Kirsteen Tait

Kirsteen Tait set up the Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees (ICAR) at Kings College London in March 2001 and was its director until 2004. Since then she has been an adviser to the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Fund for Refugee and Asylum Seeker Young People, the lead consultant for the Housing Associations Charitable Trust (HACT)’s Communities R Us project, a trustee of the newly established Exiled Journalists Network and, until July, of the Kensington and Chelsea Migrants and Refugees Communities Forum. From 1998-2000 she was the Refugee Council national policy adviser for employment and training and chair of the policy group of Employability Forum until 2004.

Kirsteen worked with Michael Young during the development phase of Open School on the establishment of the National Association for the Education of Sick Children, of which she was founder director, and as a consultant for the School of Social Entrepreneurs during its second year. During her career she has set up a number of social welfare projects and been employed as a civil servant, and as an educational, historical and market researcher. She is now a Fellow and trustee of the Young Foundation.