About us :
Management Group

The Federation and the organisation needs a committed and effective management group to steer it into a successful and sustainable future. We are keen to recruit management group members with a range of skills and experiences, who will contribute to the work we undertake as a strategic organisation. As a management group member, you will contribute to the strategic direction of the Federation, get to know more about the impressive range and depth of our work, and share your own skills, knowledge and experience.

To nominate a new management group member, please contact the Federation for more details.

Please refer to the Management Group Job Description (large print version also available) when applying: this highlights the skills and knowledge needed by members of the management group.

Members of the management group are elected at each Annual General Meeting: our last AGM was held on 5 October 2009 - more details here.
Our previous Annual Conference and AGM was held on 20 May 2008 in Sheffield.

See Article 3 of the Constitution for details of how the management group operates.

We have set up working groups on Policy and Improving Quality. Find out more about how you can get involved....

Management Group Members
Please note: a new membership list will be available here soon, following our recent AGM (5 October 2009)

1. Sandy Bennett, Create Training
2. Lynn Brook, Freewheelers
3. Jan Crawley, South West Foundation
4. Dave Evans, representing England Standards Board for Community Development Work Training and Qualifications (ESB)
5. Dean T Huggins, Ubuntu
6. Jonathan Hyams, Community Council Shropshire
7. Annette Rimmer
8. Bill Wallwork, FreeWheelers

Lynn Brook

Lynn qualified in 1995, although she had been involved in community work for a number of years without realising it. Once qualified, Lynn became involved in the Greater Manchester Accreditation Unit and the Federation's Management Committee. Lynn considers herself a community worker who does training, rather than a trainer who is involved in community work. The training she offers focuses on developing inclusive structures and practices, committee skills, personal development and disability equality.


Jan Crawley

Jan Crawley is currently manager of South West Foundation, a grant giving body which has a focus on supporting and promoting community development in the South West Region. Jan has a Masters Degree in 'Working in the Community' and is currently undertaking a PhD looking at the role of women in community development. Jan first became involved in her own community of Bath and North East Somerset by working with others to establish a number of small voluntary and community organisations, including the local Council for Voluntary Services, the Volunteer Bureau and an anti-poverty project. She has been involved in the management of a number of voluntary organisations and is now also vice chair of creating:excellence, the South West Centre for Sustainable Communities.


Dave Evans
Dave Evans has been involved in community development learning for 17 years and is currently the England Standards Board for Community Development Learning and Qualifications representative on the Federation's management group. Dave is currently involved with the Community Development Recogntion pilot in Yorkshire and Humber and delivering teaching qualifications within the community and voluntary sector.


Dean T Huggins (Co Chair)

Dean is chairperson of Ubuntu, the national network of Black and minority ethnic (BME) community workers and activists organised within FCDL. Dean provides consultancy and training for voluntary and statutory sector organisations on issues ranging from community development, team building and evaluation through to diversity and equality. He has a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry and has had training in social research methodology and theory at Leicester University. Dean is an experienced NVQ assessor, specialising in community development work.
Recently, he has worked on the development of training in community engagement for civil servants and on the development of an outcomes-focused performance improvement framework for voluntary and community sector infrastructure organisations as part of ChangeUp. He is currently involved in the development of a competence framework for workers in local infrastructure organisations.

Dean has worked with Nottinghamshire Probation Service on their Anti-Racism Training Programme, with Sandwell Community Health Council on sickle cell and thalassaemia and with FCDL. He is currently delivering diversity and equality training to managers and staff at the Home Office and to NHS consultants in the Merseyside Deanery on behalf of two national consultancies.
Other areas of work have included team building for a variety of organisations, courses for men, counselling and non-line management supervision for senior managers in national organisations.

He has also been involved in drafting Equality Schemes for Non-Governmental Public Bodies in Northern Ireland and researching the levels of BME community participation of voluntary activity in Northern Ireland. With the late Fee Ching Leong, he wrote a training manual linking anti-racism to sectarianism in 1995.

Before becoming a consultant, Dean worked with Newcastle City Council as Principal Policy Officer (Community Development) and prior to that worked managing Koco Ltd (a community office, training and dining resource) in Coventry and was a member of Leicester African Caribbean Business Association. Dean has also been General Secretary of International Voluntary Service, a volunteer placement organisation which is part of Service Civil International.


Jonathan Hyams

Jonathan works part time with the Community Council of Shropshire, and freelances for the rest of the week. Since 1985 he has worked in community development, equal opportunities and social inclusion as consultant, paid worker, teacher, trainer and activist. This includes paid work in the local authority and community and voluntary sectors, and unpaid work which embraces membership of three Racial Equality Councils, local community development projects, community work training groups, and writing policy, training and practice papers for practitioners and policymakers. Jonathan also has wide experience of community development and equalities training, lecturing and seminar work in local communities and in higher education.


Annette Rimmer

Annnette is currently involved in Community Media projects and 'teaching' on the Community and Youth Work course at Manchester University. Annette qualified as a community and youth worker in the seventies! She has a mixed background of mental health and child protection social work, community development, university lecturing and worked for many years on alternative to custody/care projects. You can hear her as Suzi Hoffmann on Salford City Radio every Monday 10am.


Bill Wallwork (Co Chair)

Bill has been involved in community work for a number of years, during which time he has set up a coalition for disabled people, and an organisation that brought all the voluntary groups and organisations in his area together. Bill qualified in 1993 and became involved in the training and policy side of community work, joining Greater Manchester Community Work Training Group which later became the Accreditation Unit. He has also had involvement in the Federation through its specialist groups and conferences. His training experience has focused on equality and inclusion.

Previous Management Group membership