Our Board of Directors

Take Time for You is managed by a board of 4 directors. Day to day activities are overseen by our Executive Director. The remaining Directors provide governance, strategic oversight, and regular involvement to ensure compliance and support decision making. Their voluntary contribution as directors fuels the change delivered by Take Time for You.

Lydia Cooper

Executive Director

Our founder Lydia has lived experience of neurodivergence and chronic health conditions. She has always been passionate about fighting social injustice that disabled and neurodivergent people face.

This started from as young as the age of 5 where she would always be supporting her peers and those around her to succeed even when she didn’t understand they were different. This has always been her purpose and a passion that is always leading her decisions.

She has extensive professional experience working with a variety of disabilities including adults and children that are non verbal and have very high level needs. In addition to this, she has worked in education for the past 10 years with one goal - to make learning accessible. She has worked in the voluntary sector for the last 3 years as a project lead, bid writer and community support. This really highlighted the gap in this support and gave her the experience and knowledge of how a CIC runs and how to effectively create, run and manage projects. She has an extensive range of community networks and support systems that work closely with TTFY.

Stephanie Jones

Non-Executive Director & Lead Facilitator

Steph supports family members and friends living with different disabilities and neurodivergent conditions. This gives us an extremely important perspective when running our organisations as it helps us to ensure our services support families and support systems of individuals with disabilities in addition to the direct beneficiaries.

Steph has also run her own business for a number of years and has an eye for design, marketing and creating resources.

She is very meticulous and has an eye for detail, which supports governance and delivery so that all that we do is organised, accurate, and precise.

Kevin Cooper

Non-Executive Director

Kevin supports inclusive governance and strategic planning. He helps us design and deliver services that are inclusive, sustainable, and responsive to community needs.

He has over 20 years experience working in corporate business as both a director and in management positions. This knowledge and experience ensures that our governance is tightly monitored and all of our services are compliant, safe, and impactful.

His naturally caring and empathetic personality brings passion and enthusiasm to the board and strengthens our mission and delivery.

Mark Douglas

Non-Executive Director

Mark has a passion for making sure we create services that will really make a difference. Similar to the other directors, he is very passionate about making people feel valued and has done this throughout his personal life and profession.

He has over 20 years of experience in teaching and assessing and has always ensured that his teaching is accessible and inclusive. His EQA experience is paramount when analysing policies and procedures and ensuring they are fit for purpose and followed correctly.

The caring and calm presence that Mark brings to the board ensures that we are thorough with governance, making decisions, and project management.

Our Advisory Group

It has always been extremely important that our services are created and delivered to have lasting impact and really make a difference. To do so, we believe that projects and services need to be co-designed by people with lived experience from different backgrounds. Having an advisory group shapes our organisation and is another way that inclusivity is at the core of our delivery.

We are extremely grateful for the time they contribute to supporting our mission.

Caitlin - 18

Caitlin created a youth group, "Uplifted Minds" and brings invaluable input as a young person supporting young people.

Tallat - 30

Tallat has been attending our groups for over a year and brings lived experience of autism and epilepsy.

Jordan - 27

Jordan has his own business, "Jordan's Collectables". He brings input as a small business, supported living carer, and lived experience of cerebral palsy.

Sophie - 23

Sophie brings experiences of someone living with a learning disability.

Zay - 16

Zay is another youth advisor who provides input as a teen with ADHD.

Summer - 16

Summer is one of our youth advisors and provides input as a teen with ADHD and autism.

Adel - 52

Dylan - 25

Dylan is a very creative young adult that helps us make our projects unique and engaging.

Adel provides input as a volunteer who has English as a second language.

Chris - 64

Chris brings the experience of a grandmother of children with neurodivergence and the lived experience of physical disability. She shares experience to deliver services accessible to over 60's.

Hannah - 38

Hannah has experience as a mother to neurodivergent children and personal experience of ADHD and chronic health conditions.

Our Volunteers

Meet our incredible volunteers. We could not make the difference that we do without their support. It is amazing to see our volunteer team constantly growing because people believe in our mission as much as we do,

Meet our team...

If you would like to join our team and volunteer, please contact us!

Caitlin

Assistant Cooking Tutor & Events Assistant

Caitlin supports delivery of Take Time to Cook. She is also a big part of our events delivery.

Deb

Community Engagement Officer

Deb volunteers her time to connect with local businesses and supports fundraising.

Marie

Assistant Events Coordinator

Marie helps to plan and coordinate volunteers at events.

Nathan

Assistant Trip Supervisor & Events Support

Nathan supports our Take Time to Explore service as a trip supervisor. He also supports our events.

Jonathan

Assistant Trip Supervisor, Events Support & Volunteer Tutor

Jonathan supports our Take Time to Explore service as a trip supervisor. He also supports our events and volunteers as a tutor.

Josh

Events & Operations Support

Josh supports the operation of our services through maintenance and setup duties.

Jordan

Events Support, Community Engagement & Facilitator

Jordan supports our community events and markets/fundraising activities. He supports delivery of our Take Time for Enterprise project. He also connects with local organisations to support fundraising.