LIFEbeat is brought to you by a passionate and committed group of people. Huge thanks to our core team, trustees and volunteers and for making it all possible.
Core team
Lucy is a qualified psychotherapist, trained in integrative, systemic and family therapy. She is passionate about nurturing the well-being and potential of young people and bringing a new creativity, emotional intelligence and inspiration to the fields of education and youth work.
Ana joined LIFEbeat as intern in 2015 and found the organisation to be the perfect fit for a combination of her personal and professional goals. She graduated from Seville University with a degree in Psychology. She has a passion for music and musical theatre and performs with amateur companies in her spare time. Ana brings clarity; experience and a wonderful spirit to this work.
Kitty studied English at Edinburgh University and began her career as an arts journalist. In 2011 she became the Assistant Editor at IdeasTap.com, a youth-focused organisation helping young people to find pathways into the creative industries. She helped IdeasTap to form working partnerships with The Old Vic New Voices Program and The National Youth Theatre. Having fallen in love with youth-focused work, Kitty took the role of Head of Digital at Partners for Youth Empowerment, where she worked for 3 years helping to create an online network for partners around the world. At LIFEbeat Kitty takes the role of Partnerships and Outreach Manager, helping to grow the organisation’s connection with local and national youth-serving organisations.
Danny is a creative facilitator based in Bristol and is committed to empowering young people through the arts and in nurturing ecological resurgence. He has over 20 years experience as a theatre director and creating participatory arts projects, and has supported many organisations as a professional facilitator and trainer. He has worked with LIFEbeat for almost 10 years – initially as a summer camp volunteer and theatre facilitator. Since then has occupied a variety of roles including Programme Lead Facilitator, Camp Director and in developing new Programmes, Partnerships and Training. Danny has a Masters in Social Sculpture from Oxford Brookes, has run his own theatre company, and has been fostering community arts and regeneration a director of Coexist. He is passionate about LIFEbeat’s work in supporting young people to connect with their creativity, express themselves and take action in the world.
Sola is strongly committed to inspiring and motivating young people to develop ‘Creative Confidence’ in fulfilment of their own potential. As an educator and community worker his professional experience includes many years Programme Leading and Management at Haringey Youth and Community Arts charity, plus Learning Mentoring and small group teaching, working with ‘challenging’ young people in in both primary and secondary schools: Sola draws on over a decade of international delivery as a Creative Facilitator, professional storyteller and cultural arts practitioner in his craft: to co-create impactful personal growth group experiences for the young people and adults that LIFEbeat serves.
Board of trustees
Hugo is the Founder and Managing Partner of Longwater Partners which is focused on headhunting for senior City and boardroom roles. He attended his first LIFEbeat camp as a staff volunteer in 2011 and became a Trustee the following year. Hugo is the Founder and former Chairman of Knightsbridge School Education Foundation.
Peter is an English qualified lawyer and works for BTomorrow Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of British American Tobacco PLC. Peter has been a part of the LIFEbeat community since 2014, in particular assisting in a legal capacity. Prior to joining BTomorrow Ventures, Peter has over 10 years private practice experience having worked as a senior associate in the corporate team at US firm Brown Rudnick LLP and before that at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP in both their London and Moscow offices. Peter speaks English, Polish and Russian. Away from law, Peter has a strong background in musical theatre having performed on the West End, at the Royal Albert Hall, and toured across North America. Peter is also an advisor to the board of trustees and advisory committees of the UK charities Facing History and Ourselves and The National HIV Story Trust.
Regina was called to the English Bar in 2012. Regina has worked in law enforcement for a number of years. Regina was awarded the British Empire Medal in June 2015 in the Queens Birthday Honours for voluntary services for the London borough of Haringey, in particular for her outreach work during the London riots. Regina has developed her legal career, most recently holding financial institutions to account. Regina is committed to developing LIFEbeat and ensuring there is more wider awareness of the wonderful work undertaken at LIFEbeat.
Mark was Chief Investment Officer, EMEA and Deputy Global CIO at Columbia Threadneedle, a position he held for 9 years. Prior to this, Mark was Head of Equities at Legal and General Investment Management and held senior roles at Morgan Grenfell Asset Management and Deutsche Asset Management. He gained a degree in Economics and Philosophy from Keele University and is an associate of the Institute of Investment Management and Research. He is currently taking a career break ahead of assessing his next steps.
Mark joined LIFEbeat as a trustee in 2015 and is passionate about creating positive opportunities for young people. He is also a trustee of Access Sport and an associate trustee of Great Ormand Street Hospital.
Binit Shah is the director of digital learning at Wycombe Abbey School and teaches mathematics and computer science. He first joined LIFEbeat as a volunteer on camp in 2015 and volunteered on a further three camps. He is passionate about LIFEbeat and its transformative impact.
Jemma joined as a trustee in October 2018 after attending a LIFEbeat Summer Camp and witnessing first-hand the transformational power of the LIFEbeat programme on young people’s lives. Jemma is a communications professional with over twenty five years’ experience in all areas of communications, most recently at a senior level in financial services, but also in the optical and forestry sectors. Jemma is looking forward to utilising her expertise to ensure that the LIFEbeat community keeps growing and able to benefit many more young people.
Charles completed his military career as Defence Attaché in the British Embassy in Washington DC and Head of the British Defence Staff throughout the USA. Since retiring, he has worked as chairman of three companies and has combined a commitment to a variety of voluntary organisations with his role as a strategic adviser on political risk to a number of UK and US companies.
