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Meet our
amazing team
projects.
Jazzmine
Senior Activity Coordinator
Jazzmine has worked in health and social care for 15 years, having supported adults as a one-to-one personal assistant and in day centres. She loves our kick-boxing sessions as they’re great fun but mainly enjoys getting to know and supporting our service users. She’s addicted to true crime documentaries but can mainly be found making memories with her son, Jacob.
Ruth
Senior Coordinator
Ruth has worked in health and social care for over 7 years and is passionate about getting our service users involved in the community – ‘innovation through collaboration’ is her motto! She loves running our dance sessions, pushing the boundaries of what the group can achieve and seeing service users confidence grow.
Ayesha
Finance Manager
Ayesha has been with Brighter Horizons since 2019 having previously worked in the media industry. As part of our senior management team, she is responsible for the day to day finances of the charity as well as looking after all of our services users' personal funds. She loves being able to support our staff and service users and in her spare time is super creative, enjoying cooking, painting and interior design.
Matthew
Senior Coordinator
Matt has worked in schools, colleges, residential care or day centres for almost 20 years, which is surprising because he doesn’t look old enough. He loves the sense of community here and runs our Cook & Eat and Media groups. When he manages to find time away from his two young boys, you’ll find him filming his own cooking videos for YouTube.
Perpetua
Activity Coordinator
Pep has worked in adult social care for over 12 years. She loves the community element of our work and takes every opportunity to get our service users outdoors. A mum herself, she is passionate about the support we provide for service users and their parents and carers especially. Outside of the centre she loves movies, dancing and listening to worship music.
Dave
Chief Executive
Dave joined us at the end of 2020 and is responsible for leading our senior management team. He’s also a Director of Ignition Brewery and in his spare time is a youth leader for the Lantern Arts Centre. His favourite part of the week is when he’s allowed to make the morning tea for service users.
Samuel
Day Services Manager
Sam became our Day Services Manager in 2022, having worked in adult social care for over 10 years. He looks after the day-to-day running of the centre and is especially passionate about supporting our service users to look after their health. In his spare time he loves playing the Xbox but with a 2 year old daughter, he’s got no chance anymore.
Agny
Activity Coordinator
Agny has worked in social care for three years, previously specialising in womenswear at Hugo Boss and other premium fashion brands. She loves running our karaoke and cooking groups – especially when they make pasta and pesto so she can show off her Italian roots. Mum to three children, in her spare time she loves dancing and listening to music.
Steve
Driver
Steve is new to social care but his daughter has cerebral palsy and, having been a beneficiary of support recently, he wants to give something back. As a driver of 39 years, he’s always worked with people and describes driving for us everyday as ‘a privilege’. He’s a real family man and sports fan, having played football for 25 years. Recently though, that’s switched to golf but don’t be fooled – he’s much better than he lets on!
Julie
Activity Coordinator
Julie may have only been working in social care for two years but she has cared and advocated for her daughter for the past 26 years. Prior to joining Brighter Horizons, she managed the accounts department for a City Law Firm. She’s passionate about getting our service users out into the community and can rarely be found in the centre! In the odd moment of spare time that she can get, you’ll find her with her family and friends.
Elaine
Senior Activity Coordinator
Elaine helps to lead our staff team in running a high quality service. She’s worked in social care ever since she left college over 30 years ago and her favourite activity to lead is trampolining. She loves working here because it makes her smile every day. If you want to know where she is – just listen out for the laughter amongst our service users. Outside of work, her three loves are her family, her friends and music.
Gary
Activity Coordinator
A cab driver for over 24 years, Gary first came across us as one of our transport providers; picking up some of our service users each day and taking them home afterwards. He loved it so much that he joined the team in 2022 as a bank support worker, before becoming a permanent fixture. A lifelong Millwall supporter, he loves coaching our football team and hopes that one day, some of the team might actually listen to his advice. When he’s not in his cab you’ll find him in the garden or playing golf.
Teresa
Activity Coordinator
Teresa has worked in social care for over 30 years, previously working in retail. She loves organising our steel band, having always wanted to learn how to play. She’s super creative too so arts and craft are right up her street. She describes our staff and service users as ‘awesome individuals' and loves that they all get to laugh and have fun every day. Outside of Brighter Horizons she enjoys listening to music, especially zen music that calms the mind and frees the spirit. She loves to explore different relaxation and therapeutic techniques and has recently taken up landscaping as a hobby.
Paulette
Activity Coordinator
Paulette has worked in health and social care for over 15 years, specialising in providing individualised care for a diverse range of service users. She joined the team in 2022. Her desire to help others means that she focuses on building strong relationships with service users to help them develop and grow. Her hobbies are walking, keeping fit , gardening and cooking – something the rest of the team will tell you she’s very good at!
