Welcome

Robin Simpson, CEO, Creative Lives 

Robin Simpson has been Chief Executive of Creative Lives since 2005. Before joining Creative Lives he was Deputy Chief Executive of Making Music – the national umbrella body for amateur music making. Previously Robin worked as General Manager of The British Federation of Festivals. A keen amateur French horn player, Robin is a member of the Northampton Symphony Orchestra. Robin is a perennial ballroom dancing student, a frequent theatre-goer, an enthusiastic reader of contemporary fiction, an insatiable consumer of classical and world music and a keen blogger at culturaldessert.blogspot.com and culturalplayingfield.wordpress.com.  

Robin recently announced his intention to retire as Chief Executive of Creative Lives in May 2026 

Evaluation reflections

Kieran Jones, Consulting Director, Fortia Insight 

Kieran Jones is a senior evaluation specialist at Fortia Insight (formerly RSM) with 15 years’ experience designing and directing complex process, impact and value-for-money evaluations across the youth, VCSE and public sectors. He has led major mixedmethods studies for government departments and national funders, applying theorybased and quasiexperimental (QED) approaches to generate robust, actionable evidence. Kieran has led the evaluation of the KYN Fund, including the two-project level quasi-experimental studies, from the beginning - and recently led the final analysis and overall report. He is also leading the ongoing KYN qualitative research that is focused on how funded interventions are contributing to addressing loneliness stigma and strengthening community cohesion. 

Katie Pekacar, Independent Mind 

Katie Pekacar leads Independent Mind and is a strategic consultant in the culture sector, with experience of successfully supporting programmes of organisational change and development through stakeholder engagement and consultation, strategic thinking and action planning. Katie has extensive experience of developing sector networks and peer support. In September and October last year, Katie worked with the team at Libraries Connected to develop and facilitate a pilot peer learning network for KYN in the North East. 

Shamiela Ahmed, Heart of England Community Foundation 

Shamiela currently leads the Foundation’s grant making and has nearly 20 years’ experience in grant making. Shamiela has worked in the charity sector since leaving The University of Birmingham with a Master’s in Public Service Management. Shamiela prides herself on her ability to develop strong relationships and communicate with organisations across sectors. She is an experienced Project Manager delivering programmes across diverse communities and across a wide geographic region. 

Panel session – Meet the National Funders  

Dionne Buckman, co-founder of Golden Sankofa 

Dionne is Strategic Director for Community Engagement at Golden Sankofa, with extensive experience delivering complex, place-based work across central and local government, the voluntary sector, and community-led organisations. She specialises in co-design, organisational culture change, and relationship-centred approaches to engagement. Dionne has played leading roles in major programmes, including the Ministry of Housing and Local Government’s Partnership for People and Place programme and the Grenfell Recovery Community Engagement team. As a co-founder of Golden Sankofa, she supports organisations to adopt human-centred, collaborative ways of working. Dionne brings passion, energy, and joy to her work, creating inspiring spaces for connection that enable locally informed change and thriving communities. 

Ellie Djerir, Head of Participation Programmes, Historic England 
Ellie Djerir is Head of Participation Programmes at Historic England, where she leads national initiatives that connect people and communities with England’s heritage. Her team’s work focuses on inclusive engagement, creative participation, and fostering partnerships that make heritage relevant and accessible to all. Ellie oversees flagship projects such as History in the Making and the National Blue Plaque Scheme, and supports best practice in participation across the organisation. 

With a background in museums and heritage engagement, Ellie previously headed the museum service at Gunnersbury Park Museum and held roles at Hackney Museum, London Metropolitan Archives, and Dulwich Picture Gallery. 

Louise Clare, Senior Engagement Manager, National Lottery Heritage Fund 

Louise Clare is a Senior Engagement Manager for the National Lottery Heritage Fund. With over 20 years of grant application and giving experience she joined the Fund in 2002 working in Engagement, following roles with Derbyshire County Council, Yorkshire Forward Regional Development Agency, and the University of Liverpool.  

