Staff Team
When it comes to strengthening and supporting Gloucestershire’s communities, our staff have it covered.
With a wealth of experience, from housing, research and analysis, community planning and finance, to safeguarding, support for older people and digital inclusion, our staff have the skills and commitment to help our communities survive and thrive.
Click on the names of the people in our team to find out more about them and what they do.
Amanda is our Community Development Officer for the Stroud and Forest of Dean Districts. She offers support to voluntary and community sector organisations (including community buildings) on fundraising, community engagement, and governance. Amanda can also support parish and town councils with community-led planning initiatives and community consultation. Amanda’s background is in social and environmental research and she worked for many years at the Countryside and Community Research Unit, University of Gloucestershire. She focused on rural issues such as agricultural policy, rural services, biodiversity planning, links between economy and environment, community participation, and flooding issues affecting small businesses and communities. Amanda has a PhD in social theory and wider countryside planning. She has also written two health and wellbeing directories – for Charlton Kings Parish Council and Winchcombe Churches Together. Within GRCC, Amanda has previously held the roles of Village Agent, Navigator Developer for the Going the Extra Mile (GEM) employability scheme, and Project Manager for Cotswolds Community Wellbeing Service. In her spare time, Amanda enjoys music, reading, countryside walks, and swimming. You can contact Amanda at: awragg@grcc.org.uk Clare first joined GRCC as maternity cover for the Village & Community Agents Manager in 2009, and again in 2013. Other roles have included Digital Outreach Ltd Lead Organisation Project Manager; secondment to Gloucestershire County Council as part of the Adult Social Care Customer Journey Project; and researching and writing 2014’s Cost/Benefit Analysis of the Gloucestershire Village & Community Agents Scheme. Currently, Clare provides research and analysis support to various of GRCC’s projects, maintains our Quality Standards policies and processes, supports the Board of Trustees and GRHP meetings, and line manages the admin team. When not at work, Clare can usually be found behind a book. Email: ClareH@grcc.org.uk Daniel joined GRCC in June 2019 as GEM (Going the Extra Mile) Project Navigator Developer, and is now our Digital Equity Manager. Working in the field of Employment and Skills for different organisations, Daniel has previous employment in the fields of Health and Social Care, Retail management, Digital Media and Local Government. Having worked in different parts of the country, helping communities and individuals with the removal of barriers and to reach their full potential, Daniel developed an ABCD (Asset Based Community Development) approach to his work. Daniel said about his role: “Working at GRCC has enabled me to engage with some of the hardest to reach communities in the country, due to the many unique barriers they face as individuals in a rural context.” Contact: danielg@grcc.org.uk Guy Dobson is our VCSE Advice Officer working county-wide offering organisational and developmental support to the voluntary sector. Guy joined GRCC in November 2022 having recently moved to Gloucestershire from Bristol, where he was Co-founder and Co-CEO of A.P.E. Project CIC. Guy has been working in the VCSE sector for 25 years, mainly in the world of Playwork, Adventure Playgrounds and Community Arts, both in London and Bristol. Between 2017 and 2022 Guy was CEO at St Pauls Adventure Playground Bristol where he navigated a Community Asset Transfer of the facility from Bristol City Council to A.P.E. Project CIC, and held the reins through the challenges offered by Covid and a devastating arson attack. Guy is passionate about supporting children and young people, working with diverse communities, and campaigning for social justice. Outside of work, Guy likes to spend time with his family, has a reggae sound system, and is a massive fan of all things related to reggae and speaker box building. He also enjoys signwriting. Contact: guyd@grcc.org.uk Izzie is GRCC's receptionist, and also works in the marketing team, creating social media posts - she's an ace with the graphics program Canva. Previously, Izzie has mainly worked in hospitality and as a professional actor. Outside of work, Izzie has become inspired to learn more practical skills, beginning with taking a sewing course. She also loves anything plant-related, and likes to stay active by walking, kayaking, and climbing. Contact: izzier@grcc.org.uk Jason Spinney is our Digital and Technology Social Prescribing Link Worker for the North