Meet the Youth Unity team

Paul McKenzie

Head of COMMS

Facebook-f Linkedin Link

Professional Public Speaker, life coach/ NLP Master Practitioner, film director/producer and book author.

Paul has enjoyed changing the lives of hundreds of people over the last 20 years. 

Through his film making he has developed  a platform designed to provide a space for individuals within the community to express their brilliance, speak their truth and encourage the lives of others. This is achieved by producing short powerful films that highlight specific issues and capture the unique essence of everyday people’s stories, which are now award winning.  These Films and documentaries are shared internationally and contain inspirational, thought provoking material, and reaches out to the heart of the community.

Paul remains proud to have contributed to some major changes in the way we address specific issues that challenge communities, especially the issues that affect our youth.

Shirley Jackson

head of operations

Facebook-f Linkedin

Shirley oversees the operational aspects of company strategy, helps set strategic goals and is responsible for the flow of operations information to the other partners.

Shirley is also our marketing and branding specialist and project events planner with over 25 years of experience working with agencies, corporate and non-profit organisations and now brings this experience to Youth Unity.

In the past she has worked with organisations that focus on the well-being of youth and of the wider community and has led various projects over the years that empower young people and enforce community cohesion.  Shirley also has over 25 years experience of event management from both the corporate and music industry and hosted many large bespoke events internationally.

James Hensman

Head of Strategic Planning

Facebook-f Linkedin
Head of Strategic Planning & Operations for Youth Unity CIC delivering front line training, support and intervention services to combat Gangs, County-lines and Organised Crime. 
 
He has worked for over 16 years  with broad ranging experience in community, integrated teams, commissioning ; and within partnership with Metropolitan and County police forces. 
 
His passion is enabling quality improvement and supporting vulnerable cohorts at risk of gang related activity.  James enjoys working across diverse communities, creating purposeful multi- agency partnerships in order to improve outcomes for vulnerable cohorts. Previous to his role he was a serving officer responsible for co-ordinating knife crime prevention based operations in partnership with other statutory services. Experience in strategic planning for gang and serious organised crime.
 

Ayse Oliver

Head of Social Media & Youth Engagement

More to come very soon

George Teri

Editor

Riyad Hacib

Youth Development

Amber Hood

Youth Consultation

Samantha Crick

Volunteer

Samantha has joined the team to offer her valuable skills by assisting us with administration duties.  She hopes that this will enhance her skills, to seek future employment.
 
Samantha is very passionate about helping people.  She also in the past worked for Barnardos charity shop feels that volunteers are essential to help charities survive.