Team
Meet our Staff
Eleanor
Interim CEO
Eleanor Micthell
Eleanor has 25 years’ experience in the charity sector working across all areas from volunteering to Vice Chair. Bringing an innate understanding of the sector she works to grow, adapt, and enhance charities quickly grasping their areas for development and implementing change. Eleanor works as a consultant to the sector and is passionate in supporting young people. Eleanor is also a mum of two boys and loves sunny beach escapes!
Maria
Interim Head of Programmes
Maria McEvoy
Maria has spent over ten years working with children and young people, leading programmes that support young people to build confidence, develop positive relationships and achieve their potential. Her experience spans mentoring, safeguarding, programme leadership and service development, always with a focus on creating safe, inclusive spaces where young people can thrive.
Alongside her role at Youth Realities, Maria runs Inclusive Volunteering, supporting charities to build more inclusive and trauma-informed volunteer programmes.
Outside of work, Maria volunteers at St John Bosco Children’s Camp and is always looking for an excuse to see a good musical.
Chloe
IDVA
Chloe O’Connor
Hi, I am Chloe O’Connor and am so excited to be an IDVA. I have a passion for working with young people of all ages and find it very rewarding especially knowing that I have made a difference in their lives and supported them in achieving their goals. I have had over 20 years’ experience of working with young people in various different settings, some include youth clubs, schools and even young people’s institutes.
I am a kind, understanding, non-judgemental, caring person who tries to bring out the best version of people and put a smile on their faces. I believe in staying positive and seeing the positive side to any situation.
I love to listen to music, travel, spend time with my family and friends and build beautiful memories.
I believe it is very important to know your worth and not to allow anyone or anything make you feel as if you are nothing. This is what I plan on installing in the young people whom I will be working with here at Youth Realities and it is also what I tell my 3 beautiful daughters every day.
Sara
Creative Lead
Sara Barta
Sara Barta is a London-based singer-songwriter carving out her own space at the intersection of country and pop-rock – a sound defined by attitude, colour, and an unmistakable vocal tone that’s entirely her own. Currently training to become a music therapist, Sara’s pull toward helping others has shaped her life since childhood, and that same instinct for empathy and connection sits at the heart of everything she writes. Her songs are honest to a fault: touching, deeply personal, and delivered with a Taylor Swift-like gift for turning individual experience into something everyone in the room recognises as their own. Whether performing live or writing in the studio, Sara’s mission remains the same – to connect, to heal, and to be honest, one song at a time.
Meet our Trustees
Tony
Chair of Trustees
Tony Lewis
Tony has more than 15 years’ experience working with children and youth services. He is currently responsible for partnership safeguarding and child protection arrangements within Barnet and more recently served as CEO of an Unitas Youth Zone.
Tony is passionate about delivering positive outcomes, tackling social disadvantage and improving social mobility, in hope that his young daughter can grow up in a world where she knows she can be whoever she wishes to be!
Leaneen
Trustee
Leaneen Callender
Leanean is an early careers manager and has supported young people in careers education, education based partnerships and early careers programmes for over 15 years. Her experience also includes working for a police funded charity as a partnership analyst for domestic violence and child sexual exploitation. This experience, along with her passion for helping young people navigate what comes after education safely in terms of healthy relationships as well as their future careers has led her to wanting to support Youth Realities as a trustee.
Roslyn
Trustee
Roslyn Adonteng
Roslyn has six years’ experience supporting young people both in the public and private sector after graduating in Youth and Community Work. Roslyn strongly believes in empowering and supporting the next generation, especially young women, to become the best versions of themselves. She has managed to make a tremendous difference in supporting young people with employment and crime, managed youth projects and worked in partnership with organisations such as Princes Trust, Barclays and Arsenal.
Niki
Trustee
Niki Michael
Hi, I’m Niki Michael and I am delighted to be joining Youth Realities as a Trustee. I have over 20 years experience as a professional fundraiser working for national and local charities, growing both income and staff teams. I am currently working as the Interim CEO of a Hertfordshire based charity supporting pre school physically disabled children and their families, overseeing a team of 35 staff.
I am very much looking forward to supporting the growth and direction of Youth Realities alongside the excellent leadership team.
Claire
Trustee
Claire Silver
Claire is a Chief People Officer and member of the Executive Leadership Team for an organisation within the Infrastructure Financing Sector. She has over 25 years’ experience in senior HR roles, and an excellent track record of coaching executive teams, leading businesses through change and helping to establish strong corporate cultures. The daughter of a teenage mother who had experienced teenage abuse, Claire was brought up within the care system spending most of her youth in foster and children’s homes. She has spent much of her career raising awareness around Social Mobility and championing and mentoring teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds.