Cotswolds. He is passionately interested in technology and in enabling everyone to be able to use it to improve their health and wellbeing. Jason's previous role at GRCC was as our Community Capacity Builder for the Forest of Dean and Stroud Districts. Jason has a varied background, including working backstage for theatre, film, and TV, and around 20 years in charity management, including managing projects and teams. Jason has recently completed a degree with the Open University in Environmental Studies and loves music - particularly drumming and DJing. He also enjoys walking in the mountains and tinkering with tech of any kind – especially Linux computers and Android phones. You can reach Jason via email: jasons@grcc.org.uk Jo Main is GRCC's Social Prescribing Link Worker for the North Cotswolds. Her role as a social prescriber is to help people reconnect socially in order to improve their general health and quality of life. Jo has come into this area of work after a career in hairdressing and many years of caring for her parents through physical and mental illnesses. This experience made her very aware of many of the difficulties faced by people, and passionate about helping people to improve their quality of life. In her spare time, Jo likes to spend time with her family and their dog, meet friends for walks, or just have quiet time at home. Contact: JoM@grcc.org.uk Karen started at GRCC as a Social Prescriber in 2019. Prior to this, she worked as a Primary School Teacher in the Cotswolds. The Community Wellbeing Service offered her a better work-life balance, and in 2021 she took on the role of Social Prescribing Link Worker for Young People in the North Cotswolds which goes back to her vocational roots. She has a fun-loving personality and a wicked sense of humour. She enjoys sunny holidays, photography, cooking, and creativity, which are all great for her own good health and wellbeing. Email: cws.grcc@nhs.net Phone: 07738 106384 She joined GRCC in 2013 and has over 19 years' experience in accounts management. She is also AAT Intermediate and Technician level Qualified. With 13 years' experience of the finance function in the manufacturing industry, and four years with a youth charity in Gloucester, Karen keeps GRCC's finances firmly on track, no mean feat in today's economic climate. Email: KarenW@grcc.org.uk Contact laurab@grcc.org.uk Lauren is our Digital & Technology Navigator for Tewkesbury Borough. Lauren's post is a new initiative to support digital inclusion, improve health outcomes, and build digital literacy across Tewkesbury Borough. This role aims to tackle the digital divide, ensuring that all community members, particularly the vulnerable, isolated and most disconnected, can access and benefit from the digital world. This is a new role at GRCC in partnership with Tewkesbury Borough Council and Tewkesbury Integrated Locality Partnership (ILP), working alongside the Borough's community partners. Lauren was previously working for Independence Trust, where she was an Autism Peer Support Worker for the Community Autism Support & Advice team. In that role she developed the skill set to engage effectively with local communities and maintain peer support groups. Lauren has a degree in photography and a master’s degree in psychology, and enjoys reading and spending time with her family. Louise's main role at GRCC is to look after the UKSPF grants programme, which we are administering for Tewkesbury Borough, Forest of Dean District, and Cotswold District Councils. Louise gives advice about the grant schemes to potential applicants, and deals with eligibility checks, liaising with the councils, and arranging the grant panel meetings. Louise also provides support to our Affordable Housing work and the RUSTIK Project. Louise previously worked for us from 2018 to 2021 as our Community Wellbeing Service Project Manager. When not at GRCC, Louise enjoys singing, learning French, and spending time with her labrador. Email: louisef@grcc.org.uk Peter Richardson is GRCC's Digital Content Officer. Peter's job includes writing, photography and video-making for the GRCC and Independence Trust websites and social media accounts. After university, Peter trained as a print journalist and worked for a while as a reporter on a weekly newspaper. This was back in the 1980s, in the days of typewriters, carbon-paper, and copy-and-pasting with actual paste! By the time the 'world wide web' started to get popular in the late 1990s, Peter was somehow working as an educational software designer at the Open University, where he was involved in setting up some of the OU's first properly interactive web-based courses. From the year 2000, Peter was mainly self-employed running a small business helping charities and small green organisations to set up and run their websites. He has been at GRCC since January 2023 - and one of