Paul is a Chartered Engineer with experience as a trustee of other charities.

Karen leads the Future Hope provision for Durham Council, supporting young mothers who have been separated from their children. Her work is focused on care experienced young people and victim survivors of domestic abuse, with special interest including trauma-informed care and strengths-based approaches.

Eileen is a qualified Social Worker with 30 years of experience of working with veterans, asylum seekers, torture victims and fostering agencies.

Mark has a background in volunteering for Handcrafted and working in the charity sector. He now leads work on operating models in the public sector and is interested in people, organisations, systems, leadership, culture and why things work or don’t.

Emily works in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. She previously joined the Handcrafted graduate scheme, then managed our Business Development Team.

Febrina is a Gateshead based GP and brings her medical background to the trustee board having come to the UK to study medicine from Indonesia. She has experience contributing to church groups investigating equality issues.

Norman has had 40 years of experience teaching woodwork and metalwork in schools up to Deputy Headteacher level.

Tom is a retired mathematician who worked on the executives of several universities. His area of responsibility generally involved education and the student experience.

Mike has experience as a Chartered Accountant and Finance Director and acts as a Finance Business Partner and Board Adviser at our Finance Steering Group and Trustee Meetings.

Dan (a qualified Chartered Accountant of 11 years) founded Handcrafted and developed it as a part-time volunteer whilst working a senior finance role in the public sector. He’s since completed an MBA, but says he’s probably learned more from fostering and adopting several children, who have taught him about the immense strength people need to overcome traumatic situations in their lives.

John has been our Operations Director since 2016. Throughout his career he has successfully managed a diverse selection of projects across a range of organisations in the UK and abroad.

Seymour previously worked as a psychiatric nurse. He uses this experience to inform the development and training of our support approach.

Ruth specialises in supporting people with experience of domestic abuse, drawing on her lived experience. She has established four protected women’s only groups and works to ensure their needs are all met.

Harry pioneered and leads our work with care leavers, asylum-seekers and refugees. He has built a strong relationship with the Young People’s Services in Durham and Gateshead.

Jack manages our Business Development team which encompasses funding, strategy, systems, communications and finances. He comes from a background in Mathematics and joined Handcrafted in 2023 on our Graduate Programme.