Watch this explainer video of our lead partner, The Atlas Foundation
Stephen has been in private practice as a leading criminal barrister for 30 years, regularly representing young people charged with knife and drug offences. This has driven his passionate, long-held commitment to mentoring and inspiring change, motivated by the guiding principle that “every young person has a gift waiting to be unearthed”. His youth work began over 20 years ago when he took on the role of Sunday school teacher at Croydon Community Church, where his dedication to empowering those lacking confidence and focus enabled him to build dialogue, trust and mutual respect.
In 2020 Stephen successfully established his social enterprise mentoring platform, Life of Focus, which has allowed him to take his message to schools and colleges across London, with enthusiastic feedback from both students and staff. He also hosts the weekly community production Life in focus - crime prevention. Recognising sport’s vital potential to underpin the mentoring which can deliver real change, he now brings his extensive experience to TackleLondon.
Amy's career path encompasses Education, Sport, Mentoring, and Mental Health Awareness. She has worked in various contexts across these areas, ranging from schools and universities to rugby clubs and also prisons. She has 26 years’ academic experience, including completing a PhD and MA in Modern Foreign Languages Education and Psycho-Social Linguistics at King's College London. During her teaching career, she was Head of Modern Foreign Languages at a large boys’ comprehensive school in South London. Amy later took time away from full-time teaching to care for family members, during which time she completed qualifications in Teaching English as a Foreign Language and in Post-Natal and Baby Yoga teaching and furthered her coaching and academic careers.
An England Rugby Leadership in Union Graduate, Amy is also an RFU network ambassador, supporting females in university in their leadership journeys as part of the Union Legacy Programme. She is also currently completing the England Rugby Mentoring Award. At Surrey County level, Amy runs the Rugby United programme, which actively encourages and supports the inclusion of traditionally under-represented male players in community rugby life. A qualified England rugby coach, Amy has also been coaching rugby to boys and girls for over 10 years and has won RFU awards for inclusion and volunteering. She was recently appointed as the first female Chair of her local club in London in its 130-year history. Here, she founded its first girls’ section. An alumna of Newnham College, Cambridge University, Amy is co-president of the Newnham Associates. In this mentoring role, and works to encourage young women from all backgrounds to apply to and thrive at Cambridge University.
Teacher, school leader and consultant, Nicholas is committed to exploring how people think about learning, teaching and research. An early years and primary school teacher and leader of 23 years, he continues to lead and support a range of schools in the UK, alongside organisations and governments in post-conflict and post-disaster countries including Afghanistan, Colombia, Sri Lanka and Zambia. As a school leader and consultant, he enables others to seek solutions, and considers creativity, curiosity and enquiry as essential to both leading and learning. As a researcher, he sees Grounded Theory and clean language as the foundation to understanding the impact the star* Scheme has on young people and those that support them. He also runs a gin distillery.
Garry has led and developed businesses in retail and technology for a number of years, but has made time to ensure he maintains a healthy work/life balance, mainly through sport, principally rugby. Having played in Ireland and England, he has the taken the well-worn path of youth coach, director of rugby, then chairman at East Grinstead Rugby Club – and firmly believes he played his last game last year. Garry also runs the EGRFC Sunshine Sevens events, now in their sixty-sixth year raising money for local disadvantaged children’s charities.
He has always worked in the development of youth rugby in the clubs he has been with. Having worked closely with Matt Ratana, head coach at EGRFC, Garry saw first-hand Matt’s brilliance in mentoring young people: making boys and girls believe that they can develop to be the best that they can be, utilising the discipline and team spirit of rugby. The very ethos he places at the heart of TackleLondon’s mentoring of young people on their journey through school and onwards to join the greater rugby club family.
Having been central to the Atlas Foundation team since 2017, Sally brings to TackleLondon considerable experience and expertise in a wide range of disciplines. Since her teenage years, she has been involved as a volunteer in a variety of roles for a number of local sporting and children’s charitable organisations.
Sally remains passionate about the importance of child participation in sports, having directly witnessed the significant difference that sport can make to a child’s development. Alongside her work for Atlas and TackleLondon, Sally herself is currently actively involved with her local football and taekwondo clubs, in addition to busy family weekends with her two young daughters.
Christian has worked in education for over 20 years, most recently as assistant head of Fair Furlong Primary School in Withywood, Bristol. He has a wealth of training and experience in supporting children who have had multiple adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and a strong grasp of the relationships necessary to enable them to thrive. He also has a comprehensive understanding of current research into early childhood trauma and its subsequent impact on neurosequential development, applying this knowledge to develop interventions to help reverse the negative effect of ACEs on children in his care.
Christian now devotes his expertise and enthusiasm in these fields to his role as managing director for star* Scheme, driven by his passion to achieve the best possible outcomes for the most vulnerable children. He speaks authoritatively on the genuine and lasting difference that mentoring can make to young lives.
Sean has 25 years’ experience as a business leader in financial services, financial technology, workplace education (preparing young people for work) and the educational travel sector for young people (residential summer schools). He thrives as a builder of diverse multicultural companies with happy, motivated and productive teams. As a qualified leadership and executive business coaching practitioner, he has delivered personal development programmes to school leavers to help them in their transition to the workplace.
A committed and competitive rugby player who exemplifies the phrase “never too old to learn new skills”, he aspires to be an excellent role model to younger teammates both on and off the pitch. Sean is fully focused on bringing to TackleLondon the prodigious drive and vision which has been the hallmark of his leadership of the Matt Ratana Rugby Foundation.
35 seasons (and counting) heavily involved, both playing and in administration, at several London rugby clubs have reinforced Murph’s passionate belief that the benefits of a supportive sporting environment extend far beyond the pitch and the clubhouse. He never fails to be inspired by how dramatically youngsters can flourish when given the means and encouragement to do so, and believes this opportunity should be freely available to all.
He now focuses this energy on getting the TackleLondon message to a rapidly-growing audience, overseeing our content and media relations, as engagement with our projects grows rapidly. Away from his work as a freelance writer, Murph enjoys trad music, hiking and kayaking, and is still trying to work out how he somehow ended up as an All-Ireland champion in indoor rowing.
As general manager of the Atlas Foundation, Peter has the perfect outlet for his lifelong passion for the transformative role that recreation and nutrition can play in a child’s development. 20 years’ hands-on dedication to various coaching and management roles at a local rugby club have given Peter a broad appreciation of the positive power of sport within our communities.
He also volunteers for a number of children’s charities and community initiatives which focus on keeping youngsters active, fed and engaged during school holidays. Alongside this, Peter is currently enthusiastically involved as an age group manager as his local rugby club, and is a companion for the elderly in his local community.
Following a rugby career at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, where he was largely out of his depth, Dan completed his playing days with Chew Valley. Here, with his sons Freddie and Joe in the minis, he threw himself into coaching. It was in the Chew community that, alongside like-minded club colleagues, he was inspired by witnessing the dramatically positive difference that a healthy and supportive sporting environment could make to youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Thus the star* Scheme was conceived and created. As chair of trustees Dan now oversees its rapid growth, the long evenings and endless miles only fuelling his tireless resolve to bring star*’s powerful message to as many communities as possible. It is the same irrepressible energy that will see him row the Atlantic next year to raise funds and awareness.
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