Mark Cheng is founder of Chelwood Capital, an advisory firm which works with social enterprises seeking to access the capital markets. He is also the UK Director of Ashoka, the global network of leading social entrepreneurs. Mark is also a founding member of the Clearly Social Angels network in the UK, which provides early stage seed capital to social businesses.
The LIFEbeat Council
The LIFEbeat Council is a youth-led forum for young people, staff and trustees who want to be more involved in helping shape the future direction of LIFEbeat. They meet 4 times a year and hold regular meetups and activities throughout the year.
My name is Gurbinder but I am also known as ‘Happy’. I live in West London and I went to LIFEbeat a few years ago. I am really hoping to go back to the camps again when I get a chance. I currently work at London Heathrow.
I’m Gbolahan and I’m from south London. I have been to 2 camps, which were full of positivity. At the end of the residentials, I became a better version of myself – someone who sees more to life and does not take things for granted. For me, LIFEbeat is a place where I am enlightened about what I’m capable of and can be out of my comfort zone without feeling judged, whilst at the same time meeting new people and having fun.
I am a portrait and lifestyle photographer and cultural producer. I have attended 4 camps since 2013. LIFEbeat has proven to me time and time again that it has the tools to connect people no matter what their age or background, encourage people to live in their creative power and to create a foundation for how to be a thriving community that supports the next generation. This is why I keep coming back, and I take what I learn at LIFEbeat into many aspects of my working and personal life.
2018 marks my fifth and final year attending LIFEbeat camps as a young person before I head to university in the autumn to study English Literature (and hopefully get involved as a peer mentor!). Being a part of this community has given me both a second family and encouraged me to pursue my interest in writing and think creatively in ways that I might not have otherwise considered. It’s a wonderful, supportive community of people who have shaped who I am today, and that’s why I’m so happy to be involved in the Council process!
Choosing to go to LIFEbeat offered a kind of fulfilment I haven’t got from anything else before. I have found a family I can rely on and truly be myself with, and have since undertaken creative risks in all aspect of my life – especially around my two strongest passions which are horse-riding and slam poetry. LIFEbeat has allowed me to step into my power and use it for the better good, and find gratitude in everything I do.
My journey with LIFEbeat taught me how to be a leader and a role model for young people. I learnt how to lead my own workshops and how to plan and deliver a creative community project. The best thing about LIFEbeat is forever being connected, even after camps the support continues.
I want to be part of a world where people care. LIFEbeat has played an instrumental part in creating the person I am today. I have such a great sense of family and community from LIFEbeat. I know who I am and what I want from life a lot better and I also feel a little less lost since receiving the love and support that LIFEbeat oozes. I’ve learnt so much and grown so much as a person through my time at LIFEbeat.
Graduate staff
Our graduate staff joined camps as young people and peer mentors before taking part in a year-long training and skill-building program. They are now an important part of the LIFEbeat staff team.
My journey with LIFEbeat taught me how to be a leader and a role model for young people. I learnt how to lead my own workshops and how to plan and deliver a creative community project. The best thing about LIFEbeat is forever being connected, even after camps the support continues.
LIFEbeat is an opportunity to truly be yourself. It allows you to open up to people you barely knew a few days ago and enjoy things you’d normally be embarrassed to engage in. Most importantly, it’s fun!
Being a peer mentor last summer made me feel more powerful within myself. It made me feel great to be giving back to the world. I am hoping this program will help me to grow more as a youth worker and gain a level of confidence that stays forever.
I’ve always envisioned a world in which everyone can smile at each other and break bread around a giant table. A community filled with compassion and attention. Through LIFEbeat I have been given the opportunity to help create this vision. As a peer mentor I was able to see positive change in myself and evoke the same in others which to date, stands to be the greatest feeling in my life. To give back is to receive.
I believe you should take risks even if you don’t think you will succeed! Life’s too short to be afraid to walk the tight rope when everything you wanted is on the other side. Yeah, it’s scary and yeah you might fall and get bruised but if you want it enough, you’ve just got to dust yourself off and start again. Don’t dream your life, live your dreams.
LIFEbeat has taught me how to transition from being a young person on camp to being a member of staff and how to change my mindset towards camp, thinking in the way a member of staff should. It has also taught me some key skills for working with young people. If I could tell the world one thing I would say live, love, learn.
I believe that you should never be afraid to show the world who you really are. One of the many things LIFEbeat has taught me is that you have more fun when you lose your inhibitions and don’t care about what other’s think about you. I’ve become more confident in who I am and what I can do since embarking on this journey with LIFEbeat and I’m happier because of that.
I want to be part of a world where people care. LIFEbeat has played an instrumental part in creating the person I am today. I have such a great sense of family and community from LIFEbeat. I know who I am and what I want from life a lot better and I also feel a little less lost since receiving the love and support that LIFEbeat oozes. I’ve learnt so much and grown so much as a person through my time at LIFEbeat.
If I could travel back in time I would tell my younger self to do everything you’re supposed to do right now! Even though it’s going to be rough and hard you can get through it. Don’t wait for anything. Go and get it.
You’ve got to find people who love you like you do! I struggled a bit with confidence when I was younger and the journey I have been on with LIFEbeat has taught me that life is too short not to be open and to be seen for who you are. It’s also taught me to take risks and to step out of my comfort zone.