Our Team

Jo Volpe joined Leeds Older People’s Forum as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in July 2022.

Jo brings years of experience and has a particular interest in working with third sector organisations to reduce inequalities amongst older people and communities.

Jo has worked on initiatives to encourage more community involvement in care homes; to establish social prescribing services; to establish groups to encourage physical activity and healthy eating amongst people in later life.

Jo is originally from West Cumbria and moved to Yorkshire in 1988.

Pip leads on Communities of Interest, Mental Health, Disabilities, Local Care Partnerships and she is the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Third Sector place lead for Leeds. She also represents the third on the Primary and Community Services Programme and the Improving Population Health Boards.

Pip is committed to addressing health inequalities; building and developing relationships and asset-based approaches. She has extensive experience of partnership working, system change and third sector innovation and a strong understanding of funding, health outcomes and social value.

Claire joined the team in January 2023. She has worked in the third sector for over 10 years and brings a wealth of strategic and business development experience to the team.

Claire leads the development team, managing the development workers who deliver on the Volition specialisms: Mental Health, Learning Disability, Physical and Sensory Impairment, Communities of Interest and Representation.

Francesca is a freelance contractor. She supports Forum Central’s work to build on the third sector health and care contribution within the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB). This collaborative way of working strives to embed the capabilities of the third sector, to improve the health of people in Leeds.

As a freelance contractor, for the last ten years, Francesca has worked nationally, regionally and locally on strategic development to create new services and programmes.

Karl supports the ongoing development of the Local Care Partnerships (LCPs), promoting a strong and effective presence from the third sector in each area.

Karl brings a broad range of skills and experience to the role, gained many years working in Higher Education, and more recently working in the third sector.

Megan joined the team in January 2022. She oversees the administration support team and is the lead for our admin functions including our team meetings, CRM and boards.

With a background in administration and recruitment, Megan puts her organisational and communication skills to great use in this role.

Jenny oversees communications for Forum Central. This includes our brand identity, website, bulletins and social media.
(Follow us Twitter on @MyForumCentral)

Jenny is passionate about contributing to the work happening in Leeds to promote diversity, inclusion and address inequalities. She previously worked at Voluntary Action Leeds.

Gabi’s role is to strengthen the partnerships between members organisations and statutory services across the city. She collects intelligence on the strengths, assets and challenges faced by the third sector to ensure they are represented in strategic mental health development plans.

Gabriella brings experience from Public Health where she focused on prevention, data and commissioning. Gabriella is passionate about addressing health inequalities and has interests in politics, music and the environment.

Dominique is our Learning Disability Development Worker, employed by Volition,
Before this she worked for CHANGE, an international and national human rights organisation for people with learning disabilities and The Advonet Group, an independent advocacy organisation, for people in Leeds.

Robert helps with the Autism and Learning Disability Employment Task Group.

His work includes tasks like setting up meetings, writing emails and contacting people from other third sector organisations.

Robert has links to third sector organisations as a service user. He receives support from People Matters at one of their social groups.

Helen joined the team in November 2022. She is employed by Volition to coordinate the Physical and Sensory Impairment network. Before starting at Forum Central she was a Leeds Wellbeing Coordinator for as part of Linking Leeds social prescribing.

Her earlier career has involved working with people with both physical impairments and learning difficulties. She is a strong advocate for inclusive wellbeing in Leeds.

Mary joined the team in July 2022. She has worked in the third sector for over 10 years, running networks linked with inequality and poverty, including the Leeds Food Aid Network, West Yorkshire Destitute Asylum Network and the Leeds Homeless Charter.

Mary has developed the citywide Communities of Interest Network, (COIN) that works to highlight and address the health needs and challenges faced by different communities, especially those at most significant risk of experiencing inequalities.

Damian coordinates Men’s Health Unlocked, a city-wide network that aims to connect, support, develop and celebrate the exciting work happening in Leeds to improve men’s health and wellbeing.

Damian has a wide range of experience in men’s health and community development, having worked for over 20 years for statutory and third sector organisations.

Sarah aims to ensure the health and care third sector is involved in strategic planning and development of mental health services.

Sarah brings extensive experience of early intervention work to this role and a passion for the transformative power of the arts on wellbeing, the importance of co-production and the power of community action.

Sally’s work is part of the Trauma Informed Programme.

The Trauma Informed Programme exists to raise awareness of trauma informed working and to embed trauma informed approaches into services. Sally’s work focuses on ways to reduce the impact of trauma on children and young people. Through prevention measures and improving support for those lived experience of trauma.

Sally has a wide range of experience of working with communities and young people with over 15 years experience in education and the arts.

Maeve joined the team in May 2021 after a long career in the travel industry which ceased as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. She started as a volunteer on the Community Champions project and this led to her taking on the role of Coordinator in November 2021.

The Community Champions project, delivered in partnership with Voluntary Action Leeds, aims to reduce health inequalities in the city. Volunteers promote health and wellbeing and are a vital link between communities and services.

Joanne takes care of the money and governance.

Saarah joined the team in May 2023.

As Development Team Administration Coordinator Saarah supports the Development Team with admin for running the various health and care networks and key developing projects within Forum Central.

Max joined the team in October 2022. He has worked in the third sector ever since he graduated from university in 2020.

Max’s role is split between the Admin Team, where he supports various meetings. And the Communications Team, where Max creates content for the Forum Central website, e-bulletin and Twitter.

Sheri joined the team in October 2023 and oversees our memberships and admin functions.

Sheri has a varied background in both the public and 3rd sectors, bringing with her an interest in social justice and reducing inequalities.

See who is on the team at Leeds Older People’s Forum