EVOC Board of Directors:
- Convener: Diarmaid Lawlor (Scottish Futures Trust)
- Treasurer: Jacqui White
- Vice-Convenor: John Hinton (Move On)
- Ben Connor (Sniffer)
- Gary Dewar (Families Outside)
- Rachel Green (The Ripple Project)
- Melissa Highton (The University of Edinburgh)
- Rhona Hunter
- Glenn Liddall (People Know How)
- Ran Majumder (The Health Agency)
- Su Millar (Bridgend Farmhouse)
Convenor: Diarmaid Lawlor
Diarmaid is an Associate Director at Scottish Futures Trust. He is a designer, educator, and communicator. With a multidisciplinary background, and over 20 years’ experience working across sectors in the UK and Europe, Diarmaid champions collaborative approaches to making better places to live well locally.
Treasurer: Jacqui White
Vice-Convenor: John Hinton
John has worked as a Housing Officer and Community Worker and gained a postgraduate diploma in housing. Having worked for the Big Issue in Scotland, John was one of Move On’s founders, establishing the company in 1997. Since then, he has led Move On through more than twenty years of growth and development. Move On works to unlock the potential of vulnerable young people and those affected by homelessness in order to improve their lives. Move On supports and empowers people to raise aspirations, increase confidence, take control over their own futures and achieve their goals. Services include: employability (including work experience and paid traineeships), personal development and pre-vocational training, mentoring, befriending, volunteering, aftercare, peer education, guidance, advice and information. In a bid to diversify income streams and ensure longer-term sustainability, Move On has developed social enterprise approaches capable of delivering social and environmental impact, while at the same time generating income through trading. In 2012, we established our “FareShare” food re-use social enterprise in Glasgow’s Whiteinch, tackling food poverty, reducing food waste and offering high quality employability opportunities. In 2018, we set up “Move On Wood Recycling” in Granton, North Edinburgh, offering training and volunteering opportunities, while recycling and re-using waste wood. John is a non-Executive Director of the Scottish Mentoring Network, FareShare UK and also a board member of the Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council (EVOC).
Ben Connor
Ben is Head of Climate Ready Placemaking at Sniffer, a sustainability charity working based in Edinburgh and working across Scotland to help communities, places and organisations flourish in our changing climate. He has worked in the environmental sector across the UK for over a decade with a particular focus on nature and climate change, and has held a variety of roles working in small charities, local government and partnership organisations. Ben is particularly interested in community climate action, place-based approaches, and climate justice.
Gary Dewar
As a Social Worker and Community Educator Gary’s background is in work with children and young people and families in both local authorities and the voluntary sector. As a practitioner Gary has worked across Scotland and in England in a variety of settings, from community-arts projects, to group work with children and adults, to supporting vulnerable and at risk young people in educational settings and delivering intensive whole family work. Gary has managed a range of teams across sectors and is always looking to create supports that are relationship-focused, rights-based and able to address the full range of issues families face – from complex trauma and loss, to social isolation, to poverty and inequality. Gary is currently Head of Family Support at Families Outside, leading a range of support services across Scotland for families affected by imprisonment.
Rachel Green
Rachel is the Director of The Ripple Project, an anchor organisation led by its local community providing services and opportunities, helping people to help themselves. Rachel has a background in Community Development and over 25 years has worked in the statutory and third sector at both a national and local level. Rachel has a strong background in challenging poverty and inequality and is a champion of local decisions being made by local people.
Melissa Highton
Melissa Highton is a senior manager in higher education with a particular interest in digital participation, knowledge activism, diversity and inclusion, and adult education. She is Assistant Principal for Online and Open Learning at The University of Edinburgh where she works to ensure that all members of the university: staff, students and alumni are able to engage online as lifelong learners and share knowledge openly to make the world a better place. Melissa has led a number of organisational and digital transformation programmes and gives her time as a mentor and volunteer to open source and open education projects.
Rhona Hunter
Rhona is a social worker and has worked in both the statutory and voluntary sectors. Rhona worked for Fife and Edinburgh Councils before moving to the voluntary sector in 2001. Rhona has worked with Action for Children, Scottish Drugs Forum and was laterally Chief Executive of Circle. Rhona has a particular interest in supporting families experiencing disadvantage and is committed to improving outcomes for children by addressing intergenerational issues, poverty and discrimination. Rhona is also a Trustee of Edinburgh and Lothian Trust Fund.
Glenn Liddall
Glenn Liddall is Founder and Chief Executive of People Know How, a charity focused on social innovation. Working with people, communities and organisations and their ideas for positive social change. Glenn has over twenty-five years of experience in the third sector after spending his early working life in retail and hotel management. He first volunteered for a number of charities and then trained in counselling going on to manage a drug and alcohol service where he developed a number of new services. Glenn was GIRFEC lead for a large national charity prior to setting up People Know How.
Ran Majumder
Biography to follow…
Su Millar
Su was formally co-opted onto the Bridgend Farmhouse Board in February 2021. She has worked in the Third Sector in different roles for over 30 years now, most recently with LifeCare Edinburgh which she left after 17 years at the helm as CEO. Su’s is keen to draw from these perspectives to contribute to the work of EVOC to help deliver its Mission and new strategy in very challenging and changing times, with sustainability being a key focus for all. Su is a member of the Third Sector Strategy Group(TSSG).