Meet the Directors of New Leaf Support

Hasmita (Hasy)

Founder/Director of Friends of New Leaf

Hasy volunteered for another domestic abuse charity where she not only supported clients for 7 years but was also a vital member of their board of Trustees.

The valuable experience and knowledge that she gained throughout this time opened her eyes to a sector of women and children that were falling through the loopholes, by not meeting the criteria for the standard refuge accommodation. Thus, causing them to remain in an abusive relationship.

Being a successful woman in the world of property investment, Hasy decided to provide a property that fulfilled this need and has since gone on to provide vital respite accommodation for many individuals and families in Swale.

This innovative idea was the first of its kind in the UK and is just part of what makes the New Leaf Support Team unique.

Hasy now has as an amazing team that is expanding and growing with the charities needs and challenges. The team consists of Volunteers, Staff and a Board of Trustees.

Their immense experience in the field of Domestic Abuse and qualifications also include:

• Legal qualifications, family law and civil orders
• Housing legislation
• Benefit and Finances
• FGM and Immigration processes and laws
• Systematic Family Therapist
• Phoenix Programme trainers and facilitators
• And a vast array of practical skills to offer clients.

All of these are underpinned by a highly motivated and qualified support team, who obtain vital funding and donations to make our services possible.

Together we work as a team to offer the clients the highest quality of support and advice to break the chain of abuse, without judgement, or discrimination.

Assisting each client to turn over a New Leaf in their life.

Margaret

Chair of Directors

Margaret has 25 years’ experience working in the Charity sector.
She has worked with the Witness Service and Victim Support for 16 years.

With Victim Support she has managed several restructures, and her final role was as London Account Manager of Victim Support Services which has overall responsibility for local London Victim Services.

It was in this post she led a bid team to secure the 5-million-pound contract from the Mayor’s office for Policing and Crime for IDVAs for each London borough.

Margaret has since 2016 been CEO for Citizens Advice Elmbridge West which also had a domestic abuse service. Over the eight years she has grown the DA service and generated substantial income to add additional roles to enhance service delivery with touch points across North Surrey with IDVAs based in Police stations, Housing, and a Communities IDVA supporting hard to reach communities. The DA Team had grown to 16 members of staff.
Recently the DA service was awarded Women’s Aid accreditation and at this point as the service had grown substantially the DA service became a charity in its own right and recruited a CEO for the new charity.

Margaret brings experience of fundraising, management, and developing relationships with funders and stakeholders that secured substantial income.

Margaret currently remains CEO of Citizens Advice Elmbridge but aims to retire next year.

Previous roles prior to her work in the charity sector was with Education and Social Care.

Claire

Director of Safe Guarding and Youth Awareness

I have over 20 years of teaching experience, as well as a lecturing and research portfolio covering education, behaviour management and mental health within schools. In 2015 I created The Themis Project, creating an educational experience for schools to raise awareness of Domestic Abuse, to educate and support pupils around healthy relationships and recognising the signs of an abusive relationships. I also offer CPD sessions for the school staff to help them support and manage youngsters who have witnessed Domestic Abuse in their home and offer effective follow up support for the pupils and staff.

Over the past few years as Head of Personal Development in our local Oasis school, New Leaf and their team, alongside input from our local police, have worked with us in delivering an effective educational package around Healthy Relationships. This included interactive workshops and focus weeks within all year groups, as well as a bespoke delivery for the more vulnerable students.

My aims now as a local Deputy Head are to continue to build the partnership with New Leaf and other professionals both in and out of education, around domestic abuse. This is to ensure that our young people are adequately educated on Domestic Abuse in order to drastically reduce the amount of victims, as well as empower young people to recognise the signs and stand up against violence and abuse.

I feel privileged to be asked to become the Ambassador for New Leaf Support, to help in promoting the amazing work they do for victim/survivors of Domestic Abuse, regardless of their gender, as well as their drive to aid prevention within the community.