Meet the Team

Clare’s job is to lead the VRU. Her focus is on encouraging public sector organisations to work together to tackle violence and exploitation in the most effective way: hand in hand with those who are impacted most. They say the whole is greater than the sum of the parts and for Clare that is never truer than when it comes to preventing violence. The ambition is to get more people to see preventing violence as their business and to come together to find a solution.

Clare’s remit is to introduce organisations to both new and tried and tested violence interventions, and to help establish ‘what works’ Her team will also use evidence to help organisations and communities identify the changes that they can make so that the west midlands becomes a safer place, and our young people have a better chance in life.

Thankfully this agenda is nothing new to Clare.

She has spent her policing career tackling violence, exploitation and reducing harm at a local, national and even international level. Whether leading on the UKs National Modern Slavery Police Transformation Programme or taking rescue teams to earthquake and hurricane disaster zones in Indonesia, Nepal, Haiti and the Caribbean, Clare has dedicated her life to leading the response to helping others.

Clare’s drive for change is deeply personal. A CSE survivor, she has experienced the police and justice system from a young victim’s perspective and knows organisations could respond much better.

If you would like to make contact with Clare, then please email vru@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk.

Carl is motivated by wanting to make a difference to the lives of people in the West Midlands. Highly organised and always on top of the detail, Carl’s job is to keep across all of the VRU activity, ensure that the team works together as one and he monitors our impact and success to ensure we deliver for the people who need our help most.

Before Carl arrived at the VRU in October 2019 he was leading on complex policy areas for the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, including helping to manage the innovative Gangs and Violence Commission and the Community Safety work.

When not at work Carl loves to exercise. He’s even completed the 3 peaks challenge. No mean feat.

If you would like to make contact with Carl, then please email vru@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk.

Yvonne’s job is to help West Midlands Police focus on preventing violent crime. As a senior member of both the VRU and the force she is perfectly placed to influence the direction of both organisations. Her focus is on connecting police colleagues to the specialists within the VRU and vice versa to ensure we all embed a public health approach in our work. After 25 years’ service she is more than aware of the operational challenges facing West Midlands Police and her work at the VRU is helping to inform both strategy and vision.

At the largest police force outside of London Yvonne has led teams from emergency response to custody, local policing and criminal justice. It is this strategic leadership which means Yvonne has a wealth of knowledge around criminal justice, but in particular she specialises in culture change, diversity and fairness in policing.

When not at work, Yvonne volunteers as a governor at her son’s school, and enjoys getting exercise and fresh air by puppy walking the newest recruits to the police dog team.

If you would like to make contact with Yvonne, then please email vru@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk.

Dr Jo Peden is our Public Health expert. As well helping us to evaluate the work we do she is also here to advise us on how to deliver a public health approach to violence prevention.

Before joining the VRU Jo’s distinguished career took her to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Malaysian Ministry of Health – where she looked at the health needs of refugees – and Public Health England as a Consultant in Health Protection.

More recently at Public Health England Jo had a national role as Children’s and Women’s lead for the Health and Justice team. Jo led on the government guidance for ‘collaborative approaches to preventing offending and reoffending by children’ (CAPRICORN).

She has experience at a national level working with Public Health England on Adverse Childhood Experiences.

If you would like to make contact with Jo, then please email vru@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk.

Nadyia lives and breathes education and championing opportunity for vulnerable young people. For over a decade she has worked in inner-city schools and led specialist behaviour units. Her particular focus is social emotional and behavioural development.

At the VRU she leads on our Mentors in Violence Prevention programme. The initiative challenges young people on their attitudes, beliefs and values towards violence. Whilst the scheme started off in secondary schools, Nadyia is dramatically increasing its reach and breadth to ensure we also work with young people within primary schools, colleges, sports clubs, faith institutions and youth clubs. The programme has been developed so it can be rolled out nationally.

Nadyia has created the West Midlands Faith Alliance. The group brings together faith and community leaders to encourage them to work on the violence agenda together and with the VRU.

Nadyia is also one of only a small number of women nationally who sits on a mosque governing body as a trustee.

She might be a warm, friendly face in the office, but don’t mess. In her spare time Nadyia enjoys competing at Brazilian jujitsu.

If you would like to make contact with Nadyia, then please email vru@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk.

Nikki is right at the heart of some of the VRU’s most innovative work. She’s helping us pilot new violence reduction schemes in a range of places that we have identified as suffering from high levels of violence. Nikki’s great at bringing together the local community, partners and agencies to all work together to tackle an area’s problems.

