Welcome to WISH Yorkshire & Humberside

Charlotte has over 18 years’ experience of working in the charity and not for profit sector.  
 
She currently holds the role of Director of Care, Health and Wellbeing at South Yorkshire Housing Association (SYHA), a post she exec job-shares with another Director..  

Together they lead the LiveWell Programme, SYHA’s non-general housing offer including homelessness & rough sleeping interventions, work and wellbing programmes, mental health services and social prescribing.  
 
From an internationally recognised Aging Better programme in Sheffield, to Working Win a cutting edge RCT focused on mental health and employability across the Sheffield City Region, LiveWell is leading the way for inclusion and change across housing, health and wellbeing. 
 
Charlotte is also leading the Digital Transformation programme at SYHA.   

Charlotte was previously the COO and Director of Social Inclusion at Good Things Foundation. She’s held previous roles at Learndirect and The Prince’s Trust.  

Hannah Thornton – Marketing

Hannah has 5 years’ experience working in marketing and communications at South Yorkshire Housing Association (SYHA). Throughout this time she has been involved in marketing almost all of SYHA’s vast, ever-growing and innovative offers including their services for people experiencing homelessness, mental health support services, housing developments, ethical estate agents, new enterprises, employment services, extra care schemes, and more. Hannah also spends half her working week on the Age Better in Sheffield programme (a National Lottery Funded project led by SYHA) where she has gained experience with co-production, strategic communications, community engagement, and events.

For Hannah, marketing and communications is all about sharing meaningful stories, helping influence change, connecting with others, and bringing strategy to life (most often for the benefit of customers). She has joined the Yorkshire and Humber WISH board to help share their exciting vision with women across the region, to lead change through connections, and to inspire people to take action for themselves and for others.

In 2018 Hannah received a highly commended award at the Women in Social Housing Awards following her TEDxNHS talk about the power of connection to help end loneliness.

Out of work you can usually find Hannah rambling about the peak district, swimming outdoors, dabbling in photography, and trying to keep her love of music (and degree in music) alive.

I am a hardworking, organised and conscientious person who meets deadlines. I've spent almost my entire working life in the housing sector, loving all the variety it has to offer and welcoming the improvements that have occurred over time in both organisations and communities.

Over the past fourteen years, I've had the privilege of assisting customers who live in social housing with different forms of support and management. I began working in sheltered housing and progressed to working in general needs and shared ownership, observing the transformation of cities through redevelopment, collaborating with other agencies to cultivate a vision for healthy neighbourhoods and upskilling customers through learning and development.

I've acquired valuable life skills and experience and I'm humbled to be able to facilitate our customers with social, economic, educational, medical, and, most importantly, housing inequality. I've had the good fortune of being able to get involved, collaborate, and implement change by taking a holistic approach to the way we think about social housing.

My personality and interactions with people reflect a person-centred approach, ensuring that everybody, whether employees or customers, has the ability to self-actualize provided the appropriate resources and environment. I take a proactive approach to Equality and Diversity, ensuring that it represents the company I work for and our customers.

My greatest strength is communication; I have a natural ability to see the bright side of most circumstances, to draw out the positives and see areas of concern as opportunities to re-invent processes and form services by communicating, exchanging ideas, working as a team, and being consistent on the goals. I Keep in touch with our customers through various channels to ensure that we are actively listening and that our service delivery reflects their needs and satisfaction, and that quality is delivered in the form of value for money, promoting confidence and transparency.

I am committed to ongoing professional growth and use my areas for change as a personal target to help me grow as a leader, listener, and team member. I thoroughly enjoy the unique challenges that the housing sector yet has to present.

Lindsey joined the J Tomlinson Business Development team in 2016 to work with our Regeneration and Repairs Maintenance teams. Lindsey joins us with 15 years of experience working with other leading housing and public sector contractors.

Lindsey role at J Tomlinson is to identify new clients and maintain a good working relationship with new and existing contacts covering North West, Yorkshire & Humberside, East Midlands and West Midlands. 

Outside of work Lindsey enjoys spending time with her family and going to the gym.

Lindsey has joined the WISH Board to encourage and promote women in social housing.

linkedin.com/in/lindsey-hobson-64014519 

I am a Social Housing Property Solicitor with experience in all aspects of residential and commercial property related matters. Based within the Social Housing Team of Bevan Brittan LLP in Leeds, I now work almost exclusively with Housing Associations and have specialised in development work including disposals and acquisitions; Section 106 sites and more complex structures which involve golden brick and back-to-back development arrangements with local authorities and private developer companies. I also work on large scale security charging projects for private individuals, limited companies and Housing Associations.

