Emma Newbury

Head of Participatory Research

Emma’s expertise is in designing, leading and implementing participatory research to drive understanding of social justice. She has worked internationally with governments, institutions and charities.

Felicia Barrow

Finance Services and Business Support Manager

Felicia is passionate about our organisation and a gifted communicator, with expertise in operations, policy development and implementation, change management and frontline service delivery for the private, public, and charity and not-for-profit sectors. She is a Foundation Chartered Manager (fCMgr) in Management and Leadership.

Gary Fawdrey

Senior Innovation Practitioner

Gary leads our grant management processes. He is an experienced project, programme and grant manager, specialising in social innovation. Prior to joining The Young Foundation, he supported social innovators and designed innovation funding programmes through roles with Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund and Nesta’s Challenge Works.

Helen Goulden OBE

Chief Executive Officer

Helen leads our multi-disciplinary team of researchers and innovators to support stronger communities across the UK. Previous roles were at Nesta, in the private sector, and in government.  She was awarded an OBE for services to development of sustainable communities in the 2023 New Year Honours List.

Iqra Farooq

HR Manager

Iqra manages the HR department and provides support across the organisation. Prior to joining The Young Foundation in 2017, she worked at AEG Europe, based at the O2, in a similar capacity. Iqra has more than five years’ HR experience and is CIPD-qualified.

Isabella Pereira

Head of the Institute for Community Studies

Previously Head of Qualitative Research Methods at Ipsos’s Social Research Institute, Isabella is a qualitative and mixed methods expert with more than 15 years’ experience in researching vulnerable audiences. Her published research includes work on the resettlement of Syrian refugees for the Home Office, and on the Living Home Standard for Shelter.

Dr Jack Layton

Senior Researcher

Jack is passionate about making our towns and cities better places to live. As part of the team at the Institute for Community Studies, he works to ensure people’s voices across the country are heard and their needs prioritised.

Jacob Coburn

Knowledge Exchange Manager

Joining the Institute for Community Studies in 2023, Jacob leads work focused on supporting anchor institutions to develop deeper more integrated relationships, aimed at enabling greater knowledge-sharing and strategic thinking.

Jem Hai

Research Officer

Jem joined The Young Foundation in 2023 after having worked as a Research Assistant for a charity supporting children living in deprivation.

Jennifer Clayton

Innovation Practitioner

Jen’s background is in designing and delivering support and scaling initiatives for social innovators and entrepreneurs. Before joining The Young Foundation, she held integral roles in grant management delivery, challenge prize design, and business mentor brokering at UnLtd and Nesta.

Jessica Moore

Director of Communications and External Affairs

Joining in September 2021, Jess drives thought leadership and shares our creative ideas with diverse audiences. Passionate about communicating the needs of people in our communities, she works to extend The Young Foundation’s reach and impact.

Jessica Redmond

Senior Researcher

Jess works to ensure community voices are reflected in research and policy design. They were a policymaker at the Bank of England, held roles in government, policy research, and education, and explored youth unemployment and educational inequality as part of the Year Here Social Innovation Fellowship.

Committed to equality, diversity and inclusion

The Young Foundation has a strong commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). We want to be an inclusive place to work, and we aim to create opportunities and reduce barriers for everyone.

In this recent survey, staff and trustees at The Young Foundation told us about their background and identity.

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Community research

We are a not-for-profit tackling societal issues with a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach.

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Social innovation

Involving people from diverse sectors to shape game-changing initiatives.

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