Before Nikki called the VRU ‘home’ she spent 10 years in drug and alcohol treatment services in Solihull. She joined Black Country Women’s Aid in 2012 as Head of Community Services, managing domestic and sexual abuse support services, as well as the Children’s team. She became Head of Partnerships in 2015, working across the West Midlands and became a member of the Regional Sexual Violence Consortium. The same year, Nikki qualified as a Safelives IDVA Service Manager and in 2017 she led on the launch of the region’s first specialist stalking support service.

Before lockdown Nikki loved letting her hair down at gigs and festivals.

If you would like to make contact with Nikki, then please email vru@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk.

A love of numbers and language has led Jason to jobs in teaching, journalism and now statistics and data. They say variety is the spice of life.

After two years as a mapping analyst at Transport for West Midlands, Jason jumped at the opportunity to get into the world of criminal justice and took up a secondment as data analyst in the new West Midlands VRU. Jason’s work underpins and informs everything the VRU does. His data analysis is crucial if we want to gain insight into the drivers of violence. Remember, the VRU follows a public health approach. Jason’s key piece of work is the VRU’s Strategic Needs Assessment, which you can read here.

When Jason isn’t crunching numbers he loves to unwind by throwing himself down mountains on his bike and playing poker with friends.

If you would like to make contact with Jason, then please email vru@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk.

Jacqui, born and raised in Birmingham, is a real advocate for the City.

On loan to the VRU (secondment) from Public Health England West Midlands, she is helping us embed a public health approach, as well as managing a number of health projects. These include IRIS, which is a scheme where doctors refer victims of domestic violence for help and support when they visit their GP surgery. She also manages our Teachable Moments scheme which sees youth workers placed in A&E departments, and other hospital settings, so they can intervene if a person is brought in for care and is suspected of being caught up in violence, either as a victim or perpetrator.

We’re lucky to have Jacqui on board. Back at Public Health England she’s a programme manager with responsibility for children’s mental health services transformation project, Adverse Childhood Experience and trauma informed provision and whilst at the Home Office and Department for Education she was policy lead for gun crime and gang culture – a position which took her to the USA to learn more about best practise over there.

To relax, Jacqui loves to keep fit – with a dip in the pool being her preference.

If you would like to make contact with Jacqui, then please email vru@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk.

With around 20 years’ experience working for the Probation and Youth Justice services Mike is our expert in the Criminal Justice world. He’s passionate about improving the lives of young people and that motivates him to innovate within the sector. Mike’s helping the VRU understand where it can make a difference within Criminal Justice and how it can add the most value and improve outcomes for all.

But Mike wears two hats. He is also the Manager at the Sandwell Youth Offending Service and oversees a range of services for Sandwell Children’s Trust, including two Multi-Systemic Therapy Teams, Family Group Conferencing, and the substance misuse team.

To unwind Mike enjoys doing some arts and crafts with the kids.

If you would like to make contact with Mike, then please email vru@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk.

Aaron has joined the Violence Reduction Unit to help us ensure the sports interventions on offer in the West Midlands are of a consistently high standard. It’s crucial that no matter where you live, how old you are or whether you are male or female you can access and benefit from local sports activities. The sports interventions we commission offer young people a safe place to develop new skills, socialise, but, crucially, they also offer mentoring and support to help prevent young people from being drawn into violence.

Aaron works closely with professionals in the criminal justice system to ensure people who are at risk of being involved in violence are supported by VRU programmes.

Before joining us Aaron worked for StreetGames where he designed, developed and commissioned sport based crime prevention programmes.

If you would like to make contact with Aaron, then please email vru@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk.

Jamie has a crucial job within the VRU. She’s responsible for assessing and analysing performance. How big an impact is the VRU and its activities having? What could be done differently? How do we measure success? These are all questions Jamie, as our Performance Analyst, helps us answer. It means she’s handy with numbers and spreadsheets too.

Before Jamie agreed to join the VRU, she worked in higher education for 5 years. She’s also got a Masters in Psychology and in 2019 completed a Masters in Forensic Psychology.

When away from work Jamie loves long walks with her dog Jessie and the occasional music gig.

If you would like to make contact with Jamie, then please email vru@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk.

Adam is the VRU’s link to operational policing. His work with us and with West Midlands Police focuses on reducing knife crime. He’s passionate about prevention and understands that we can’t arrest our way out the problem. Adam is focusing on the issues that are driving crime and violence. He believes that the police must play a big part in tackling the root causes of crime catch and convict tactics can only take so far.

