Our governance

“Having grown up in South London, I have been able to observe the adverse effects of youth violence. My observations have led me to conclude that vulnerable communities and individuals are often neglected. Joining the Youth Advisory Board provided me with the opportunity to assess the things being done to help improve the circumstances of those that experience these adversities. I believe that if we see problems in the world that we believe to be solvable, then we have a divine duty to be part of the solution. The Youth Advisory Board serves as a good entry point to being part of the solution. I also hope that in participating, my lived experiences will serve as a value-add to the decision making processes at the Youth Endowment Fund.”

Youth violence is a really important issue that has deeply affected me and those around me. As a medical student, I am keen to explore the intersection between youth violence and healthcare, and the work that the Youth Endowment Fund does in assisting a public health approach and diversion strongly appeals to me. I hope that as a Youth Advisory Board we appreciate our rich and varying experiences and embrace this diversity, allowing us to find unique and creative solutions to help reduce youth violence and improve the lives of young people. My motivation for change is reinforced by my role as an NHS Youth Forum member, where I further work with healthcare professionals in the struggle against youth violence and health inequalities.

Eleanor Harrison OBE joined as Chief Executive in September 2020. She has a wealth of experience leading non-profit teams around the world.

Before joining Impetus, Eleanor was Interim Chief Executive of Safe Passage International, using strategic advocacy and litigation to open and defend safe, legal routes to sanctuary for young people seeking asylum. Previously Eleanor spent six years as Chief Executive of GlobalGiving UK; an award-winning global charity challenging traditional aid dynamics; using new technology to enable better access to funding, skills and learning for local organisations everywhere.

Prior to this Eleanor ran a charity in Kenya for five years helping street connected children and their families build better lives for themselves and led innovative programmes for refugees and young people in the UK. Eleanor holds an MA in International Relations, University of Queensland and an MA in Social & Political Sciences, University of Cambridge. She was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours (2016) in the UK in recognition of her services to International Development.

Junior is a social entrepreneur, campaigner and youth leader. In his early 20’s, Junior was sentenced to 12 years in prison for serious drug-related offences. It was while in custody, seeing the cycle of re-offending and helplessness of other inmates, he vowed to prevent what happened to him from happening to others.

On his release, with the support of the St Giles Trust, Junior founded the award-winning SOS Project. What started in 2006 as a small pilot project in Southwark grew to become the largest ex-offender led project in the country; helping thousands of young people make a safe and sustained exit from serious violence and criminal exploitation through county lines.

In January 2018, Keith Fraser was appointed as a member of the Youth Justice Board. Keith is also the Non-Executive Director/Trustee at The Work Force Development Trust Limited, Advisor for the National Police Chiefs Council Digital Engagement Project for Young People, and Chair of Employability UK. Keith was made a Commissioner for the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities on 16 July 2020.

Prior to this, Keith was a Superintendent and Chief Inspector in the West Midlands Police, having joined as a Constable, during which time he produced the 2016-19 Preventing Gang Involvement and Youth Violence strategy.

Keith also produced the business plan for City of Wolverhampton council where he was the Chair of the authority’s statutory Youth Offending Management Board. He led an innovative preventative project, targeting over 7,000 children and young adults, working with Sport England and was the Strategic Police Lead for the Princes Trust across the West Midlands.

Kevan is the former Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). Prior to setting up the EEF, he was Chief Executive of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Lisa is a seasoned executive with over 20 years’ experience in private equity.  She is the Chair of a number of businesses and a Trustee of Impetus.  In addition to her role as Chair of the YEF Committee, Lisa chairs the YEF investment committee.

Louis is co-founder and Managing Partner of Palamon Capital Partners, a growth equity investment firm.

Naomi is responsible for running Catch22’s operations, spanning children’s services education, employment, apprenticeships, social action and justice.

Naomi has 15 years’ experience in both strategic and operational roles in the public and private sectors. She joined Catch22 in May 2008. Prior to joining Catch22 Naomi worked across a range of projects delivering and managing youth work, early intervention and prevention services for young people at risk of social exclusion.

