Delivery Team

The Delivery Team is made up of staff from Democratic Society (Demsoc) and officers from Newham Council.

Facilitators

Mel Stevens. Mel is the Director of Programmes and Practice at Demsoc. Mel is a specialist in developing strategy and practice for all forms of evidence-based decision making and participation. Mel is a lead facilitator for the Newham Citizen Assembly.

Pandora Ellis. Pandora is a Network & Delivery Manager at Demsoc. Before joining the team, Pandora was a voice & participation lead and manager in local government. She is a specialist in local democracy and citizenship. Pandora started the West Sussex Youth Cabinet, which is still going strong more than 21 years after it was launched. Pandora is an experienced facilitator having worked on the team in previous assemblies around the UK.

Chris Tuke. Chris is a Programme Director at Demsoc. She lives in Sussex, and has extensive experience both in local and central government and is passionate about working with communities to improve the way we work together. She's also not bad at golf!

Kevin Ditcham. Kevin is an Associate at Demsoc. His background is in community education and youth participation where he developed the national young people’s volunteering programme as part of Scotland’s Year of Young People 2018. He is passionate about the engagement and involvement of people in public life. Kevin is an experienced facilitator having worked on the team in previous assemblies around the UK.

Tina Favier. Tina is an Associate at Demsoc. Tina works in local government and has experience of working in the NHS, the voluntary sector and education. She has a background and passion for working with local communities and health and wellbeing and finding ways to enable communities to thrive. Tina is an experienced facilitator and lives in Worthing in West Sussex.

Amélie Pollet. Amélie is a Project Officer at Demsoc. She specialises in community development and place-based participation. Her skills are in project management and facilitation using design-led participatory methods. Amelie has worked with people from all walks of life and has experience in charity and local authority sectors. She describes herself as a people-person.

Alex Murray. Alex is a Project Officer at Demsoc. Alex has a background working within the third sector in Scotland and specialises in development and community engagement. Alex previously worked with people with lived experience of drug and alcohol use and homelessness and has experience of facilitation and managing and co-ordinating peer research projects.

Alex Zur-Clark. Alex is a Project Officer at Demsoc. Alex has worked operations for political advocacy, accounts management for advertising and in broadcast TV.

Antonia Bunnin. Antonia is an Associate at Demsoc. She has worked on several previous citizens' assemblies and has a strong interest in using deliberative and participatory approaches to creating social change. In her spare time she loves walking, especially in the countryside.

Andy Paice. Andy is an Associate at Demsoc. He lives in London, was a resident of Newham for 5 years and was involved in setting up the local Community Neighbourhood Assemblies there. Andy has been passionate about group work, facilitating and local democracy for over a decade and has worked on a variety of Citizens Assemblies in different places all over the UK.

event management, production and Technical support

Edd Rowe. Edd is an Associate of Demsoc. He lives in London and has lots of experience supporting the production and delivery of Citizens' Assemblies. Prior to working in this area he spent many years in local government. Edd loves helping the public in engaging with the issues that affect them and old disco records.

Note takers

A whole host of council officers are stepping forward to support note keeping in the sessions.

participant liaison

Rachel Nixseaman. Rachel is a Network & Delivery Manager at Demsoc and has facilitated participation projects across the UK. Rachel is an experienced facilitator with a background in youth and community work, and is passionate about empowering people to engage with democratic processes, shaping the world around them.