WYC Board of Trustees
Alison Day
Interim Chair of Trustees
Alison is Deputy Director for Children’s Complex Care services for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board and is an adult and paediatric nurse, specialising in community children’s nursing care. Alison has strategic, operational management and clinical expertise gained over the past three decades working in NHS acute, community services and most recently within the local Integrated Care Board.
Alison is passionate about supporting the amazing team at WYC who work with children, young people and their parents, giving them the opportunity to talk and be heard in a variety of community settings. Living locally to Winchester, she is married with 3 grown up children.
Alison’s experience includes building strong partnerships with integrated service models across complex systems that mobilise services with measurable benefits for children and families. Alison provides valuable insight into NHS and Local Authority, policies, procedures and advises on topics including leadership to ensure quality clinical care for children, young people, engagement, co-production and safeguarding. Professional networks can be connected to WYC staff to support their important work.
Debbie Lockett
Trustee
Debbie’s professional background showcases her dedication to community service. She established the FirstBite community café in 2016, demonstrating her commitment to supporting vulnerable individuals through workshops and volunteer opportunities. With her experience in community service, volunteer management, fundraising, and social impact project oversight, Debbie brings a wealth of skills to the Winchester Youth Counselling (WYC) Board. Her role as hub manager at Winchester Basics Bank further emphasises her hands-on approach to addressing the needs of the community’s most vulnerable members.
As a WYC trustee, Debbie leverages her extensive local network, connecting the organisation with charitable groups, their leaders, and beneficiaries. Her ability to foster relationships with businesses and identify fundraising opportunities enhances WYC’s capacity for collaboration and resource acquisition.
Debbie’s legacy at WYC would ideally reflect her impact in bolstering community connections, enhancing organisational sustainability, and expanding resources. She aspires to leave a lasting mark by ensuring that WYC continues to thrive, serving the young people of Winchester and making a meaningful difference in their lives through increased support and partnerships.
Natasha Montagu
Trustee
Natasha has worked in the charity sector for 25 years as a fundraiser and CEO and has now made the leap into Higher Education leading a team as Head of External Engagement at the University of Winchester with responsibility for corporate communications, income generation and external relations. During her charity career Natasha has been involved in numerous youth initiatives including inclusive arts, mental health and youth voice projects and now has the privilege of working alongside students every day at the University.
As a Trustee of WYC Natasha brings experience of the sector as well as fundraising, strategic planning and governance expertise. As a Trustee, she will continue to support the Team to build a sustainable financial future, demonstrate our impact and raise our profile in the region.
Natasha is deeply concerned about the extent to which young people are suffering with their mental health and understand first-hand how these challenges affect the everyday life of young people and their families. At WYC the team works tirelessly with young people to help improve their mental wellbeing and give them hope for the future. Natasha feels privileged to contribute to this essential work.
Thursten Clements
Trustee
Thursten has spent the last 25 plus years implementing business and software led transformations within central Government departments here in the UK and across the world. Involved with many of the most innovative and ground breaking Public Sector transformations that have driven financial efficiencies, improved user experience and consolidated disparate systems and business processes with the ultimate aim always being to free up civil servants to focus on public facing services.
Thursten is currently building and developing a boutique consultancy of software implementation services for the Public Sector based out of Winchester. His vast experience of structured project management methodologies, governance oversight and best practice transformation will be of benefit to WYC.
The services and support provided by Winchester Youth Counselling are so important to ensuring the youth of today have the best possible strategies, resilience and mind sets to navigate the future. As guardians of this world, we need to manage our legacy and leave it in the best possible condition for the generations that follow. Thursten is therefore a passionate advocate of today’s youth building the skills, knowledge and taking on responsibility for developing a better tomorrow for all communities, local, national or international.
Thursten believes he can help drive the next phase of WYC by bringing passion, energy, governance and structured challenge to the organisation. Debate that arrives at outcome-based decisions is a passion and a belief that “shared goals result in mutually beneficial outcomes” combined with an approach that is Can-If not Can’t-Because.
Kirsteen Hook
Trustee
Kirsteen has worked in the charity sector for over 12 years and is a lawyer specialising in advising charities and not-for-profit organisations, and a Partner at local regional law firm, Trethowans LLP. Kirsteen has a wealth of experience advising on charity governance and related matters, has been recognised for her expertise in independent legal directories, and regularly delivers training and presentation on charity law topics. Kirsteen also spent some time in 2010/2011 at a large global charity which enabled her to experience working within a charity.
During her professional career Kirsteen has been involved in a number of mentoring programmes supporting young people from all walks of life. As a mother to two young children and seeing the pressure placed on young people and the changing social and economic environments, she has a keen interest in supporting young people and assisting with developing tools and resources to provide help and is looking forward to supporting WYC with the vital work they do with their beneficiaries.
As a trustee of WYC, Kirsteen brings experience and knowledge of the sector and charity governance and related matters, and wants to support the Team at WYC in ensuring the charity continues to thrive and enable support to be provided to as many beneficiaries as possible.
Michael Mander
Trustee
Michael is a communications professional working at an education tech ‘unicorn’. In his position, he drives the awareness of apprenticeships through media relations and external communications. Michael started in PR following a stint as a journalist, writing for national newspaper and trade press – focused on the travel and tourism industry. Outside of work, Michael has volunteered for mental health charities including SHOUT and the Samaritans, and is currently the Publicity Lead at the Winchester and District Branch of Samaritans.Michael was drawn to WYC because of his belief in the importance of developing mental health interventions targeted at young people – to both address mental ill-health and prevent the onset of mental illness. Within the mental health space, the capacity of counselling and therapy isn’t increasing to match the growing demand. WYC stood out for its approach to offering targeted, local support and its drive to do this in a scalable and sustainable way.As a trustee, Michael will bring his drive and experiences within the mental health space as well as commercial experience in fast-growing start-ups, to help the charity communicate its impact and achieve its objectives as it continues to grow.
Gareth Bloomfield
Trustee
Bio coming soon…