Steve walker has over thirty-five years experience of children’s social care as a practitioner, manager, researcher policy maker and senior leader. The common thread through Steve’s career has been a focus on improving practice, services and most importantly outcomes for children and young people.

As Deputy Director and Director of Children and Families at Leeds City Council Steve was involved in developing Family Valued a distinctive whole-system approach to working with children and families that brings together relational practice, family-led decision making and a city wide commitment to be ‘child-friendly’. This approach to practice saw Leeds move from ‘Inadequate’ in 2010 to ‘Outstanding’ in 2018. Because of the impact of Family Valued it was one of three initiatives selected by the Department for Education Strengthening Families.

In September 2021 Steve was appointed by the Secretary of State to be the Children’s Commissioner for Bradford Children’s Services.

Bethia is the Chief Executive of the Centre for Youth Impact. Prior to joining the team in September 2014 to set up the Centre, Bethia worked at the Dartington Social Research Unit, the Young Foundation, the National Youth Agency and NIACE (now the Learning and Work Institute), in a variety of policy and research roles. She has also worked in further and higher education as a teacher and trainer.

Bethia leads the Centre’s strategy and relationships with its many partners and collaborators. She is also part of the project team for the Centre’s main strands of work, including the Youth Investment Fund and the Youth Programme Quality Intervention (YPQI) Pilot. Bethia is particularly interested in the relationship between quality and impact in youth work and provision for young people, and in the theory and practice of measurement, especially within collaboratives. Bethia is a 2012 Clore Social Fellow and a Senior Visiting Fellow at Nottingham Trent University.

Jo joined the British Youth Council as Chief Executive in 2016. Jo leads the staff team and works with the Trustee Board ensure that we deliver for young people. Prior to joining the British Youth Council, Jo was the Operations Director at Girlguiding, leading on service delivery to girls and woman and membership growth across the UK. Jo is passionate about youth participation and advocacy, having found her own voice as a Brownie and a Guide and then as the coordinator of a peer education sexual health project whilst at University.

Professor Shepherd’s research on clinical decisions, community violence and the evidence ecosystem has made many contributions to clinical and public policy and to legislation. Innovations include the Universities’ Police Science Institute in Wales, the information sharing “Cardiff Model” for violence prevention which was adopted in the 2008 UK violence reduction strategy, by the Coalition Government in 2010 and by the present UK Government in 2016. He is a member of the Cabinet Office What Works Council, the Home Office Science Advisory Council and the Welsh Government Public Services Leadership Group.

Kevin Osborne is a leader and social entrepreneur who works to promote a more equitable and representative arts and cultural sector, and to support BAME entrepreneurial talent to achieve their full potential. He has launched several initiatives aimed at realising these ambitions.

Most recently, in 2021 Kevin founded Create Equity, a social enterprise whose mission is to campaign for investment to be racially equitable in the arts, in social enterprise, and in commercial industries. 

Kevin is also Founder and Chief Executive of MeWe360, established in 2012 as a business incubator and venture fund for BAME practitioners in the creative industries, to make the sector more inclusive.

Tribal Tree, launched by Kevin in 2000, was an award-winning not-for-profit agency that gave professional training and mentoring to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, with a particular focus on musical potential.

Kevin’s current portfolio of work is the culmination of a career of more than 30 years as a leader, executive producer, developer, writer and consultant in the cultural sector. He is highly motivated from his own background and experience to look for solutions to racial inequality and new ways to cultivate human potential. 

Natasha is founder and CEO at Unlocked Graduates. She developed the concept while working with Dame Sally Coates on her review into prison education, and has led the organisation from its inception in 2016. Since then, Unlocked Graduates has recruited over 500 graduates to be prison officers, working with over 10,000 prisoners across the country.

Natasha has a background in public sector start up and was previously a teacher and senior leader in inner city schools. This included co-founding King Solomon Academy and leading their frontier cohort to groundbreaking GCSE results in 2014. Natasha has also worked as a government adviser and in the Westminster think tank Policy Exchange.