Louise is responsible for the engagement across the Yorkshire and Humber area whilst working collaboratively with the North Team 

 Louise is passionate about the heritage of the North and the stories hidden within its many buildings, communities’ landscapes and traditions. She works work collaboratively with external partners including charities, government bodies and National Lottery Distributors and others. 

Sam Grimmett Batt, Director of Partnerships and Insight, UK Community Foundations 

Sam leads partnerships and insight at UK Community Foundations, working with community foundations and national funders to grow resources for local communities. Sam's work focuses on building ambitious national collaborations, using data and evidence to guide the network and championing the impact of community foundations. Sam previously led major funding programmes at City Bridge Foundation and was a founding director of Collaboration Circle.  

Chris Batstone, Senior Relationship Manager for Strategic Partnerships, Arts Council England 

Chris is a Senior Relationship Manager at Arts Council England, overseeing a wide place-based capital regeneration projects and Arts Council’s strategic work around devolution.  Chris is also the north area lead for library development and creative health and is keen to support library services to develop new health and wellbeing initiatives. Chris has extensive experience of working alongside communities to develop cultural activities and events, including as Great Place Tees Valley Programme Manager, Artistic Director of Juice young peoples’ festival and at mind the gap, Doncaster Community Arts (darts) and Lawrence Batley theatre. Chris is currently undertaking a Master’s Degree in Place Management and Leadership, exploring how culture plays a role in high street regeneration. 

From seed funding to sustainability: How a short-term grant  enabled long-term growth 

Grace Stubbings, Co-Director, We Make Sound 

Grace Stubbings is a musician, sound artist, and facilitator from Hartlepool, and co-director of We Make Sound, a free, inclusive community music programme in the Tees Valley. She supports young people to create, perform, and explore music while developing confidence, skills, and pathways into creative opportunities. Grace’s work combines practical facilitation with creative practice, bringing innovative sound projects, workshops, and environmental listening experiences to local communities. She shares honest reflections on the rewards and challenges of running grassroots music programmes and creating meaningful opportunities for a diverse range of young people in the North East. 

Post-Lunch Energiser 

Phill Fairhurst, Electric Pink Voices 

Phill Fairhurst is a musical director and creative producer whose work sits at the intersection of music, wellbeing and community connection, rooted in the belief that shared singing can transform lives. He developed Singing for Creative Health, an inclusive approach that uses communal singing to support physical and mental wellbeing, build personal resilience, and help people break isolation through creativity. This practice explores how choirs generate social capital, fostering healthy, creative communities that bring people together across difference. He has worked extensively with community choirs through music projects that centre belonging, connection and the arts as essential to public health and community resilience. His session connects directly to Know Your Neighbourhood’s goals of reducing loneliness and strengthening community ties through creative, participatory activities that build wellbeing and volunteering networks. 
 

Panel session – How in-person interventions address and prevent harmful consequences of the stigma associated with loneliness 

Darren Henley, Chief Executive, Arts Council England 

Dr Darren Henley CBE is chief executive of Arts Council England. His boardroom experience spans the arts, media, education, charity and government. Previously managing director of Classic FM, he authored two independent government reviews into music education and cultural education in England. 

After studying for degrees in politics, management and art history, he completed a doctorate exploring the role of the outsider as an agent for change. This sparked an interest in the psychology of what helps humans to flourish. He went on to study for a master’s in applied positive psychology and a postgraduate diploma in coaching for behavioural change. 

Manuela Barreto, Professor of Social and Organisational Psychology at University of Exeter 

Manuela Barreto is Head of the Psychology Department at the University of Exeter, UK, where she is also an academic at the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health. Born and raised in Portugal, she studied for her PhD in Amsterdam and now works in the UK, bringing her extensive intercultural experience to bear on a variety of issues pertaining to mental health. She was a co-investigator of the Loneliness Experiment, which was a collaboration among the BBC, the Wellcome Collection, and researchers at three British universities. Building on the findings of the Loneliness Experiment, Barreto has gone on to work on a Europe-wide project to research and help to ease high-school-aged youth loneliness in concert with teachers from Portugal, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey, and the UK. The project, funded by a grant from Erasmus+ (the EU funding program for education, training, youth and sport) aims to develop interventions to mitigate loneliness in this age group. 