As a Detective Sergeant at West Midlands Police Adam is perfectly placed to understand both policing and the causes of crime. Over the last 11 years he’s worked with the 999 Response Teams, Investigation Teams as well as working on the Force CID Prevent Team, which looked to prevent and deter people from becoming involved in criminality in the first place.

If you would like to make contact with Adam, then please email vru@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk.

Hayley has a keen interest in trauma and how early intervention can support children and young people. After teaching in primary schools in inner-city Birmingham and areas of the Black Country, Hayley spent time working with the National Probation Service and supporting children and young people at Black Country Women’s Aid.

Working with young people really puts the fire is Hayley’s belly and at the VRU she is the Education Delivery Manager.

Hayley frequently travels to The Gambia to support schools and children in poverty. On a Monday morning, Hayley will probably be rather quiet after another weekend of watching Aston Villa lose!

Jade is a committed professional and an enthusiastic advocate for the child/young person to be at the centre of any decisions made that affect them.

Jade strives to ensure that there are robust and effective systems in place to prevent, identify and respond to exploitation. Her passion to protect vulnerable children and young people is infectious and for over 10 years she has worked directly with the community’s most vulnerable children and young people to empower them and protect them from harm and risk.

Jade prides herself on her trauma informed, holistic, family-centred approach to working with victims of exploitation, their families and support network. She believes the victim’s voice needs to be heard and understood for regional policy change to be implemented, effective and truly transformative.

At the VRU, Jade is the Exploitation Lead and will facilitate opportunities to influence the development of regional pathways, policies and protocols to ensure a coherent and consistent response to safeguarding those most at risk of experiencing exploitation. She acts as a bridge between violence reduction activity and wider activity to reduce exploitation, particularly in relation to violence linked to criminal exploitation.

Jade was a finalist for the 2020 National Working Group (NWG) Child Exploitation Unsung Hero Award.

Jade believes in the value of public service and in her spare time is a Special Constable for West Mercia Police. This role has opened up many opportunities and allowed Jade to understand the practicalities faced by frontline practitioners dealing with vulnerability. When she’s not in her uniform Jade takes great enjoyment in exercise, her two favourite forms being the teamwork involved in a game of netball and the serenity (sometimes) of taking her beloved Boxer dog, Barry, for a walk or two.

Matt is a Youth leader, Mentor, Public Speaker and Trainer. He has over 10 years working in youth organisations in the UK and Overseas. He has a passion to see young people unlock their potential and loves generating discussion that will enlighten, broaden experiences and develop mindsets. This focus included leading the coordination of a youth charity in Manchester which exists to train young people between 18 and 25 to be role models, mentors and tutors, and supporting pupils from disadvantaged communities to enjoy and achieve at school.

He spent 2 years reducing the number of 18-25 year olds who weren’t in education, work or training, through the role as Programme Executive at the Princes Trust. Creating training and work programmes to offer young people work experiences, professional skills and knowledge to succeed.

He is one of the Community Navigators for the VRU in Birmingham. Facilitating increased co-ordination and local system-based approaches to respond to violence prevention and reduction, delivering pilot projects and supporting violence reduction partnerships to thrive.

Matt also works with Connect futures as a Facilitator and Trainer in a freelance capacity. He works in schools and communities to increase knowledge, resilience and confidence in preventing extremism and serious violence.

When Matt isn’t in work mode, he enjoys being the MC at events as well as watching and playing sports including football (Chelsea Fan), badminton and track sports.

Fred is passionate about his adopted city of Coventry and seeing it’s young people safe and hopeful for the future. He is also committed to Coventry’s heritage as a ‘city of peace and reconciliation’, and is keen to help a new generation lay claim to and reimagine this title for their own times.

Fred works to build bridges between Coventry’s local authorities and local communities, across which learning, new ideas and best practices in violence prevention can be shared. Fred’s role exists to make sure the voices and contributions of communities and young people belong at the very core of the VRU’s thinking and working for sustainable, positive change in Coventry.

A Londoner by birth, Fred moved to Coventry in 2017 and began working for the Bishop of Coventry. Among his responsibilities, Fred assisted the Bishop’s partnership working with others to help address local challenges, including serious youth violence. On this issue, Fred has worked closely with Coventry’s faith communities, culminating in a Working Group of Coventry Churches and the new youth work initiative ‘Places of Peace’ (POP).

In his spare time, Fred volunteers as a Street Pastor and enjoys playing tag rugby with his mates.