At Krossroads, we strive to give our young people the best opportunities possible, to create a sense of community and to support them during a challenging period in their life. It is rewarding to see our young people develop and move forward with their lives. To this end I would also like to thank my dedicated staff for the great work that they do here at Krossroads in helping our young people to push and strive for a better future.

Ray has known and worked with the Managing Director for many years before Krossroads was formed in 2003. Elias took him under his wings in the late 90s, nurtured and trained him in the property sector, and gave him the tools he needed to be a professional worker.

In the early years of Krossroads Ray was providing properties for young asylum seekers/families, this soon evolved into accommodations for leaving care for young people aged 16-21.

As Krossroads developed new staff was employed for specific positions within the company, Krossroads quickly expanded and Ray and other staff also progressed and became managers. Over the years Ray has developed, learned and formed a great relationship with his colleagues. Ray has felt privileged to be part of the Krossroads team and its ethos in caring and supporting young people within the community and beyond.

Role - to provide management support to the operation of services provided by Krossroads Semi Independent Service; Designated Deputy to the Managing Director. Gina first gained her experience by working with young Asylum Seekers in East London. This was a very rewarding post and the company soon expanded into looking after young people leaving care 16-21.

In 2008 Gina was relocated to north London which is now the Head Office with her colleagues she had worked so closely with. Gina’s post is now Operations Manager overseeing the running of the company and being involved in the overall finances. The service expanded quickly and making a name for itself as being able to manage the most complex service users.

Gina has grown with Krossroads and with her colleagues with whom she has a great relationship and is always inspired by their knowledge and their work practices. Gina has expressed she is fortunate to enjoy her career despite the unending pressures and responsibilities that go with it.

Role - to manage a team of staff and oversee the case management of young care leavers (16 – 21) being provided with a semi – independent support service for enabling them to develop skills and experience to prepare them for managing their own accommodation and live successfully.

Cheryl has been working in the field of Social Care since 1999. She started doing residential work because she was training to be a Transpersonal Child, Adolescent and Family Psychotherapist and felt it would be good to get some experience working with young people, as prior to this she worked in the Corporate World.

Prior to working for Krossroads she had worked for three years in a residential unit for 15 – 18 year olds of which only a small part was doing independent living skills. Cheryl started working for the organisation in June 2002. This was a very different environment as it was all outreach work and there were no residential units. Initially Cheryl came on board for two weeks to cover a friend’s annual leave. She worked with one outreach client a young mother and baby for 10hours per week.

During the two week period she happened to be in the office (then in Leytonstone) there was an emergency with another female client who needed to be moved to South London fast and needed 20 hours support per week. Cheryl was able to quickly facilitate a move and took on the case. By October 2002 Cheryl had established herself as a competent worker. With her therapeutic background and extensive experience of working with childhood sexual abuse, she was again asked to lead in setting up a house and bring on a team of staff to manage the case of a young lady with quite complex mental health needs who needed 24 hour 1:1 support.
In 2003 we opened our first residential unit in South East London so Cheryl had an office base in South London and as a result began to take on more administrative tasks as well as managing both outreach clients and the 24 hour unit. Cheryl steadily progressed and in 2005 became the Placements Manager. This role has grown and evolved along with the company. Now Cheryl has overall responsibility for the young people in our care, as well as project managing tender submissions and supervising the staff team. Cheryl has aptly been described as “the face of Krossroads” as she is the one who is out and about meeting with different local authorities and other professionals representing the service.

Role - to provide management support to the operation and development of services provided by Krossroads Semi Independent Service; to develop and improve services and establish Krossroads as a key provider to the local authority. She leads on the services Quality Management System, Policies and Procedures, Staff Training and Recruitment as well as giving supervision to staff.

Sharon joined the Management Team in 2010 as the Service Development Manager. Sharon is a qualified manager and counsellor, who has worked in the social care field since 1988. She has worked within a variety of social work settings, with various age groups from 0 - 21yrs of age. Sharon has worked within a family assessment centre for a number of years. From there she went on to study therapeutic work and became a qualified therapeutic counsellor. Sharon took these skills and knowledge to work within a drugs and alcohol service for many years as a drugs counsellor and manager.

Sharon has worked with all age groups of young people and throughout her professional working years has seen the child’s developmental stages and the importance of consistency, security and love for a child to have in their early developmental stage to build self-confidence and worth. She has also worked with the young adult they become when inconsistency, lack of security and love has been their early life experience whilst working as a counsellor and within the drugs and alcohol field.

Sharon’s approach with the young people is a person centred and Psychodynamic approach. She is a hands-on manager and when working with a young person she works with each one as an individual, to form and build a relationship with them and allow the young person to look at where they are in their life and work on finding a way forward.