Tess Denman-Cleaver, New Writing  North 

Tess Denman-Cleaver is Senior Programme Manager (Young People & Communities) at New Writing North. She joined the organisation in 2021 as a Programme Manager, having previously worked as a freelance Programmer and Artist, as well as Producer for the Women Artists of the North East Library and Producer (Artists’ Moving Image) at Tyneside Cinema. Tess was Artistic Director of Tender Buttons theatre company between 2010-2018 and Programmer for The Northern Charter between 2015-2018. She has a PhD in landscape, philosophy and art from Newcastle University. Tess is also a Governor of Kelvin Grove Primary School in Gateshead and a Trustee (chair) of Book Works. 
 

World Café Activity (in-person) 

Marnie Freeman, Co-founder of the Neighbourly Lab 

As co-founder of Neighbourly Lab, Marnie brings both optimism about building better social connections and the wisdom that meaningful innovation requires collaboration with those most impacted. She is an expert  of participatory methods and specialises in ensuring that lesser heard voices have a core role to play in decision making. She leads  our work on Inclusive Public Services with a firm belief that equitable access to services and information leads to better outcomes for all.  

Marnie continually strengthens Neighbourly Lab by challenging and developing the team’s skills  and experience across all projects and programmes, linking learning to policy and driving change. 

Her diverse, local community development and international cohesion work with NGOs and the UN,  has focused on working with young people, and other vulnerable groups.  

Marnie also  brings creativity and passion into the organisation, evident in the innovative work that Neighbourly Lab undertakes , the team’s growth, and the high-quality insights and support provided to clients. She has led Neighbourly Lab into its unique position of understanding how to bring together the worlds of residents and community with the policy and decision makers .  

Simon Boase, Historic England 

Simon has been working at Historic England for five years, planning and implementing new national strands of grant funding. This has included the £8m High Streets Heritage Action Zone Cultural Programme, and most recently leading the Know Your Neighbourhood grants. In these roles there is a focus on developing supportive and innovative grant programmes and partnerships for cultural and heritage organisations to increase participation and engage communities with their local area to have lasting positive impact. 

Previously Simon was head of artistic programmes at The Art House Wakefield, and worked for contemporary art network Axisweb alongside developing and running independent artist spaces and projects in Yorkshire. 

Karina Flynn, Historic England 

Karina Flynn is Participation Programmes Officer at Historic England and co-leads the delivery of the Know Your Neighbourhood programme, tackling social isolation and loneliness and widening participation in volunteering across England. Her role supporting the wider Participation Programmes team focusses on collaborating with national teams and grant recipients to shape participatory public engagement aligned with wellbeing, inclusion, and place-making.  

Karina’s experience has been in co-creation, stakeholder collaboration, and community engagement through creative heritage practice, with previous roles at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, The Gardens Trust, and the Institute of Historical Research.   

Amanda Naylor, CEO of Volunteering Matters 

Amanda Naylor OBE is a values-driven Chief Executive with nearly 30 years’ experience across the voluntary, public and international sectors, and is currently CEO of Volunteering Matters. She is recognised for leading organisational transformation, financial recovery and governance, while consistently championing power-sharing with communities, equity, lived-experience leadership and trauma-informed practice. Awarded an OBE for services to children and young people, she is a respected voice in national policy and civil society leadership. 

Manuela Barreto

John Haigh

John Haigh is the Bibliotherapy and Wellbeing Officer for Cultural Services at Lancashire County Council. He has led on health and wellbeing projects across Libraries, Museums, the Archives and Outdoor Education. John is passionate about bringing fun and creativity into everything that we do. Outside of work, John is a keen runner and enjoys time out in nature. 

Beth Nolan 

“I’m Beth, an Actor and Community Arts Facilitator who works in Lancashire. I started my interaction with Blaze as a young participant in local projects and since then have gone on to work as a freelancer for the charity and have gained part time employment as a Community Rail Officer. Blaze’s youth led approach to projects has always inspired me and has helped shape me to become a more open minded, confident, and skilled Creative. I’m very excited to share the work of Blaze at the conference today!” 

