Ajeet joined our Innovation and Investment Team in August 2020 and will be managing several of our accelerator and incubator programmes for new social innovators. Following a career working across the charity, public and private sectors, Ajeet has worked with a variety of entrepreneurs to support their social impact growth and scale. This has seen... Find out more

Aldas is Personal Assistant to our Chief Executive, communications and office assistant. Working across a portfolio of interesting projects and initiatives including as Board and Committee liaison, he also supports our research, communities and comms teams. He has led activities for our events including New Perspectives on Housing and Thriving Together as well as producing... Find out more

Alex is the Interim Director of Finance and Corporate Services.  His role covers finance, HR and office management. Alex is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years’ experience working in senior finance roles across a variety of industries, including telecoms, recruitment, advertising and electric vehicles. For the past eight years, he has specialised in the... Find out more

Alice is an Intern, working across a range of The Young Foundation’s research projects. She joined us in September 2020, after graduating from the University of Cambridge with a Geography BA degree. She is interested in understanding how intersectional inequalities cut across scales to shape people’s everyday lives. For instance, her dissertation used a qualitative... Find out more

Ang joined the Young Foundation in January 2021 as Peer Research Lead, supporting our growing National Peer Research Network and strategy. Ang brings her experiences in leading a peer research network and training programme for Fulfilling Lives Newcastle Gateshead (FLNG) where she was research and evaluation lead, training and developing Experts by Experience in peer... Find out more

Rokeya joined the Young Foundation in November 2020 as Project Coordinator for Communities Driving Change (CDC). Rokeya was transferred from Mytime Active where she previously supported the health and wellbeing team as lead administrator and Interpreter (Bengali-English). Rokeya’s role as project coordinator involves engagement with residents to bring about change and to tackle social isolation... Find out more

Caroline joined the Young Foundation as a Research Associate in July 2020 and has been working on projects related to ‘What Works’ to strengthen communities, methods for community engagement, and homeless healthcare. Caroline holds an MA in Sociology with Quantitative Methods from the University of Edinburgh, where she gained a strong grasp of social theory... Find out more

Caroline is a research associate at the Young Foundation with experience in programme evaluation, impact measurement and evidence reviewing. Her work with the Young Foundation has focused in part on building up the knowledge-base around participatory methods which strive to involve communities more meaningfully in the research process. She has also contributed to a number of... Find out more

Chelsea McDonagh joined us in April 2021 as a Senior Researcher working on the Kickstart Peer Research Programme. This involves training up to thirty young peer researchers to go out into their community and conduct research on a range of topics. Before joining us Chelsea worked as an Education Policy and Campaigns Officer at the... Find out more

Emily is the Head of the Institute of Community Studies, powered by The Young Foundation. Emily joined us from the British Council where she developed the global research portfolio, spanning internationally comparative research into youth voice and policy, education, civil society, and culture. Emily has led and conducted research in the Western Balkans, the Middle... Find out more

Euan is a Graphic Design Intern working across a variety of the Young Foundation’s projects. He joined us in July 2020 after graduating from The Glasgow School of Art with a BDes in Product Design, which is where he developed a design philosophy that prioritises working from the ground-up. Throughout his work at Glasgow, graphic... Find out more

Eve is a Senior Researcher at the Young Foundation. She works across multiple projects to deliver high quality research aimed at strengthening communities and overcoming inequalities. With a background in anthropology, urbanism and architecture, Eve is committed to maintaining an interdisciplinary research perspective in all her work, drawing from methods and theories of various disciplines. She... Find out more

Felicia is the Finance Officer in the Operations Team at The Young Foundation. Felicia began her career in finance with Price Waterhouse Coopers and has worked in accounts for numerous other organisations including the Competition Commission, a strategy consultant and a confectionery manufacturer. Outside of work Felicia enjoys travelling, music, reading and likes to keep fit.... Find out more

Helen is Chief Executive Officer of The Young Foundation. Prior to joining us in October 2017, Helen was Executive Director at Nesta, responsible for leading their Innovation Lab supporting and scaling innovation in the arts, civil society, government and education sectors. Previous roles have included work within the private sector developing digital strategies and solutions... Find out more

Holly is a project learning researcher at the Young Foundation, working on the evaluation of the Sport England Local Delivery Pilot in Hackney. The project’s aim is to improve the health and well-being of residents in the King’s Park ward of Hackney, through the agency of physical activity.  Holly is an experienced urban planner, who... Find out more

Prior to joining The Young Foundation, Iqra worked as HR Coordinator at AEG Europe at the O2, where she supported 1,200 employees. Iqra has an MA in Human Resources Management is fully CIPD qualified.

