Tom Doyle
Director
Tom has been involved in
HIV and sexual health for 20 years. Before joining Yorkshire MESMAC in
1990 as the outreach worker, he was a volunteer and management group member
of Nottingham AIDS Information Project. (NAIP).
Tom worked in Community Theatre, and Theatre In Education where he developed
a strong interest in training, Community Development and Social Action. Building
on these skills he moved on to become a Social Action Broadcaster and Community
Link Worker with Radio Trent FM Careline.
He has been Director of Yorkshire MESMAC since 1993, and has steered the organisation
through its period of most rapid growth. He holds a BA in Health and Community
Care Management and a Postgraduate Diploma in ’Managing Organisational
Change’.
Tom is one of the principle authors of ‘Making
it Count’ Vols 1-3.
As well as working for Yorkshire MESMAC he has acted as a consultant to a number
of bodies in the field including, Healthy Gay Scotland, the National AIDS Trust
and The Prisons Service Directorate of Health Care. He is regularly called upon
to represent the organisation and give papers and presentations at local, national
and international conferences and other fora. [top]
Mark Thomson
Operations Manager
Mark has been working in the voluntary sector supporting LGBT groups and those infected and affected with HIV as a volunteer and staff member for over 20 years.
Mark joined Yorkshire MESMAC in December 2005 as the Operations Manager for the organisation. Prior to joining the Yorkshire MESMAC team Mark worked in Aberdeen as the Grampian Service Manager for PHACE Scotland setting up the service in November 2000. He also wrote and delivered the Diversity Training package for Grampian Police in line with the National Equal Opportunities Training Scheme (NEOTS). Mark has a wide range of skills he brings to Yorkshire MESMAC having worked at both a local and national level in Scotland.[top]
Pete Boyle
Community Development Worker in Leeds
Pete joined Yorkshire MESMAC as a Community
Development Worker for Leeds in October 2005. He has been a volunteer for
HIV charities for the past 3 years in Leeds and in Dublin where he was
involved in the support of clients. From volunteering Pete realised that
his passions lay with working in a community setting, particularly within
the LGBT community.
Prior to joining Yorkshire MESMAC, Pete worked in various housing and finance
roles both in Leeds and Dublin. [top]
Tom Hunt
Community Development Worker in Leeds
Tom joined Yorkshire MESMAC in January 2008 having moved from Connexions/Leeds Careers where he was working with young people's issues such as homelessness, benefits, job hunting and additional support needs.
Tom is interested in providing support for people with additional support needs and gender issues. His main interests are house hunting (have to move soon-ish!), looking after two European domestic short haired cats called George and Snaffle and reading loads of books! [top]
BLAST Project
Roshan Pitteea
Development Worker for the BLAST Project
Roshan joined Yorkshire MESMAC in December 2006 as Development Worker for the BLAST Project. After graduating in 2004 from Leeds University with a BA in European Politics, Roshan was elected as Co-ordinator for Leeds University Union Nightline on a one-year contract.
Following this, he worked for two years at Victim Support in Leeds as Co-ordinator for operations over the Pudsey/Weetwood and Chapeltown Police Divisions where he supported people who had experienced violent and non-violent crime and anti-social behaviour. He developed an interest in working with people who had been victims of hate crime, and informed working practice across Victim Support West Yorkshire. In addition to this, he has trained and developed Victim Support volunteers, and delivered training to West Yorkshire Police officers on Victim Care.
BLAST is certainly a unique project in terms of the issues it tackles and the client group it works with, and Roshan is delighted to be developing it in Leeds. [top]
Finance/Admin Team
Liz Carey
Finance/Administration Co-ordinator, based in Leeds
Liz Carey joined Yorkshire MESMAC from
Leeds Met University in January 2001. She co-ordinates the admin back-up
for the project, is the Company Secretary and deals with financial management
of the project in partnership with the Director and Treasurer.
