Our people

Sophie De Groot

Research Officer

Having previously worked in Research and Development, Sophie’s work with The Young Foundation is focused on youth issues and informed by her interest in trauma-informed approaches to social research.

Ari Metos

Communications and Design Officer

Ari joined The Young Foundation in 2023, after managing events and engagement for a health
research learned society, and working as a creative producer with a London-based brand
agency.

Alessandra Radicati

Senior Researcher

Alessandra joined The Young Foundation in September 2022. Previously, she worked at the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College London, supporting research on prosperity and inequality in east London with a focus on citizen science-led approaches.

Julie Munro

Financial Controller

Julie joined The Young Foundation in February 2023 after working in finance roles in the charity and education sectors for more than twenty years.

Kathryn Holland

Innovation Practitioner

Kathryn has worked to design and deliver community-led crowdfunding programmes with Local Authorities across the UK. She enjoys applying creative approaches to community engagement and developing ways to build meaningful social connections within communities.

Ruth Stables

Innovation Practitioner

Ruth has a passion for working with people to create meaningful and positive change. Having previously worked as a Youth Engagement Performance Manager with the English Football League Trust, she brings more than eight years’ experience in youth development and social action.

Emma Hulme

Innovation Practitioner

Joining The Young Foundation in 2022, Emma’s background is in curating and managing projects and events. She is passionate about platforming the voices we hear the least from, and believes – through sharing our stories and experiences – we can create meaningful change.

Charlene Stagon

Senior Innovation Practitioner

Charlene brings extensive experience leading large, complex innovation programmes across the public sector, arts and culture, health and care and local communities. She is skilled in developing partnerships that explore how people-powered innovation can create meaningful change in complex systems.

Felicia Barrow

Senior Finance Officer

A key member of the Finance and Corporate Resources team, 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.

Jessica Redmond

Senior Researcher, Institute for Community Studies

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.

Charlotte Healy

Social Business Lead

Charlotte’s background is working as an Economic Development Programme Manager in Local Government. She loves all things social enterprise and is interested in how we can use social innovation to create a more equal society. 

Jennifer Clayton

Social Innovation Programme Manager

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.