In her spare time, Natasha is an advisor to the Children’s Commissioner and a charity trustee at Impetus PEF and Get Further, with a particular interest in improving outcomes for vulnerable and disadvantaged children.

Dr Sutherland is Chief Scientist and Director of Research and Evaluation at BIT. Before joining BIT Alex was at RAND Europe for five years, and spent three years coordinating and teaching research design/quantitative methods at the University of Cambridge. Prior to Cambridge, Alex worked at the Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford and has a PhD in sociology, also from Oxford.

Ben Lindsay OBE is founder of Power The Fight, an award-winning charity which tackles violence affecting young people. PTF creates long-term solutions for sustainable change and acts as a link between the community and policy makers.

Winner of the Charity Times 2022 Rising Leader Award and listed among The Evening Standard’s 2018 Progress 1000, Ben is an accomplished presenter, trainer, and facilitator with over 20 years of experience working with high-risk youth in the field of gangs and serious youth violence.

As an author Ben released his first book, “We Need To Talk About Race – Understanding the Black Experience in White Majority Churches” in July 2019.

He currently sits on the Mayor of London Sadiq Kahn’s Violence Reduction Unit reference group and on the cross party Youth Violence Commission.

Ben was awarded an OBE in King Charles’ first New Years Honours List for services to communities in SE London.

Ben leads the Education Trials Unit at the National Foundation for Educational Research, which is responsible for the delivery of a portfolio of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of educational interventions.

He sits on Trial Steering Committees for non-NFER trials, advises the Education Endowment Foundation on matters concerning the analysis of education RCTs and regularly presents at conferences and workshops on aspects of trial design and analysis.

Caroline is a qualitative specialist and has particular expertise in researching sensitive issues and vulnerable groups, such as victims of crime, offenders and bereaved people.

Professor Jolliffe was Senior Lecturer in Forensic Psychology (London Met) and Senior Lecturer in Criminology (Leicester), before joining Greenwich in January 2013.

Dez founded and has pioneered the Spark2Life project since 2006 while leading a large inner-city youth ministry with 80+ in attendance. Dez enjoys building teams and developing leaders, in 2012 as both projects were demanding he handed over the vibrant youth programme to a person who came through it.

Dez is a reformed offender is married with four adult children; he has an autobiography – ‘Convicted or Condemned’. He’s an ordained minister, qualified therapist and a cultural architect. Dez has been going into prisons for over 20 years and now offers training, coaching and consultation to the sector.

Professor Viding co-directs the Developmental Risk and Resilience Unit at UCL. Their research focuses on investigating different developmental pathways to persistent antisocial behaviour, as well as the neurocognitive consequences of childhood maltreatment.

Professor Brennan is a psychologist who moved into the area of criminology via a PhD in public health.

He continues to integrate these disciplines in his three main areas of research: the prevention of weapon use; the policing of domestic abuse; and the diversion of offenders from the criminal justice system.

Ian McCaul is Chief Executive Officer of Chiltern Way Academy Trust, a special educational needs multi academy trust for boys and girls aged 4 to 19.  The academy is designated to educate and care for young people with autistic spectrum conditions and social, emotional and mental health needs.

Ian has particular interests in increasing advocacy for this group of young people, developing a wider understanding of the role of special educational needs in the criminal justice system and in uniting theory with practice.

In 2012 Jenni was nominated for The Women Awards for her Domestic Violence awareness programmes for teens. She has also been recognised for her work in the media by being named in the Top 12 Influential Women of Colour in media in the UK in 2013 as well as the Top 8 Inspirational Women of Colour in media in the UK 2014.

In 2014 Jenni was honoured to become a Domestic Violence UK’s (DVUK) National Ambassador which further highlighted her advocacy against Domestic Violence.

As an author Jenni has co-Authored “Letters to a Younger Generation for Girls” in September 2015, “Wounds to Wisdom” in March 2016 and “GLAMBITIOUS Guide to Greatness: How to go from Thriving to Surviving” in January 2018.

In 2017 Jenni launched the YANA Project which aims to work with young people who have directly been affected by gang related violence, sexual grooming, exploitation, domestic violence and abuse.

