Toby Blume

Toby has 20 years experience of working in the not for profit sector, leading national charities for the last 15 years. His career has focused on supporting marginalised groups and communities to find their own solutions to the problems they face and have a greater influence over policy-making.

Toby is an experienced facilitator and participation practitioner and trainer and a skilled public speaker. He has extensive skills and knowledge in policy analysis and advice, research and evaluation, report-writing, participation and facilitation, change management, strategic reviews, creative thinking and innovation.

A leading commentator on Big Society and Localism writing for New Start, Local government Chronicle, ResPublica, SOLACE and the Guardian, as well as appearing on BBC News and the Today Programme. Toby regularly advises government on working with the voluntary and community sector within key programmes including localism, big society, community organisers and local government reform.

Before joining Urban Forum, Toby set up and ran Groundswell UK, a charity supporting homeless people to run community projects and improving user involvement in homelessness service provision.

Rachel Newton

Rachel has over 22 years statutory and voluntary sector experience in delivering and managing projects and services around community empowerment, local governance, housing and homelessness, and equality.

She manages Urban Forum's policy and research programme, including major projects around researching citizen's feelings of influence, producing case studies demonstrating inclusive involvement and developing community led initiatives and cross-sector working to build community resilience. She has extensive experience of building effective partnership working with research and academic organisations such as the Centre for Local Economic Strategies, Ipsos Mori and Manchester University.

Rachel is at the forefront of Urban Forum's policy development work around the localism agenda, working with partners in the voluntary and community sector, local and national government to help shape emerging policies, including neighbourhood planning and community rights. She specialises in a participative approach, employing a range of research methodologies to empower communities, promote mutual learning, build relationships, enable better cross sector working and bridge the gap between policy and practice..

Previous to working at Urban Forum she worked at Shelter for 11 years, and at Manchester City Council for 8 years.

Nick Bird

Nick has over 25 year's experience in community development, project management, training and facilitation.

He has managed major Urban Forum projects around improving communication and engagement between communities and local authorities and supporting community groups to take advantage of community rights. He has facilitated events, workshops and forums around Government policy, community cohesion, planning and the built environment, voice and representation, communication and community engagement.

Previous to Urban Forum he was a freelance trainer and facilitator working with voluntary, public sector, housing and regeneration organisations, including being an associate for the Neighbourhood Initiatives Foundation, the Tenant Participation Advisory Service and London Voluntary Services Council. He also has experience of running projects developing community activities on housing estates in Leeds and London, promoting community participation in Local Strategic Partnerships and Housing Associations and a pan European initiative developing better communication techniques to overcome social exclusion.

Kate Hathway

Kate has over 13 years experience working in the voluntary and community sector, managing projects, running events and delivering training.

For Urban Forum Kate has facilitated and run numerous workshops and events around Government policy, voice and representation, communication and community engagement. She has taken the lead in developing projects to support councillors to develop skills and knowledge around communication, community engagement, low carbon initiatives, Open Data and the new policy landscape post the 2010 election.

In 2009 she travelled around Europe to carry out a piece of international comparative research exploring the key drivers of successful community-led, co-operative and municipal renewable energy partnerships.

Kate's previous experience includes managing the South West Regeneration Network of over 2000 practitioners, co-ordinating communications for South West Forum (the regional voice for the voluntary sector) and running community volunteering and environmental action programmes across Western Australia.

Caitlin McMullin

Caitlin is an experienced researcher and policy analyst with a background in local democracy.

Caitlin is heavily involved in Urban Forum's national and local project work around the localism agenda running surveys, facilitating focus groups and presenting research results to various audiences at events and workshops. She has contributed to the research and writing of numerous publications including a guide for communities working with councillors and research reports on the changing role of councillors within the context of localism and Big Society, the use of ICT, the Internet and social media within the voluntary and community sector and the Duty to Involve

Prior to coming to Urban Forum, Caitlin worked at the Local Government Information Unit where she organised seminars and events for local authority officers and councillors, as well as contributed to research on a variety of issues surrounding local democracy.

Tony Hillman

Tony is an experienced writer, editor and graphic designer, working in the field for over 20 years.

He has developed Urban Forum's image and helped to build its profile into one of the leading organisations dealing with community sector organisations and the way they interact with, and understand, government policy. He designs all Urban Forum publications, including the online magazine, Clearway, and the popular Handy Guide series. He has worked to bring in Urban Forum's online presence and has assisted with events management and business development.

Before joining Urban Forum, Tony worked as a freelance journalist and also runs a design consultancy.