Tatiana has lived in the London Borough of Barnet for 25 years. Since becoming a social housing tenant in 2016 in a regeneration area, she became interested in how Barnet Homes operates and how the processes are developed to improve the lives of the residents, building a stronger community. For the past 2.5 years, she [...]
Tom has worked in the housing, local government and regeneration for over 25 years. He has chaired a housing association board, and had a number of director and senior management positions in councils, ALMOs and housing associations. For the last 6 years he has been a successful independent consultant working specialising in transformation, regeneration and [...]
Richard is a chartered accountant and spent most of his career as a partner in a major regional firm of chartered accountants based in London and the Southeast until he left the City in 2012. He has been appointed to multiple non-executive director and committee roles since 2005 in both the commercial and social housing [...]
Adam is an experienced adult social care professional, having spent over 20 years managing services for adults with learning disabilities and complex needs for several leading care providers within the sector, including Sense, Dimensions, Certitude and the Westminster Society for People with Learning Disabilities. In recent years Adam has worked in Business Development, facilitating [...]
Penny Farrar joined The Barnet Group board as a non-executive director in April 2021. Penny brings diverse experience in organisation development and change gained through her work as a management consultant and manager in the public, private and voluntary sectors. She is a qualified executive coach and an experienced charity trustee chair. Penny’s interest in [...]
No collection of inspirational black people would be complete without Nelson Mandela, one of the shining lights of this century. Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country’s first black head of state and the first elected [...]
Compiled by Ajoke Adetunji, here is a selection of books written by black British authors. Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez This queer literary debut is a visceral and emotionally searing tale touching on fatherhood, freedom, love and loss across generations. Norman, a Jamaican immigrant, settles in the Black Country in the late 1950s and battles [...]
To mark Black History Month over the past few weeks, I’ve shared UK Black History blogs about some significant periods in British history, but it has struck me that calling them “Black History” blogs is a bit of a misnomer – it’s our shared history, and it’s important that we all understand it and how [...]
This week, we would like to celebrate Black History Month with the voice of Maya Angelou. In her poem ‘Human Family’ she reminds us that despite our differences we are all more similar to one another than we are different. This powerful poem beautifully shows that all people can relate to one another. Maya Angelou [...]
I ended last week’s UK Black History blog with a little profile of Johnny Smythe, who fought in World War Two and went on to become the senior officer aboard the Windrush – which leads me on to this week’s topic. I recognise that my perspective may have its limitations, so in writing these [...]