Liz has lived in Leeds since 1979 and has built up a wealth of experience through
involvement in both housing and workers’
co-operatives in the city. [top]
Claire Spracklen
Finance and Administration Worker
Claire started working at Yorkshire MESMAC at the beginning of January 2005 having had previous finance/admin roles in social housing and vocational training. She is based in the Leeds office but does work across the whole project. [top]
Jonathan Cookson
Community Development Worker in Bradford
Jonathan Cookson is the Community Development Worker for Bradford. He moved to Yorkshire in 1995 to study for an Arts and Education degree at Bretton Hall University. After graduating he worked as a Welfare Officer for a drug testing clinic before moving into work with young offenders. Following this Jonathan spent 2 years working for Barnardo’s in a series of community based projects and realised that he really enjoyed working in a community setting. His next position was with Leeds City Council where he worked with families in a diverse inner city Leeds community.
Jonathan was appointed as an LGBT Youth Worker for Yorkshire MESMAC in Bradford in September 2005 and this sparked his passion and interest for working with the LGBT community. He was thrilled to be appointed as a full time member of staff for Yorkshire MESMAC and is looking forward to making a real difference in the Bradford area. Jonathan also has counselling training and experience and a passion for the using the Arts as therapies. Jonathan loves working with people and is excited about working with you all and getting to know everyone better. [top]
Pauline Brumwell
Counselling Co-ordinator - based in
Bradford but working project wide.
Pauline has been involved in Lesbian and Gay self-help groups
since the late 1970's.
She qualified as a Counsellor in 1989 and as a Counselling Supervisor in 1998.
She has worked as a Counsellor/Supervisor/Counselling Service Organiser in a
wide variety of settings, including Lesbian and Gay Counselling Services, GP
surgeries, Youth and Student Counselling Services and Community Mental Health
Projects.
She is accredited by the UK Association of Humanistic Psychology Practitioners.
[top]
Clive Spendlove
Mental Health Wellbeing Worker
Clive has been involved Gay community building since setting up a Gay group in Wakefield in 1979. He has also been involved in various organised attempts to respond to discrimination against LGBT people and to raise awareness about sexual orientation.
He has been working as a mental health musician since 1992 and trained in mental health nursing in the mid 1990s, since when has worked in various mental health services within the Health, Social Services and Voluntary sectors - with adults and older adults.
His particular interests relating to mental health work have been: -
*working with every dimension of each person, including mental, emotional, intellectual, social, physical;
*the potential for health and personal development within active involvement with music; *relationships between health and "spirituality"
James Moore
Mental Health Wellbeing WorkerJames has lived in Bradford since coming to University from Northern Ireland in 1979. After qualifying as a social worker in 1983, he worked for a number of years in various social work settings dealing with adults with mental health difficulties. In 1991, he transferred to the training & development area where he worked as a Mental Health Trainer and coordinated the Training Consortium for social workers operating under the Mental Health Act. James currently also works as Mental Health Advisor for Bradford University.
As a Gay man, he was involved in the founding of Bradford Gay Switchboard in the mid 1980’s and was involved, on a voluntary capacity, with various HIV organisations in Bradford in the mid to late 1990’s.
BLAST Project
Emma Holmes
Project Co-ordinator for the BLAST Project
Emma came into post in October 2003. She studied both full and part time at the local college for 8yrs and gained a variety of qualifications. Emma comes from a social work background, though has never worked in a statutory setting. Throughout her working life she has worked with varying client groups, including older people in residential settings, families involved in child protection investigations and proceedings, people concerned about their own or someone else’s drinking and asylum seekers and refugees. Emma was also a volunteer for a number of years at a Barnardos project working with girls and young women at risk of or involved in sexual exploitation. [top]
OUR PROJECT
Richard Day
Social Support Community Development
Worker – OUR Project in Bradford
Richard joined Yorkshire MESMAC in February 2000. He comes
from a background of working in the field of HIV prevention work in Bradford
and Leeds. He worked for a period of time as Community Development Worker
for HIV Positive Gay Men and their Sexual Partners in the Leeds area. He
currently works as a Community Development Worker for people living with
HIV in the Bradford area who are clients of the Our Project.
He has extensive experience of training around issues related to HIV and was
heavily involved in a programme of Peer Education in Bradford. He also has experience
of delivering training to sixth form pupils at schools throughout Leeds and Bradford.
He has devised and developed resources around HAART (Highly Active Anti Retroviral
Therapy) and Super Infection. He continues to play an active role in the development
of further resources and policy and continues to advocate for the needs of people
living with HIV. [top]
Gary Harkness
Local Service Co-ordinator in North Yorkshire
Gary joined Yorkshire MESMAC
in February 2002. As part of the York team working in North Yorkshire he
has developed interests in various fields. He has focused on Married Men’s
group development, and training around these particular issues. Also, Gary
has successfully put same sex relationships and domestic abuse on the agenda
in the area, working closely with other agencies.