Dr Jyoti Belur is an Associate Professor in Policing at the UCL Department of Security and Crime Science and has undertaken research for the UK Home Office, College of Policing, ESRC and the Metropolitan Police Service.

Dr Belur is interested in methodological issues and is a qualitative research methods expert. Her research interests include policing, police training and education, systematic reviews and evaluations, and violence against women and children.

Dr Matteo Sandi is a Research Officer at the Centre for Economic Performance (LSE). Matteo joined LSE in October 2015 and his current fields of research are the economics of crime and the economics of education. He studies the determinants of crime and the crime-reducing effects of schooling, policing and public institutions. His research investigates the effectiveness for crime prevention of a variety of interventions, such as early childhood interventions, legislation changes and policing operations.

Professor Peter Fonagy is Head of the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at UCL; Chief Executive of the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, London; Consultant to the Child and Family Programme at the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine; and holds visiting professorships at Yale and Harvard Medical Schools. His clinical interests centre on issues of early attachment relationships, social cognition, borderline personality disorder and violence.

Dr Sajid Humayun is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Greenwich and Programme Leader for MSc Child and Adolescent Psychology and MSc Psychology. His research focuses on the relationship between child and adolescent mental health, parenting and genetics, and on evaluating interventions for child and adolescent mental health problems.

Sajidah is the Foundation’s Director and has a background in campaigning, research and advocacy.

Sajidah joined the Naz Legacy Foundation as Director of Operations in 2018.

She has experience in campaigning, research and advocacy. She previously worked for a Member of Parliament and founded a Youth Council on tackling Domestic Violence with Rt Hon Patricia Scotland QC. She also has experience in teaching at a secondary level.

Sajidah is passionate about social justice and equality and holds an MSc from SOAS in Middle East Politics.

Dr Vashti Berry leads the Child Mental Health Research Group at the University of Exeter. Her focus is children’s social, emotional and behavioural development in the context of challenging family contexts, such as domestic violence and abuse, or reduced parenting capacity. She designs and leads studies that answer pressing questions for clinicians and practitioners working at the frontline with children and families, often seeking a solution to the most effective way to prevent or intervene in difficulties with their health and development.

Ben leads the Education Trials Unit at the National Foundation for Educational Research, which is responsible for the delivery of a portfolio of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of educational interventions.

He sits on Trial Steering Committees for non-NFER trials, advises the Education Endowment Foundation on matters concerning the analysis of education RCTs and regularly presents at conferences and workshops on aspects of trial design and analysis.

Professor Jolliffe was Senior Lecturer in Forensic Psychology (London Met) and Senior Lecturer in Criminology (Leicester), before joining Greenwich in January 2013.

Professor Brennan is a psychologist who moved into the area of criminology via a PhD in public health.

He continues to integrate these disciplines in his three main areas of research: the prevention of weapon use; the policing of domestic abuse; and the diversion of offenders from the criminal justice system.

Dr Chandan is a Clinical Associate Professor in Public Health at the University of Birmingham. His primary research focuses on identifying and addressing health inequalities, supported through novel data science approaches. He has expertise in population health data science, data linkage and medical education.

To date, Joht has spent considerable time working on designing and delivering a public health approach to abuse and violence. This includes research into finding what works to support survivors of abuse and maltreatment as well as methods to improve surveillance in the context of domestic abuse and child maltreatment. For example, his research has shown that victims of domestic abuse are nearly three times more likely to suffer from mental ill health during their lifetime and have above-average rates of diabetes, heart disease and death. The findings of his published work have been highlighted in the House of Commons and Lords during the COVID-19 pandemic. Working in this field he has had numerous high impact factor publications which have been disseminated with frequent news appearances on BBC News, Sky News and other leading international media outlets.

Joht holds several national and internationally recognised roles in this field; scientific advisor to the Lancet Commission for Gender-Based Violence and Maltreatment of Young People, co-director for the UoB Centre for Crime, Justice and Policing, deputy stream lead at the UoB Institute of Global Innovation and HDRUK Midlands theme lead for mental health.