Tonia Collett, Association of Independent Museums 

Tonia is an independent museum consultant with experience in the charity and heritage sector. She works with clients to develop holistic, practical solutions to challenges, with a focus on community, volunteers and entrepreneurship. A Carbon Literacy for Museums trainer, she helps museums to become financially and environmentally sustainable with realistic supporting aims and actions. Since 2024, Tonia has been working for the Connected Communities grant programme, and with Museum Development Midlands to deliver the Stronger Museums cohort programme. 

Margaret Harrison, Association of Independent Museums 

Margaret is Head of Programmes for AIM. She's worked in the museum sector for over 30 years, starting her career in collections management. In her role at AIM she provides practical and approachable support for members to help them build resilience and prosper. 

Katie Pekacar

Jess Plant, Policy Director, Creative Lives 

Jess Plant joined the Creative Lives team in September 2020, and is currently the Policy Director. 

Jess holds a BA Hons in Sociology from the University of Nottingham and an MA in Art and Design from the University of Brighton. She also completed the Clore Leadership course in February 2017. 

She previously worked at Clinks as the Director of the National Alliance for Arts in Criminal Justice where she raised the profile of arts in criminal justice settings by developing a pioneering research project in partnership with the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge funded by the ESRC and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. 

Carlota Sousa Nobrega, Grants Coordinator, Creative Lives 

Carlota joined Creative Lives in 2024 as our Grants Coordinator.  

With a BA in Fine Art from Cardiff School of  Art and Design, and an MA in Arts Management from the Royal College of Music and Arts, Carlota is passionate about supporting creative communities and has helped bring a variety of arts projects to life. She previously worked as Arts Manager at British Council and Grants Officer at Ffilm Cymru Wales. Alongside her arts management work, Carlota is a visual artist and creative producer. 

Shamiela Ahmed

Emma Hoddinott, Director of Policy, External Affairs and Research, Libraries Connected 

Emma Hoddinott joined Libraries Connected as the new Director of Policy, External Affairs, and Research (PEAR) in September 2025. In her role, Emma spearheads the political engagement efforts for Libraries Connected, cultivating and strengthening relationships with decision-makers at national, regional, and local levels. She also oversees media relations, campaigns, and research activities. Prior to this, Emma served nearly a decade as the Assistant General Secretary for Representation & Political Affairs at the Co-operative Party. Additionally, she brings extensive experience from her 12 years as a local Councillor and seven years as an officer at a local authority. 

World Café Activity (online) 

Rachel New 

Rachel New is a broadcaster, podcaster and workshop facilitator. Having spent twenty years as a radio presenter, Rachel now uses her PhD in creative writing to facilitate creative writing workshops for women, alongside her work as an audio producer and podcaster. 

Tash Almond, Senior Programme Coordinator, Local Trust  

Natasha has extensive experience in community engagement and as a volunteer and development manager. She has played a key role in setting up several grassroots organisations and movements on a voluntary basis, including the Good Organisation, which champions sustainable, community-led tourism and advocates for a tourism levy to protect and maintain heritage sites. In her role at Local Trust, Natasha supports resident-led partnerships in doubly disadvantaged neighbourhoods to invest in their communities and build local power. 

Professor Andrea Wigfield, Director of Centre for Loneliness Studies 

Andrea is a leading researcher on loneliness and social isolation, specialising in the wider social determinants and implications through research, programme evaluation, and evidence based policy and practice. 

The key principles which guide her work are academic rigor and evidence based research which is policy driven and leads to impact and change. Many aspects of her research focus on co-production involving all key partners in the research process, including ‘experts by experience’. 

As Director of the Policy Evaluation Group (2002-11), Deputy and then Co-Director of CIRCLE (2011–2016,) Director of Care-Connect (2014-2017) and currently Director of Centre for Loneliness Studies (2017+) she has spearheaded interdisciplinary research collaboration and established strong networks in both academia and with external stakeholders in the public, private and voluntary sectors. Andrea has been awarded research funding of almost £3 million and has published over 50 books, chapters, articles, and reports, and worked on approximately 90 externally funded research projects.