Meet the team

Bez Martin

Head of Participation

I’m the Head of Participation, my role is to manage the participation team, supporting them with their work with young and parentcarer champions and our paid Participation Programme Assistants, I am also responsible for creating a strategy for participation that will say how participation is delivered by all staff across Anna Freud. I am a qualified youth worker and worked in various voluntary and statutory settings since 2000, I recently worked as the Rights and Participation Manager for Leicester City Council supporting the voices of children in care to be heard. I am passionate about all thing’s participation and the rights of children, young people and parents/carers when accessing services.

Myrvete Gashi

Participation Lead

I am the Deputy Head of Participation. I work with our participation officers to ensure the views of young people, parents and carers help us shape the services that are effective and accessible. I also manage parent and carer Participation Programme Assistants and work closely with Head of Participation to shape our participation work. I am a qualified Community Development and Leadership Worker, so I believe in social justice and creating an equal society in which each individual matters. Prior to this role, I have worked in education and other voluntary organisations supporting parent, carers and young people through building on existing knowledge and skills, identifying further training needs and creating exciting new opportunities for parents, carers and young people to participate.

George Cowan

Participation Officer

I’m George, and I am one of the Participation Officers at Anna Freud. I have spent my career working in the student voice sector, before moving into facilitation of Children in Care Councils, Young Champion programmes and youth councils. I look forward to bringing my creative skillset to new groups of young people at Anna Freud, helping them to amplify their voices and unlock some of the big issues facing society today! I love music, gardening and good food, and you are likely to find me looking at one (or all) in my spare time!

Joe Lloyd

Participation Officer

Hi, I’m Joe, and I'm a Participation Officer at Anna Freud. I have 7 years experience of working within the mental health sector, wearing various hats during this time, which have included community engagement support and mental health resources and article creation for young people and adults, to co-production workshop facilitation, training delivery and supporting mental health research. I’m incredibly passionate about creating the right, person centred conditions for meaningful participation and co-production to thrive at Anna Freud, underpinned by young people and parent/ carers rights. A key focus for myself, when working alongside people, is in ensuring that opportunities to participate with Anna Freud have consideration of inclusivity, respect, accessibility, and creativity and I am committed to ensuring that diverse lived experience voices are valued and acted upon within decision-making processes.

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