his first projects was to help with publicity for GRCC's Centenary. Outside of work, Peter's passions are for growing fruit and veg, cooking, DIY, reading, and photography - and much of his life revolves around permaculture and co-housing in Stroud. Contact - peterr@grcc.org.uk Penny joined the CASA team as an Autism Worker in 2023, after a career in primary school teaching. In her CASA role, Penny enjoys helping adults to understand more about their autism, and supporting them to use their strengths to develop strategies to help them in their daily lives. In her spare time, Penny likes to be busy and on the move. She enjoys running and swimming, and is a qualified triathlon coach. However, she really enjoys spending time with her family, especially her grandchildren. Contact pennyh@grcc.org.uk Rachel previously studied Human Geography at undergraduate level and worked as an ambassador for a small climate education charity which aimed to provide young children with the knowledge and resources to make pro-active behavioural changes to help combat climate change. Rachel is looking forward to working throughout Gloucestershire in her role as Flood and Community Resilience Officer at GRCC, and developing our Flood Warden and Emergency Planning projects. "My aim for this role is to work directly with our communities to ensure projects meet their specific needs, build on their existing knowledge and capacities, and provide them with the resources to deal with events happening as a result of our ever-changing climate," said Rachel. Outside of work, Rachel's hobbies include walking, netball, rounders, and reading. Contact - rachels@grcc.org.uk Sabrina Dixon is our Community Development Officer for the Cotswold District and Tewkesbury Borough. She offers support to voluntary and community sector organisations (including community buildings) on fundraising, community engagement, and governance. Sabrina can also provide parish and town councils with an introduction to community-led planning options, and training on community consultation methods. You can contact Sabrina via sabrinad@grcc.org.uk The Employment and Skills Hub Outreach (ESHO) project provides intensive one-to-one support to individuals who are economically inactive, and helps them return to volunteering, education, training, or employment. The project aims to continue the legacy of the Going the Extra Mile (GEM) project, by working in partnership with Voluntary and Community Sector Enterprises across Gloucestershire. Sarah's previous job role at GRCC was with the Independence Trust's Community Advice, Links and Mental Health Support (CALMHS) team. "During my time working in mental health, I benefited from lots of training and built up knowledge and skills which will be very useful to me in the ESHO job role," said Sarah. Outside of work, Sarah enjoys gardening, walking, being outdoors, visiting National Trust gardens, and spending time with family. Contact sarahb@grcc.org.uk Sarah works with parish councils and local communities across Gloucestershire to increase the supply of affordable housing in rural areas. Sarah has worked in social housing for over 25 years, and prior to re-joining GRCC in 2024 she was a development manager for an Oxfordshire housing association, where she helped to deliver both community-led and regular Section 106 affordable housing schemes. Sarah has expertise in Homes England's programme of grant funding for affordable housing, and has experience of community building and resident involvement in housing development. She now brings her wealth of experience to the role of Rural Housing Enabler. Sarah is looking forward to enabling those in housing need in rural areas to be able to directly engage in the process of delivering local affordable homes for local people. Sarah enjoys swimming and walking, and is a mum of a busy family. Contact: sarahw@grcc.org.uk Tim has worked in social housing for over 20 years, and has managed a number of supported housing schemes for older people and individual properties for young people with mental health issues. He is currently a District Councillor on Forest of Dean District Council, where he was Leader from 2017 to 2023. Tim's role covers the Cotswolds, Stroud, and Tewkesbury areas, where he works with parish councils and local communities to deliver much needed affordable housing. His aim is to help GRCC deliver “the right homes, in the right place, with the right tenure, for the right people”. Tim enjoys gardening, writing, and walking his dog in the Forest, and hopes to soon return to playing village cricket. Contact timg@grcc.org.uk
How to contact Clare:
Contact the Community Wellbeing Service:
Karen Wyatt oversees the day-to-day running of GRCC's finances, making sure everything runs smoothly and efficiently, from expenses and salaries to month-end journals. How to contact Karen:
