I focus on communicating Shared Assets’s work across research, movement-building and consultancy for community land projects to the wider public. I create editorial and digital materials that amplify messages, stories and campaigns from across the land justice movement on various issues, such as housing, food and farming, ownership, and climate crisis.

I have experience in research, writing, and editorial for various social justice issues. I have focussed on criminalisation, data and technology, and climate justice. Most recently, I worked on researching and campaigning against discriminatory uses of data and AI in prisons and policing for a criminal justice and human rights NGO. I have an MA in Media Studies from Goldsmiths.

I am a Consultancy Coordinator for Shared Assets, supporting organisations to develop, manage and deliver projects which use land and assets to deliver public good. I focus on supporting the development of operational and strategic plans informed by authentic community participation, and leveraging cross-sector partnerships for community benefit. I am passionate about models of land use which make agroecological food production a viable and accessible industry for new entrants. I have a particular interest in land reform in Scotland.

My work with land has ranged from on-the-ground commercial food production to developing strategies for including young people and marginalised communities in conversations around land reform at a national level. Alongside practical land-working, I have worked for a number of years to support and advise community organisations focused on climate adaptation and mitigation, food security, biodiversity protection, affordable housing provision and provision of opportunities to improve quality of life for local people. I am proud to have been part of cross-organisational partnerships which brought emergency food provision to vulnerable people across Bristol during the COVID-19 Lockdown, made Bristol a Gold Award winning Sustainable Food Place, and established the Forth Valley’s Community Climate Action Hub.

I realised how important land is to transform how we live, and for justice, when I was studying social movements. Since then, I’ve been learning about food sovereignty and anti-austerity movements through studies, land based initiatives, local and regional activism, and gatherings in the UK and Europe. I’ve worked on grassroots action, community development and network facilitation in my previous jobs and I get a lot of energy from being a part of collaborative projects, and from working with passionate people. I’m currently an organiser for the South East region with the Land Workers Alliance.

When I coordinated a participatory action research project using film, it made me realise there’s so much more to organising than collective action, and it got me interested in experimenting with different methodologies and tools for equitable participation, just organisational culture, network building, participatory democracy, and facilitating enabling processes. Shared Assets is a place where creative ideas and interconnectedness are encouraged, so I feel I’ve landed in the right place to keep learning with others!

I specialise in facilitating complex partnerships and supporting people to work together to meet shared objectives. I lead on our consultancy, contributing particularly to supporting clients to develop new business and governance models, as well as supporting specific research projects. Internally, I lead on our finances, strategy and business development.

I founded Shared Assets in 2012 to respond to the need for new models of managing land for the common good in the face of public sector austerity, and to enable groups working on environmental issues to gain access to land to deliver their projects. 10 years of working on land issues directly, and 14 years as an itinerant boater, have brought home the extent to which land is a social and economic justice issue and that how we currently own and govern it lies at the heart of many of the issues we face, from homelessness to climate change. I am excited that we are increasingly working with others to deliver more systemic change through our movement building work.

I coordinate Shared Assets’ research work, strategy and thinking about how we measure our impact as an organisation embedded in the wider movement for land justice. I’m grateful to have the chance to work alongside communities, clients, activists and academics interested in reimagining our relationship with the land, to generate and share the information we need to build a land system based on the common good.

I came to Shared Assets in 2019, shortly after finishing a Masters in Agroecology and Food Security, doing a course in therapeutic permaculture, and getting involved in various community gardening initiatives. These showed me first-hand how important the sense of belonging, connection and contentment that can come from having your hands in the soil can be for mental wellbeing. I’d been passionate about food sovereignty for many years whilst working elsewhere in the NGO sector but hadn’t always realised how fundamental land is to that and other related struggles. I do now and I feel so excited that my work can contribute to this in some way.