Before joining Yorkshire MESMAC Gary worked in Leicester and spent 10 years working
as a volunteer for LASS (Leicestershire AIDS Support Services). He studied for
a degree in Mass Communication & Society and graduated from Leicester University
in 2000 with a BSc honours. He is still studying! With the support of Yorkshire
MESMAC Gary is currently working towards the ECDL at Yorkshire Coast College.
Future plans include setting up further social support groups for men in North
Yorkshire, a conference in Scarborough aimed at developing the needs for young
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Questioning (LGBQ) people in the area.
In his spare time he is seen wandering the moors with his dog Daisy, or being
let loose on a horse in Ryedale! Look out for him. [top]
Peter Blackburn
Community Development Worker in North Yorkshire
Peter joined the Yorkshire MESMAC team in July
2001, coming from a background in education both in special and mainstream
schools. He entered community development work for 8.5 years with the Rochdale
Tenants and Residents Federation.
Peter’s interests include sports, which has led to the development of sports
based groups for Yorkshire MESMAC. Peter’s personal interests include foreign
travel, a favourite destination being Goa in Southern India. On two occasions
he has visited a Sexual Health Project in Goa and met with staff and volunteers.
[top]
Ellen Hill
Community Development Worker for LGBT Youth in North Yorkshire
Ellen joined Yorkshire MESMAC in January 2005. Following her Psychology degree she spent several years working in research. This included time working in York St John College’s Social Inclusion and Diversity Unit. Here she researched the experiences of Lesbians, Gay men and Bisexual people living in rural communities (including North Yorkshire).
Whilst working in York on this research Ellen joined Yorkshire MESMAC. Working in this post for several years Ellen has been able to respond to the needs of young people across York and North Yorkshire. She has helped increase communication between service providers about issues for young LGBT people. Her training ‘Working with LGB Young People’ is consistently well evaluated.
On her list of priorities for further work are raising the profile of LGBT issues in schools across the region. This includes ensuring schools are equipped to tackle the homophobic bullying epidemic. She also continues to try and find ways for more isolated young LGBT people to have contact with each other through events and online networks. [top]
Dan Jenkins
Community Development Worker in North Yorkshire
Dan joined Yorkshire MESMAC in December 2006. He was based in Glasgow for 14 years and after a spell of travelling, moved to Yorkshire. Dan has been involved in sexual health training and support work since 1995 and has had various roles, including: telephone counselling with national AIDS and drugs helplines, running the Quality of Life Project for people living with HIV in the west of Scotland, Health Promotion Officer for Youth Health with the NHS in Glasgow and a range of voluntary and paid training experiences. He also holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Community Education. [top]
Sally Kitson
Community Development Worker for LGBT Youth in Wakefield
Sally started working for Yorkshire MESMAC in September 2005 and had been volunteering at the The Fruitbowl youth group for three months. Her background is in retail management. Sally would like to welcome young people across the Wakefield District to contact the service if they would like to meet other LGBT youth, have someone to talk to in confidence or to support them with other issues. Young people have accessed support for lots of different things, for example support when visiting the doctors, filling out housing forms, talking about relationships and sometimes just for a coffee and a chat [top]
The Begin Project
Ann Marie Maguire
Social Support Manager
Ann Marie joined the Yorkshire MESMAC staff team in March 2008, as Social Support for the Begin Project in Wakefield. Prior to becoming a member of staff she has been a Yorkshire MESMAC volunteer for Leeds LGB Switchboard, vice chair of the Volunteer Advisory Group (VAG) and was a member of the Board of Trustees.
After finishing her degree at the University of Plymouth, Ann Marie became involved with the National Union of Students' Women's and LGB Campaigns. She then worked for several years in Students' Unions in London in both advice work and membership services. Ann Marie also worked on a Sure Start programme in Tottenham, North London before moving to Yorkshire in 2004, where she has spent the last 3 years as a Volunteer Centre Manager.
Fruitbowl - Wakefield LGBT Youth Group Volunteers
Martin Cope
Martin is an IT Consultant and has volunteered at the Fruitbowl youth group since September 2004. [top]