I was keen to join WISH in order to help promote the role of women in the Social Housing sector through developing networking opportunities and sharing knowledge and experiences within a friendly and supportive setting.

During my spare time, I enjoy spending time with my partner and his son and our two horses out on the farm where we live near Harrogate.

linkedin.com/in/shelley-l-williams-182bb256 

A Quantity Surveyor by profession and is an experienced and professional construction specialist having spent over 25 years experience working exclusively on Decent Homes projects, and new build projects as well. Since 1991 she has specialized in the interpretation of contract documents, contractual and commercial advise, quantum claims and the resolution of disputes and contentious issues. She also has 16 years experience predominantly site based working for national and regional Contractors, sub Contractors and specialist contractors, a CIOB member since 2001 And CIH (Chartered Institute Of Housing)member since early 2020.

Hazlin has been actively involved with Incommunities Equality Group and responsible for the Corporate Procurement Department mainly on Tendering and Procurement activities. She is also the vice chair for Cnet(Community Networking) based in Bradford and has since participated in various Cnet events and activities as well as working as part of the Richer and Poorer Task Group for the Greenmoor Board to improve the quality of life in that area.

Hazlin has participated in various events organised by Incommunities including Mental Health Awareness week, Dementia Friends Training , Idahobit, Black History Month, International Womens Day and Golf tournament to name a few.

Hazlin has attended numerous Wish Event held in Leeds for the past years and willing to explore and share knowledge to help Wish to be able to help more women in the Housing Industry to be more resilient and committed in this industry.

Kirsty is an experienced Customer Liaison / Housing Manager with 15 years of experience of working in the social housing sector.  Kirsty specialises in all aspects of Housing Management, Customer Service and Employee Engagement, who is a passionate and dynamic leader who is driven by inspiring success.

Kirsty is experienced in leading and delivering strategic change and project management for large transformational projects, which includes; people, process and systems. She has most recently supported with the roll out of Guinness’s new Customer Liaison Service, which included the implementation of agile working, embedding mobile technology and new ways of working.

Kirsty has joined the WISH board to expand her networks within the sector to enable her to exchange skills, knowledge and experiences with other like-minded professionals, whilst encouraging and promoting Women in Social Housing.

linkedin.com/in/kirsty-yates-814929113 

Jane is an experienced Organisational Development (OD) professional. A Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, she has a proven track record in senior roles delivering strategic OD and HR. She is passionate about all things employee engagement and is proud to have supported businesses to achieve top spots in The Sunday Times Best 100 Companies to Work For, along with National Training Awards and Investors in People. She has worked in the social housing sector for thirty years, most recently as Director of People and Risk at the New Charter Group up to March 2018.

She became an independent consultant and coach in 2018 and runs her own business called Hooga Consulting.

She is Chair at Ashton Pioneer Homes and Non-Executive Director of Quest Media both of which are based in Tameside, Greater Manchester.

linkedin.com/in/jane-atherton-0793873b

Nicola has 20 years of experience working in the social housing sector, choosing to specialise in the housing profession after studying housing policy at Utrecht University in The Netherlands.

She co-manages the Independent Living Service at WDH in Wakefield, which provides housing support to older and vulnerable people in the district. During her time at WDH she has led a reinvestment programme which has seen 16 Independent Living Schemes remodelled and refurbished to provide modern and accessible accommodation for its residents.

Nicola’s role at WDH also involves being part of the Connecting Care Partnership, working closely with public health, the NHS, public sector organisations and the voluntary and community sector to ensure health and care services meet the support needs of local people.

She currently represents WDH on the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership – Housing and Health Task and Finish Group. Nicola is also a long-standing member of the ‘Healthy Ageing Partnership’ led by Age UK Wakefield.

Nicola is a Corporate member of the Chartered Institute of Housing. Her professional qualifications include a PgDip in Housing Policy and Practice, Prince2 Practitioner, Diploma in Management Studies and IOSH qualification.

She is passionate about promoting housing as a career, particularly to women. As a mum of two young children, Nicola recognises the importance of supporting women to reach their full potential, whilst also enabling them to balance work and family life.

Paula is currently the Director of Customer Contact for Accent Housing, heading up their multi-channel customer contact centre.  While she is relatively new to the Housing sector (only 3 years in!), she has an extensive customer services, marketing and digital background. The majority of these positions having been spent within big-brand names such as first direct and Bupa.  

Paula was impressed by the warm welcome and inclusivity experienced at the WISH Y&H events she attended when moving to the Social Housing sector and was delighted to join the WISH team.

Life outside of work is usually spent with family (watching their weekend sporting antics!), dog walking and the odd run thrown in for good measure!

linkedin.com/in/paula-wilson-26000710