The Barnabas Staff Team.

The Charity has a diverse team of people on board, all of whom are enthusiastic about achieving positive outcomes for young people.

Our frontline staff work within the community to promote our values: Trust, Courage, and Independence.

It is our policy to conduct enhanced DBS checks for all staff, and provide training around safeguarding, child protection and first aid as standard. Many of our team are trained in Mental Health First Aid, Sexual Health and Information, Advice and Guidance.

Barnabas Staff Hayley Brown

Hayley Brown

Barnabas Safe & Sound
Manager

Hayley has been involved with Barnabas since 2008, initially as a Trustee, and now as Manager. Prior to this, Hayley gained a wealth of experience as a Youth Worker in Morpeth for 16years. She is passionate about working with young people and seeing them become confident, resilient, and independent young adults. By ensuring Barnabas offers a range of services for young people, it covers all aspects of this work from youth work, right through to a young person moving into their new home having come to us homeless. Hayley is so proud to know that Barnabas not only makes a difference to one life, but to so many.

Barnabas Staff Gill Monaghan

Gill Monaghan

Intensive Housing Management Lead

Gill joined the Barnabas team in 2003, after a departure from the corporate world. With 35 years of administrative and customer care experience, Gill likes to be organised and plan for the future. She manages the day-to-day finances of the housing and core office projects, monitors cashflow and budgets whilst also overseeing essential housing management throughout the supported accommodation project. Gill also supports the charity with its media, communications, and community engagement. Gill wants young people to be embraced by their local communities, and for young people’s thoughts and feelings to be valued.

Barnabas Staff Hayley Brown

Ashley Brown

Youth Development & Training Lead

Ashley joined the Youth Work team in November 2024 as Youth Development and Training Lead. He has over 25 years’ experience working with young people, in a variety of settings, including Manchester, Jersey and Normandy! In his prior life, he worked for the Northumberland County Council’s Youth Service – during which time, he witnessed first-hand the fantastic potential of young people. During his time with Barnabas, he will continue to champion young people and hopes to give them many opportunities to develop skills, find positive role models and most importantly have fun during their time with Barnabas Safe and Sound.

Barnabas Staff Sandra

Sandra Tubby

Housing Support
Worker

Sandra joined the team as a Housing Support Worker back in 2004, having worked in similar supporting roles with other organisations. Sandra is skilled to provide housing support, information, advice, and guidance and over the years, she has helped the Charity to support over 300 young people within our Supported Housing project. Having worked with lots of amazing and resilient young people she feels lucky to have been part of their journeys.

Sandra is keen to see the Charity grow, particularly our Housing project and would like to provide more supported accommodation to enable smoother transitions to independence for young people.

Barnabas Staff Dave

Dave Wellden

Youth Worker

Dave joined Barnabas in the summer of 2020, following redundancy within the motor trade. Having a Level 3 qualification in Youth Work and 17 years youth work experience with NCC Youth Service, Dave has also volunteered with Newcastle and Northumberland Scout groups.

Dave’s background in light engineering, general fitting and building maintenance is not only most helpful to the Charity on an operational level, but he also puts these practical skills to effective use within our youth work projects. Dave is also trained to ML standard pending assessment and holds an outdoor qualification as a Moorland Leader with NCC. Dave helps to make our Duke of Edinburgh project possible.

Josh Burton

Youth Worker

Josh has been working with Barnabas Safe & Sound since 2018, initially as a Sessional Youth Worker, and then progressing to an Apprentice Youth Worker in 2019. Josh loves helping young people learn new skills and finds the role extremely rewarding – especially when he can see the progression young people make on their journeys with Barnabas.

Josh loves being part of such a great local Charity, and although he is now studying Acting at university, he returns to work with the Charity on a sessional basis whenever he is home.

Sam Maudling

Social Work Student

Sam is a Social Work student currently on placement from Northumbria University. During her time with the charity, she hopes to gain hands-on experience of working with young people, building her confidence and developing the skills needed to support them in achieving their goals.

She’s looking forward to learning more about how the team at Barnabas operates as a charity, and how they work with other services to provide the best support possible.

The Barnabas Board of Trustees.

Our board bring with them the skills and experience required to manage the Charity effectively and make decisions to ensure the best possible outcomes for the young people with whom we work.

Barnabas board John Jones

John Jones

Barnabas Safe & Sound
Chair of the Board

Our fantastic Chair, John Jones has been volunteering as a Trustee with Barnabas since 2018. John brings with him a wealth of skills, and 30 years’ experience as a specialist in organisational transformation and growth.

John believes young people make a significant contribution to the community, and that young people should have access to the right support services, advice, and guidance. As Chair, John continues to steer Barnabas Safe & Sound to create a clear vision for the future.

Barnabas board Kate

Kate Johnstone

Treasurer, Housing Support and Asset Management

Kate joined the Board of Trustees in 2020, and recently stepped into the role of Treasurer following a retirement on the Board. Kate’s background in finance, as a qualified accountant with over 20 years’ experience within the public sector means she brings with her a wealth of knowledge and expertise. Kate’s keen eye for numbers helps the charity to review its finances, make key decisions and steer the Charity towards financial sustainability.

Kate is motivated to support her community, by helping to safeguard the wellbeing of local young people. She wholeheartedly believes all young people deserve the opportunity to thrive.

Barnabas board Emma Shields

Emma Shields

Trustee: Youth Work, Safeguarding, Training and Development

Emma Shields joined the Board in 2018. As a Health Improvement Practitioner Specialist, Emma offers her experience to support our Youth Work offering and helps to steer our safeguarding practices to ensure young people are safe.

Emma loves volunteering with Barnabas because young people are placed at the heart of the organisation. She believes our community should support young people to become our future work force, carers, and ambassadors.

Barnabas board Ged Lee

Ged Lee

Trustee: Youth Work, Safeguarding, Training and Development

Ged is a retired High School Headteacher. He has been a Trustee at Barnabas Safe and Sound for 10 years. Ged is passionate about the way Barnabas helps young people through Advice and Guidance, Supported Housing and engaging Youth Work.

Ged believes the wider community should support young people to raise their self-esteem, helping them to avoid isolation and depression with meaningful and life affirming activities that will prepare them to be the driving force for the future.

Our trained and experienced staff understand the issues important to young people. It is our priority to keep young people safe. All our staff, trustees and volunteers are DBS checked. Our team wear ID and will identify themselves clearly when representing the Charity.