About us

Big Leaf Foundation is a product of first-hand experience with displaced young people. The experience of arriving in a new country is, for many, overwhelming and incredibly difficult. They are often cut off from everything that is familiar to them, leaving them vulnerable to loneliness, isolation, anxiety and boredom. Our team saw an opportunity to change their situation and help them feel a sense of inclusion within a network of their peers and the wider community.

Our values

Image © Vicki Felgate
Trust & Transparency
Nothing is more important than trust, because so many of our young people have experienced a world in which they can trust nobody. It's essential that we build a relationship based on trust with our young people, and that they have confidence we will always act in their best interests. We achieve this by maintaining high standards of openness, honesty and transparency at all times.
Equality
​We create a safe, inclusive environment free from bias, prejudice and hierarchy. We want our young people to grow and explore their potential in a non-judgemental space in which all participants are equal. Empathy and compassion are our watchwords.
Growth
​Everything the Big Leaf Foundation does is focused on promoting the personal growth of our young people. We want to help them move beyond the status they have been given as a “displaced persons”, and to understand and explore their unique potential as individuals.

Our team

We're a small and dedicated team made up almost entirely of volunteers and we're looking for more people to join us. ​Find out how you can get involved on the support us pages.
Images © Big Leaf Foundation

Vicki
​Co-founder & Trustee

Vicki is a trained teacher at further and adult education level and has over 12 years experience in the charity sector. She taught briefly in a prison environment, has worked with adults with addiction, ran practical conservation projects engaging adults with mental health statements and was also the Youth and Education Coordinator for Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland for several years, before focusing on work with refugees. Vicki was instrumental in the establishment of Elmbridge CAN, a local charity helping to resettle refugee families. She ran the first summer camp with Kayte in 2017 and it was this incredible experience that inspired her to help set up Big Leaf Foundation.

Jocelyn
Trustee (​treasurer)

Jocelyn is an experienced IT professional, with a background in sales and consultancy. She currently works for an innovative SaaS company with a strong focus on social responsibility. Jocelyn is an immigrant to the UK, arriving with her family, aged 13.
​She's been involved in youth work for many years, and is passionate about supporting young people of all backgrounds to realise their potential.

Sarah
​Trustee

Sarah is our newest Trustee. Her diverse work with young people spans more than 20 years. Since qualifying in Youth and Community Leadership she has worked within small charities and large national organisations, leading on programming, facilitation, monitoring and evaluation, training, fundraising and governance among other things. Her work involves developing community cohesion in both isolated, rural and urban environments with a particular focus on disengaged and disenfranchised young people. These experiences fuel her ongoing commitment to inclusion and to support positive change for the long term.

Kayte
​Co-founder & Projects Manager

Kayte has worked with displaced people for many years. Her frustration with the “one size fits all” approach to helping displaced people settle in the UK led her to experiment with running extra-curricular activities, like sports and creative arts, alongside intensive academic programmes. This approach led to a marked improvement in outcomes for her students and encouraged her to make her methods more widely available through Big Leaf Foundation. Kayte is a lecturer in English, translation and ethnolinguistics and runs cross-cultural communication seminars for international corporations. She also holds a Masters with Distinction in Refugee Care, with a particular focus on therapeutic approach in education for displaced young people.

Fabian
Volunteer Project Leader

Fabian is a recent graduate of the University of Portsmouth where he studied Environmental Geography. He loves taking on new challenges and has a passion for volunteering to make a positive impact. In his university days he was an ambassador for the Royal Geographical Society, a Green Living Assistant to improve student environmental practices as well taking on volunteer leadership roles in the Archery Club. 
Having experienced the change he could help bring about, through his involvement on a week-long trip with Big Leaf Foundation, Fabian was keen to continue providing support to displaced young people.

Akira
Volunteer Project Leader

Akira graduated from Durham University in 2018 having read Human Geography. Growing up in a Japanese family in England has naturally led him to being interested in cultural differences and the way societies navigate these differences. His university studies have enabled him to explore these issues further and he's passionate about implementing this learning in the real world.
Having volunteered on the summer camp in 2018, Akira is keen to stay involved with the Foundation and is committed to helping create a world where every individual can thrive.

Louise
Volunteer Project Leader

Louise has been working with young people for 15 years, first as a youth worker and Connexions Personal Advisor and then as a Welfare Officer. More recently Louise has worked with displaced families in Surrey and in 2017 became a foster carer for unaccompanied displaced young people, who are now very much part of the family along with her own, nearly grown up, children. 
Louise has a wealth of training and experience encompassing everything from safeguarding, suicide prevention, trauma informed care and caring for separated children to young migrants’ rights, the asylum process and age assessments. She is also a trained ESOL teacher. Louise is currently studying for a Masters in Refugee Care at the University of Essex, and working as a caseworker with the Red Cross Young Refugees Project in Portsmouth – widening her experience and knowledge and reflecting on the needs of displaced young people and the best ways of meeting those needs.

Alon
Volunteer Project Leader

Alon is an experienced youth worker and educator, having spent the last few years running community engagement projects in community centres, schools and universities. Last year he led a 6-month research project investigating how non-formal educational spaces are benefiting displaced people across Europe. Prior to this, he co-founded and oversaw a near-peer mentoring programme for young people at Sussex University, tackling issues around mental health, emotional wellbeing, sex, gender and relationships. He has run residential summer programmes with NCS and Noam Masorti Youth, and most recently has been involved in putting together the Our Second Home summer residential for young refugees and asylum seekers aged 14-18 in and around London. Today he also works as a Wellbeing Practitioner at a secondary school in north London.
 

Catherine
Fundraising & Projects Volunteer

Catherine has over 15 years experience working in international development, for both large and small NGOs. Her work has been focused on gender and women's empowerment in South-East Asia and West Africa.
​She holds an MA in International Development and a PhD in Religious Studies - looking at the ways in which religious institutions engage in development work. As part of her MA studies she interned at UNHCR during the 2007 Executive Committee in Geneva. She has worked in refugee and asylum support in Australia and is passionate about expanding education opportunities for those seeking safety and security in the UK.

Toby
Fundraising Volunteer

Toby works as a university bioscience lecturer/investigator, a role that has given him first-hand experience of how bringing those from different cultures to work together can provide exciting new solutions to challenging problems. He also leads several academic outreach and public engagement initiatives that connect with those who feel they have little science capital. In is his spare time, Toby contributes to charity fundraising activities as Chairman of his local Scout Group. Joining Big Leaf Foundation will provide an opportunity for Toby to combine his interests and expertise in teaching/learning, fundraising, and youth development programmes and help us deliver both short- and long-term opportunities for displaced people residing in the UK.​