Isabel joined The Young Foundation in August 2017 and heads up our leadership and community-led change programmes. This includes the Local Trust’s Community Leadership Academy – supporting over 100 Big Local leaders across the UK to develop and distribute leadership skills through bespoke workshops, masterclasses and coaching sessions in collaboration with Koreo and Northern Soul; and... Find out more

Jana is a Research Officer at the Young Foundation, interested in understanding inequality and the role of social identities in challenging it. Before joining us, she was awarded a travel scholarship by the R&A in St Andrews in order to visit, volunteer with and record a podcast on local charities and projects that are using... Find out more

Jennifer joined the IEP BOOST team in May 2021 and will be managing the partnership needs, workshops and timely reporting to all cohort members and partners involved in the BOOST 2021 programme. Jennifer has spent the last decade successfully developing, implementing and connecting social innovation programmes or innovators themselves, having assisted the set-up of Nesta’s Challenge Prize... Find out more

Jillian joined the Young Foundation in November 2020 as Programme Manager for Communities Driving Change.  Prior to managing the Communities Driving Change Programme, Jillian led the Healthy Schools Programme across three West London boroughs. Jillian together with a large team of Nutritionists and Physical Activity specialists worked with over hundred schools to support their achievement... Find out more

Katriya is a research officer, working on a range of projects across the Young Foundation. She joined us after graduating from the University of Cambridge with a BA in Geography where her dissertation focused on the unintended consequences of state policy and societal norms on refugee integration in Stockholm, Sweden. Prior to joining the Young... Find out more

Lydia Ragoonanan is a Senior Associate with The Young Foundation and is currently leading the Inclusive Economy Partnership BOOST programme. Lydia is an expert in designing and running social innovation programmes. She has been Director of the London Office for Rapid Cybersecurity Advancement (LORCA), a Senior Programme Manager at Nesta and Principal Strategist for the... Find out more

Initially working in a partnership with Real DPO and The Young Foundation, Nasima moved over in October 2020 and will continue working on Communities Driving Change in her role heading up our inclusion approach, as well as activities on the Collingwood estate near Whitechapel. Nasima has been working in community development for 19 years, mostly... Find out more

Richard is Associate Director of the Institute for Community Studies. He was previously a senior civil servant and deputy director of the independent think tank Reform. He has extensive experience of research and policymaking in the public sector and third sector and has advised governments in Australia, Japan, Europe, Africa and the Middle East about... Find out more

Salma joined the Research team in June 2021 and will be supporting the UPLIFT project. She has spent the last decade working within the education sector, specialising in disaffected learners and  special educational needs. Abit about me: Social entrepreneur, have founded a vegan business which supports a community women’s wellness initiative. Successfully built a community... Find out more

Sana Iqbal strives towards studying the relationship between humans and their environments, in particular how can we organise our lives in urban environments for supporting people’s well-being. She joined the Institute for Community Studies as a Senior Researcher in July 2021, after successfully earning her PhD from Coventry University, UK. For her doctoral research, she... Find out more

Sarah is Head of Ventures at The Young Foundation. Her role involves managing the Young Academy investment fund; a portfolio of 14 early stage ventures which aim to reduce inequality in education and which received investment from the Young Academy between 2014 and 2018. Sarah monitors the portfolio and provides necessary support or connections to... Find out more

Sian is Head of Research at The Young Foundation, overseeing a portfolio of research, evaluation and insight projects for national and local clients. Having spent the last decade working in organisations with dual functions in programme delivery and advocacy, Sian is passionate about delivering insights that enable organisations to increase their impact. She specialises in a... Find out more

Tiziana joined the Young Foundation in November 2020 as Project Coordinator for Tower Hamlets Communities Driving Change (CDC) – a pioneering approach to community-led health and wellbeing in the borough which utilises community organising and systems-thinking approaches. Tiziana joined YF from Mytime Active and supports a range of community-led projects in the south west of... Find out more

Victoria heads up the research team, making sure that our work is original, exciting, robust and compelling. She oversees The Young Foundation’s diverse range of projects. She previously worked at The Young Foundation and was Principal Investigator on our ESRC funded project on high cost credit in Wales, as well as leading our work on... Find out more

Zain joined the Young Foundation in August 2020 as Programme Manager for Communities Driving Change – a pioneering approach to community-led health creation.  Zain brings his experiences in inclusive approaches to health and wellbeing from his time at Mind in Hackney, where he worked alongside local services (including schools and hospitals) to improve access to psychological... Find out more

Zoe is tasked with strengthening our research approaches and building on The Young Foundation’s rich experience of working with peer researchers. She oversees a portfolio of projects that integrate ethnographic, participatory and digital research approaches. Zoe has an interest in digital research, evaluation methods, experience of designing and implementing SMS and data-based real time monitoring... Find out more

Zoë is a Programme Officer at the Young Foundation. She is interested in understanding the social fabric that binds communities together, and how to strengthen it through local community-level action. She currently works on Communities Driving Change, Amplify Barking and Dagenham, and Amplify Youth – each of which takes a unique approach to community research,... Find out more