Our Team
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DONNA JOHN
Director
I have lived in Harrow for most of my life and have two grown up children. I am deeply committed to youth work, youth empowerment and advocacy, with a special passion for helping those affected by the criminal justice system. I have over 15 years operational and strategic management experience in the criminal justice sector and am always at my best when I feel I can make a difference to someone's life. Most recently I worked for a charity that supports foreign national's affected by the criminal justice system, but in the past have worked providing support and advocacy to detainees and ex-offenders within a custodial environment. Experience has shown me what can happen to youngsters when things go wrong ... but equally how important positive interventions are in helping young people to overcome barriers and turnaround their lives.
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FRANCESCA EVANS
Senior Youth Worker
Francesca moved to Harrow from Gloucestershire in July 2019 and started volunteering with Ignite soon after. Francesca has 4 years of youth work experience and recently completed her Youth Work degree. Francesca oversees the day-to-day delivery of each project, taking an active hands on approach to her work. Her specialism is gendered support, providing tailored services to young women and girls; something she is keen to develop at Ignite.
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MICHAEL LUKE
Youth Worker (Gangs)
Came to youth work five years ago with a passion to help fatherless young males make positive choices for their lives and to use his own story to bring hope for change and a better way of life. Hot on showing respect for females, hard work and healthy family values, Mike believes young people are our future, and therefore just wants to help, support and encourage them to success. Michael joined Ignite in 2013.
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NATHANIEL BYGRAVE
Youth Worker (Gangs)
Nathaniel is a professional musician and entrepreneur turned qualified youth worker who’s been working with young people for over a decade. Fuelled by his passion to see young people change their lives Nathaniel has spearheaded many youth initiatives and continues bring his unique way of thinking to Youth Work. Although Brixton born and raised he now lives with his wife and 2 daughters in Watford.
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SEAN GREAVES
Youth Worker (Gangs)
Having supported ignite with various aspects of their work as both a volunteer and a part-time worker the past two years, I am happy to have joined the team as a full time gangs worker. I am very passionate about our vision to empower young people and am looking forward to putting my skills and experience to use with that vision in mind. I love sports and walk the suffering path of an avid Liverpool supporter!
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TROY NORBERT
Youth Worker (Employment)
Troy is an Employment Worker providing bespoke one to one support for young people seeking to access education or employment. He's lived in Harrow all his life and is passionate about making a positive impact on our young people. Troy works part time for Ignite and is also a Policy and Information Officer at Partnership for Young London. He has been working on the Youth Advisory Board training programme for Partnership for Young London and also the Children in Care Council. Troy has worked across a number of groups of young people both in formal and informal education settings and has also set up training across London on financial inclusion and debt.
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SACHA PRYCE
Youth Worker (Girls/Gangs)
Sacha is a resident of Wealdstone and a mother who is passionate about helping young people make positive decisions about how to spend their time. She is currently working closely with the gangs workers in detached and is supporting a group of young women who enjoy the boxing and music production sessions.
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NALINI SHARMA
Youth Worker (Employment/Comms)
Nalini's background is in Social Research, in which she has designed research projects for a diverse range of clients and subjects. Nalini has also worked as a researcher at the Ministry of Justice, and in the Inspectorate of Prisons. Simultaneously, she has undertaken voluntary work with organisations which work with young people. Nalini does not like referring to herself as a Mentor as she has equally learned so much from the young people she has worked with about reseliance, self-belief and most recently, some basketball techniques which she is still trying to master!!!
She has also taught herself to play the recorder, very badly, but sees it as an achievement nevertheless, as it is one step beyond not being able to playing it at all and one step toward playing it just badly! -
RACHEL HEWLETT
Fundraiser
Rachel first joined Ignite as a Youth Worker in 2008 after completing a degree in Youth Work. She absolutely loves working with young people 1:1 and in small groups, and is driven by seeing them discover more about themselves and what they can achieve. Rachel left Ignite in 2013 to train to become a Social Worker, and returned again in 2016 as the Fundraiser to help Ignite raise the all-important money it needs to run. When not working for Ignite Rachel loves spending time with friends and family and watching tv series on Netflix, but she can usually be found chasing lively toddlers around the house!
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PRINCE KOUASSI
Data Analyst
Prince has a background in Psychology and statistical modelling. He has several years experience working as a data analyst for medium to large sized media and security firms. He has a genuine love of data and acts as the main interpreter for the data we collect. He is also an avid cyclist and computer programmer in his spare time, and is currently working on a system which can gauge user sentiment based on their Tweets!
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RAKHI SHRESTHA DALI
Finance and Office Administrator
I joined Ignite Youth in 2020 as Finance and Admin Administrator (part time). I am from Nepal and live with my husband and one son. I have several years of experience in accounting and bookkeeping back in Nepal and 7 years bookkeeping experience in the UK. This is my first work experience with a charity and I am loving it. In my free time I like to do gardening and I love nature.
