She has a background in mission-oriented policy design and strategy with a particular focus on local economic growth, public service reform and community led approaches. Isadora has experience working across the UK and internationally to bring about transformational change through innovation and economic development. Isadora has worked with clients such as the Greater London Authority, the East Midlands Combined County Authority and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to rethink public value to align ambitious social goals with the day-to-day work of governments. At Inner Circle, she is currently working on a capacity building programme for Mayoral Strategic Authorities. She recently co-authored the report, toolkit and case study collection Places on a Mission, with Grace Pollard, which explores how a new local statecraft is developing from mission led approaches. Previously she was the Cities, Climate and Innovation Programme Manager at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.
Polly Trenow, Co-head of Programmes, Turn2us
Polly Trenow is Co-Head of Programmes at Turn2us, leading work to tackle financial insecurity and build more resilient local communities. The Programmes Team brings together direct support, including grant-making to individuals, with partnerships, co-production and systems change to improve financial security. Polly brings over a decade of experience working across charities, research and local government on national and local systems change. She has a particular passion for resident-led, place-based approaches and for working with the complexity of collaboration
Val Keen, Public Service Reform Consultant
Prior to a recent career break Val initiated and led the Changing Futures Programme then multiple disadvantage policy at the Ministry of Communities and Local Government, working across government and with local partnerships to improve services and systems for people facing multiple disadvantage and support wider public service reform work. She spent her early career supporting vulnerable and homeless young people in the housing association, local government and charity sectors. Their experiences of life and services, and the efforts and frustrations of the front line public servants trying to help, led to her passion for helping create flexible, relational services and systems that can help people move forward even at their most difficult and vulnerable times. Before Changing Futures her government roles included acting as Specialist Adviser to local authorities and their partners on Youth Homelessness, leading implementation of the Homelessness Reduction Act and Rough Sleeping Initiative, and leading the Centre for Social Impact Bonds in the Government’s Inclusive Economy Unit. She lives in is Northumberland where she is also a Magistrate.
Beth Stout, Associate Director of Place & Systemic Change, Renaisi
With a background in the charity sector, Beth has spent over ten years working with individuals, organisations, and collaborations to explore long-term systemic change across issue areas including health, children and young people, and community development.
Beth leads Renaisi’s portfolio of place-based systems change work, working in collaboration with colleagues across the organisation. She works closely with Kezia del Carmen to explore how the charity sector approaches funding systems change, and also works with Daniel Morris and Cathy Hearn on place-based partnerships.
Jason Strelitz, Community-centred public services leader
Jason Strelitz is a community-centre public services leader, who has worked across local Government, NHS, academia, the voluntary sector and central Government over the past 25 years, focused on issues of poverty, and inequality, health and social care, always with communities at the heart of his approach. He was Director of Public Health in Newham in east London during the Covid-19 pandemic and Corporate Director of Adults, Health and Communities, and statutory Director of Adult Social Services from 2022-25. His book on his experience during the pandemic “Same Storm, different boats: Covid, community and how we come together” was recently published by Hawksmoor Publishing. He is Trustee of Masambiro UK a Malawi education charity he co-founded over 20 years ago and Norwood Ravenswood a social care charity supporting people with neurodevelopmental disabilities.