Our Advisers

10 advisers sit at the heart of the Fund’s second phase. Involving young people via these roles helps the Fund live its values, and it also brings invaluable challenge and insight into how to improve accountability. The advisers are designing their own grant-making strategy for a discreet pot of funding and will be involved in all aspects of the Fund.

MEET OUR ADVISERS

meet antonia

Antonia is reading Human Social & Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge from October 2021. She believes this would have been impossible without the help of university access organisations such as Leading Routes, IntoUniversity, Zero Gravity, Target Oxbridge, & Project Access. She participated on the Advocacy Academy Social Justice 2019-20 Fellowship. This led to her co-founding ‘Fill In The Blanks’ to mandate the teaching of colonialism on the national curriculum. She is keen to support initiatives that have transformative potential which put the individuals they are trying to serve at the forefront. 

meet Jaiden

Jaiden Corfield is an award-winning activist, campaigner and change leader from North Manchester. Jaiden has worked with multiple organisations on trying to create more spaces for them to lead alongside young people and this is something that attracted him to The Listening Fund. He was attracted by the Fund’s clear commitment to be built by young people for young people and after his work co-designing Rekindle school and co-leading at Ashoka he realises the importance of youth leadership and is excited to be a valued member of the Advisory panel.

meet lauren

Lauren has volunteered with education charities based in Nottingham which support children and young people and has previously worked in various social media roles. She is currently Fundraising & Communications Officer for Birmingham Settlement, a charity helping people facing socioeconomic disadvantage. Lauren is excited to be working with The Listening Fund, their values align with hers as she is passionate about challenging power dynamics that exist within philanthropy and supporting young people’s experience to be heard and valued.

meet liddy

Liddy is 23 and lives in Newcastle. She is passionate about youth participation and has been involved in national youth voice projects with Girlguiding and the Methodist Church. She has also worked and volunteered with young people in a variety of settings and countries. She is very excited to be working with The Listening Fund and is looking forward to gaining a deeper understanding of charity funding in this role.

meet Natasha

Natasha has been working in the youth sector as a fundraiser for the last 3 years and has recently joined the board of Trustees at The British Youth Council. She is passionate about social change and strongly advocates for more to be done to move young people into positions of power and influence. Natasha believes being an Advisory panel member at The Listening Fund is the perfect opportunity for her to harness her existing skills and experience, to help philanthropy better respond to the needs of young people.

meet Neha

Neha recently completed a geography degree and is now working as an environmental data analyst at Thames Water. Her interest in working for The Listening Fund stems from her passion and experience in youth volunteering projects, from environmental conservation projects to creative arts festivals.

meet Nicole

Nicole is a musician from the North of England and enjoys playing multiple instruments, as well as writing and producing her own music. She also performs fire dancing, plays table tennis and loves to watch ice hockey. Nicole applied for this role as she wants to actively make a difference to local communities and give young people the best opportunities possible in order to prepare them for the future.

meet Samuel

Samuel is a student at King’s College London. He manages a small production collective led and for young people called ‘Creation Foundation’. He is also working on an anthology of stories of young people who have had challenges accessing higher education due to the UK’s exploitative immigration policies. The anthology will be prefaced with policy suggestions. He was attracted to The Listening Fund because of its desire to try new radical ideas and share its findings with the rest of the sector. He says he shares the same zeal for impact as The Listening Fund.

meet Sophie

Sophie is a history student and disability activist from Norwich, who will be heading to university in York. She is passionate about raising awareness for disabilities and chronic illnesses, particularly her own, Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder, and writes a blog on the subject. Sophie applied for The Listening Fund Advisory Panel as she wanted to develop skills she had learned during her time as a member of her local Youth Advisery Board. Outside of this, she reads a lot of books and volunteers for charities.

meet Thomas

Tom currently studies Natural Sciences at Durham University whilst also working with the UK Youth Climate Coalition where he campaigns for climate justice and works to make our leaders more accountable to young people. He has previously worked on multiple campaigns to empower and inspire his generation and is passionate about creating meaningful societal changes which are necessary in order for young people to thrive. This is what has led Tom to The Listening Fund which he believes is the perfect opportunity to do just that.

SUPPORTED BY

Our 10 advisers are being supported by Keji and Floree from Hudl Youth Development Agency. Keji and Floree help to facilitate the advisers’ meetings, and to establish some independence from the funders investing in TLF. Our hope is that this empowers our advisers and enables them to challenge our thinking and ways of working.

meet Keji

Keji specialises in youth engagement and programme design; she combines her knowledge of the youth sector and coaching as well as her personal brand of creativity to design and deliver experiential programmes and training for clients and young people.

meet Floree

Floree has over 10 years’ experience working with purpose-led organisations to accelerate social and environmental change. Her interest lies in innovation tools and systems change methodologies that tackles complex problems through her interdisciplinary specialism in coaching, action learning and co-production.