Alison joined the Board in January 2022, bringing with her wide experience of family and child health, development and learning.

Alison’s early career as a qualified nurse was in public health nursing as a Health Visitor, during which time she first became involved in setting up a local Home-Start service in the town where she worked in the late 1990s.

After leaving Health Visiting, Alison, who specialised in Child and Family Health and Developmental Psychology went on to lecture undergraduates at Northampton University and later the Open University while she set up her first Early Years Childcare setting. She was the Professional Director of her own childcare company for 17 years before retiring in 2021.

I have over 7 years’ experience within the finance sector.  Initially starting my career within external audit at Deloitte, focussing on the audit of a large international corporate bank before moving into the private markets department which covered company audits from a variety of industries.  During this time, I studied towards and qualified into the Institute of Chartered Accountants Scotland (ICAS) and shortly after doing so joined the finance team at Sainsburys in March 2019. I joined Home-Start South Leicestershire in December 2021 as I want to support my local community, particularly following the pressures of the pandemic which emphasised the need for stronger community interactions.  I have found that Home-Start is so supportive to local families, even during the most difficult of times and soon realised it was a charity I wanted to be involved with. I am hoping to use my commercial financial knowledge directly in the Treasurers role to help with the future direction of The Charity.

Darren joined the board in March 2022. His career has been within business and investment management mainly with a real estate focus.

Darren’s last role involved launching the UKs first Social Property Impact Fund in 2014 providing £250m of private capital into the, then traditional, public sector space. This involved working with Local Authorities, Housing Associations and charitable organisations to supply quality accommodation to enable these organisations to provide to a wide range of housing for individuals with various needs.

Darren wanted to continue the social element of his day job into his personal life by seeking a Trustee role local to where he lives in Leicestershire. He became aware of Home Start and having recently become a new father again could easily relate to the excellent services Home Start provide to parents.

Keith is an experienced illustrator with a history of freelance work for publishers of books, magazines and national newspapers. For many years he also managed a graphics studio in a large academic institution. He lives near Market Harborough with a young family and has travelled widely pursuing interests in history and art.

Keith was a former recipient of Home Start services when suffering from serious illness. Before that he was active in sport and sport management in an amateur capacity.

Margaret Kallow joined the board at HSSL in Market Harborough in 2014 having previously been on the board of Home Start Leicester for 2 years.

Margaret worked in education in Leicester and Leicestershire throughout her working life initially as a Primary School teacher. She went on to specialise and manage the Service for Children with a Visual Impairment in Leicester from 1997 to retirement. This involved working in a multi-disciplinary way with educational, medical, therapeutic and charitable organisations.

It was during this time that Margaret saw the need for early intervention and direct support to the home. She has run training courses nationally and locally, and contributed to research.

Margaret is a mother of 3 children and grandmother to 8 grandchildren and is passionate about the need for strong families and became a Trustee of Home-Start because she knew how much the service was needed.

Sarah joined the Board in September 2022 in the role of Volunteer Representative.

“I became a volunteer for Home-Start South Leicestershire 4 years ago after seeing an advert for the training course and already being familiar with Home-Start from when my 2 children were young. I spent most of my career working in the Finance sector, but also worked in a Primary school and have ran Brownie and Beaver groups. I now work part time as an Invigilator at the local secondary school. I have 1 grandchild. I became a Volunteer Representative Trustee last year which has allowed me to deepen my insight into how Home-Start operates.”

Anna joined the Board in January 2024.