All YWU Board Trustees are drawn from the broad youth work and young people’s services field and come from across the region. Our current trustees are:
David Sharp
Company Secretary
David Sharp has been Chief Executive of North Yorkshire Youth (NYY) since November 2011. He also sits on the North Yorkshire County Council Safeguarding Executive Partnership, the Corporate Parenting Group and the Children and Young Peoples Overview and Scrutiny Committee as the voluntary sector representative.
Graham Griffiths
Trustee
Graham is a qualified youth worker who has worked in both the Local Authority and the Voluntary Sector and was course leader for the Youth & Community work courses at Bradford College. He also is a member of the NYA ETS committee is active in the union and In Defence of Youth Work and Choose Youth Campaigns.
Debbie Burton
Trustee
Debbie Burton is a Service Manager at Doncaster Council, she oversees the Youth Service and the Your Place Team. She is a qualified youth and community worker and youth work assessor, Debbie has over 26 years of youth work experience.
Christine Smith
Trustee
Christine Smith has worked in Higher Education since 2007. She has worked at the University of Hull since 2017 and is currently a Programme Director in Education Studies incorporating a Special Educational Needs and Disability Inclusion Pathway and has completed a term as Chair of the National Professional Association of Lecturers in Youth and Community Work. Prior to working in HE Christine worked in a range of youth and community settings including as a locality-based Community Education Worker, Principal Youth Officer, Senior Trainer, Staff Development and Quality Assurance Officer.
Petra Salisbury
Trustee
Petra is a senior lecturer in Youth and Community Development at Leeds Beckett University, having been a qualified Youth Worker for over 20 years. Having spent most of this time in the drugs field, predominantly as a harm reduction worker with both young people and adults. Later qualifying as a social worker and spending two years in child protection before moving to teaching. Petra also has a PhD in exploring why young women start taking illegal drugs.
Chloe Thwaites
Trustee
Chloe is a qualified Youth Worker, and her role is Youth Voice and Creative Engagement Officer at North Yorkshire Council. She started her career as a Youth Worker at a Youth Club in Cumbria, then went on to train as a Primary Teacher, before returning to work with teenagers as a Climbing Instructor and Forest School Leader. This year she also qualified as a Mountain Leader, and finds that taking young people out of the ordinary can be an incredible way to build resilience, guide open communication and find effective ways to work together to achieve goals.