Alice
Activity Coordinator
Alice has worked in social care for almost a year now, having joined Brighter Horizons in early 2023. She studied forensic psychology at university and after a placement working with adults with autism, she decided to pursue a career in care. Her favourite activity is going to the gym as she enjoys supporting our service users to improve their fitness. In her spare time, she can be found in the studio herself or practising hair styling.
Ian
Activity Coordinator
Ian joined us in 2023 after a 15 year career in the tech industry. He describes Brighter Horizons as the happiest place he’s ever worked and his favourite activity is bowling, which he always tries to get in on whenever he’s working.
He’s a local lad with a passion for spicy food, dance music and most things (especially films) from the 70's and 80's!
Rachel
Activity Coordinator
Rachel joined the team in 2017 but has worked in the health and social care sector for a few years before that. She really enjoys supporting our service users in whatever they choose to do but has a particular passion for enabling them to express themselves creatively through arts and crafts. She can always be found showcasing their creativity around the centre, and, ever the entrepreneur, organises opportunities for our service users to sell what they’ve made. Excitingly she’s expecting her second child later this year.
Michael
One-to-one Support Worker
& Activity Coordinator
Michael has spent the last 25 years supporting children, young people and families in lots of different ways. He moved into the social care sector in 2018 and hasn’t looked back since. He enjoys working intensely with service users who need extra support and in his spare time enjoys music, the cinema, driving and reading, though not all at the same time.
Jo
Activity Coordinator
Jo has been working with children and adults with learning disabilities for over 10 years and still loves her job. When she's not at Brighter Horizons she supports young people in educational settings and enjoys working with our service users one on one because everybody is unique. She doesn't have a favourite activity because she loves them all!
Kim
HR & Office Administrator
A people person, who describes herself as fun and loving, Kim joined in 2024 as a recent HR graduate and is passionate in supporting in make Brighter Horizons a fun and enjoyable place to work . Her background is varied, with years of working within the hospitality, travel, and events administration sector. Outside of work, Kim loves to cook, enjoys dancing, and has travelled the world. She loves her daily interactions with the team and service users each day as it gives her great joy.
Meet our trustees
Brighter Horizons is an independent charity, separate from any of the Councils that we work with. As a not-for-profit organisation, any money that we make goes back into the charity to improve our services.
Charities are led by volunteers known as Trustees. Our Board is made up of 7 Trustees. They are responsible for managing all aspects of our work including our finances, health and safety, risk, compliance strategy and our staff.
Fela Ajayi
Fela lives in Beckenham Hill and became a Trustee in 2021. He is a Chartered Health and Safety Practitioner, bringing to the Board a wealth of experience in health and safety, compliance and strategic risk management. His son has autism and he is passionate about providing the best quality services across Southeast London, especially improving the transition from children's to adult social care. He supports Liverpool Football Club.
Raj Chakraborty
Raj has been a Trustee since 2021
Huda Ghalegolabi
Huda became a Trustee in 2020 and has more than 16 years' experience working with project management, fundraising, protection and safeguarding strategic activities in the third sector as well as the United Nations. She is passionate about diversity and inclusion and therefore committed to supporting Brighter Horizons' mission and values. In particular she is passionate about providing varied and quality services to people with autism to ensure they have the right to a meaningful contribution witihn their communities. Huda spends her free time enjoying London’s cultural scene, reading and traveling.
Kieran Lee (Chair)
Kieran lives in South Croydon and has been a Trustee since we began in 2016, becoming Chair in 2020. He works in investment management and brings a wealth of experience in organisational structure, governance, risk management and finance. He is also a Director of Ignition Brewery, the Charity's wholly owned trading subsidiary. His brother has mild learning difficulties and both his brother and sister-in-law have learning disabilities too. As a result, Kieran is passionate about providing the best quality services across Southeast London. In his spare time he enjoys golf, motorsport, good food, wine and spending time with his family.
Margaret Mizen
Margaret has lived in Lewisham for most of her adult life and is a founding Trustee, having been on the Board since 2016. For the last 15 years she has run The Mizen Foundation, a charity working with young people all over the UK and has previously been a school governor of a local special school. Her daughter comes to Brighter Horizons and Margaret is passionate about providing everyone with a sense of belonging so that they can be safe in an environment filled with love and laughter. Any spare time she has is dedicated to her husband Barry and their nine children.
Bernie O’Keefe
Bernie lives in Charlton and became a Trustee in 2016. He has a Human Resources background and now specialises in coaching young people to develop their career path and facilitate their journey to a meaningful and prosperous future. His daughter Hazel has autism and this is one of the reasons he became a trustee. This and the fact that he was so impressed by the desire of the founders to support adults with learning disabilities. Bernie is a keen Crystal Palace fan and enjoys reading non-fiction and watching crime documentaries.
Philip Thorn
Philip has been a Trustee since 2016
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