Matt is a chartered accountant with over 15 years of experience working with companies in and around Cambridge. Currently he is Group Chief Financial Officer for a local electronics firm and a Trustee of Kingsgate Community Church.

Aleyejah is passionate about supporting young people who have faced significant challenges growing up and brings a wealth of experience to the team. Having spent a significant portion of her own childhood in care, and continuing to support other young people currently in care, Aleyejah’s unique perspective ensures that the young people’s experience remain at the heart of the support we offer. Aleyejah works for a local Cambridge based company, lives independently and is excited about joining the advisory board of Concrete Rose.

Tim is passionate about drawing people together to make an impact – particularly in the lives of young people. Tim is currently a Partner at the Good Partnership where he has a special interest in projects that sit at the intersection of faith, NGOs, business, and policy. Prior to this, he was the CEO of World Vision UK and he has broad experience, from teaching, to consultancy at Arthur Andersen, to major international corporate with Shell, to Cambridge University. Tim has also engaged extensively at senior levels of government and international bodies and has significant board experience, including as a Trustee of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and a Fellow at Hughes Hall, Cambridge University.

Sophie is an Anglican Priest and is the Bishop’s Officer for Homelessness in the Ely Diocese. On a day to day basis, she is Chaplain to the Homeless and Streetlife Community of the City of Cambridge and often works alongside adults who have been in care as children, and who now find themselves homeless. As well as working with statutory and voluntary organisations across the city to improve services for those people experiencing homelessness, Sophie works with churches and university college chapels helping them to think about how they can best support the homeless community. Alongside being Chaplain, Sophie is one of the Priests at St. Bene’t’s Church in the city, and before becoming a priest her career was in Human Resource Management.

See above.

Alison is a counsellor with a special interest in trauma. She and her family have recently fostered two children and she is passionate about building better outcomes for children and young people who have had a traumatic past.

A graduate of Cambridge University herself, she spent many years working for the London Borough of Lewisham, primarily in urban regeneration. She delivered the high-profile restoration of Southeast London’s largest green space Beckenham Place Park, which intentionally brings together some of the most disparate communities in the capital.

Ed brings an array of strategic, creative and business experience to Concrete Rose having had senior policy and strategy roles in local government and with a Police and Crime Commissioner and in his current employment as Strategic Director in a local business. Educated at Cambridge (Modern Languages) Ed’s varied professional CV includes time as a Russian and Linguistics teacher, a cricket coach, a software developer and author. Ed will support Concrete Rose in policy and strategy development and, in his own words, is “genuinely very humbled to be working alongside some incredible people to bring meaningful change to the lives of vulnerable young people.”

Juliet’s background is in marketing and communication, primarily in financial services and the arts (particularly in music). She is a volunteer mentor for care leavers and formerly chair of school governors with a remit for children with special educational needs. Juliet is passionate about music as a tool for building communities and individual resilience. Her role at Concrete Rose includes development work with a focus on our innovative models for residential settings. 

Margaret has worked within the NHS for nearly 30 years in hospitals in both London and Cambridge. More recently, she has combined this with working as a church administrator at Great Shelford Free Church. She has joined the team at Concrete Rose because she really wants to help young care leavers get the love and support that they deserve!

James is head of business and commercial development at The Fostering Network. He and his wife fostered whilst bringing up their three young birth children and are passionate about creating better outcomes for children in, and leaving, care and building communities around them. James has worked with local and national government and fostering and adoption agencies across the UK, designing, trialling and developing projects to find homes for some of the most vulnerable children in the UK. James is a Manchester United fan, an early morning runner and a guitarist.

Diane has 30 years experience working in the charity sector including consultancy roles for a number of organisations. She has been the Operations and Resources Manager at Romsey Mill since 2015. Her current role includes managing matters relating to HR, buildings and facilities (including overseeing three community centres) and the administrative team. Diane also has ultimate responsibility for areas of policy and procedure including health and safety, equality and diversity and GDPR.

Matthew is a solicitor, Chartered Tax Advisor and a director heading up the legal department at a financial management firm. Matthew read law at Cambridge University, graduating in 1999. He went on to qualify as a solicitor with a Cambridge firm in 2004.

Patrick has worked in services for traumatised children since 1985 beginning as a therapeutic residential care worker. He has held roles as team leader; senior manager; Director; CEO; consultant and mentor. His organisation development services have been provided in Australia, Japan, UK, Ireland, Romania, and Portugal, among others. The therapeutic models that Patrick has worked on have gained widespread recognition and he is the author of numerous papers and books including Therapeutic Residential Care for Children and Young People: An Attachment and Trauma-informed Model for Practice (Barton, S., Gonzalez, R. and Tomlinson, P. (2011)).

Hayley is currently a SENCO at a primary school in Huntingdon. She has 20 years teaching experience including 10 years in alternative provision settings. She has experience as a teaching and learning lead and has been the Head of Key Stage 3 and 4 at Oakfield PRU in Leicester and the Amber Centre PRU in Huntingdon.

Dillon is a marketing and web design entrepreneur with a specialism in brand design, development and communication. The CEO and founder of Little Lemon Media he works alongside multi-national and national companies whilst also maintaining a portfolio of local businesses..

Rachel is a Strategic Consultant and the founder of Get Synergised, a bespoke consultancy service that brokers and facilitates partnerships and opportunities between businesses and the charitable and public sectors to build thriving communities. Rachel has dedicated over 20 years to working directly in communities in either a work or voluntary capacity to drive social change and improve the lives of individuals, with the belief that everyone should be given the opportunity to thrive and flourish.

Olivia is a recent University of Cambridge, Clare College graduate in Psychological and Behavioural Sciences with a specialism in modern families. She has since started in the UK’s most prestigious graduate scheme – The Civil Service Fast Stream. She is also a Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Consultant and keynote speaker. Olivia had a challenging childhood, was the first in her family to accomplish any formal qualifications and grew up on free school meals. Amongst her personal success, she has paid it forward to the most underserved members of her community and is an award-winning social mobility advocate and youth worker. 

Heather is a registered social worker and since 2017 has been Service Manager at Sunflowers Care Ltd, a care home for children with complex health needs in Cottenham. Prior to this Heather worked in fostering, initially in Cambridgeshire County Council for Family Link, and then from 2010 in the charity sector for Scope. Heather was registered manager at Scope Fostering Services 2012 – 2017 and was also Advisor to the Independent Foster Panel during this period. Heather’s interest in working with diverse and marginalised communities lead her to study MA (Hons) Social Anthropology with Development at The University of Edinburgh before moving to Cambridge to study MA Social Work at Anglia Ruskin University.

Alan runs a software agency by day, and a fostering household by night. With 10 years of experience in welcoming children into their home for time-limited and long-term placements, Alan and his wife are strong advocates for the joy and opportunity that each extra person brings into the family. Alan believes in creating opportunity, in community and in being generous with time and energy – to pay it forward wherever possible. His role at Concrete Rose on the approvals panel is to be as wise and pragmatic as possible and to offer an additional viewpoint as needed.