Our Team Leadership Team Adrienne Arthurs - Chief Executive Officer Our leadership team is lead by Adrienne, who joined The Living Room in October 2016 after leading a varied and successful career within Hertfordshire's non-profit sector, commercial sector and education sector. Adrienne is keen to work in partnership to support all generations to achieve their potential and is committed to families breaking the cycle of addictions, in Hertfordshire. [email protected] Rita Cooper - Operations Manager Rita has project managed teams across the South East of England, specifically supporting people with disabilities. She line manages the centre teams and liaises with the local community, building partnerships and referral pathways for clients. Rita is very passionate about equal opportunities, outcomes for people accessing The Living Room services and celebrating community diversity. [email protected] Katie Carter - Crèche Manager and LBGTQ+ Ambassador Katie has been working as an Early Year's Practitioner for over 12 years. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from a variety of different settings to support children who are vulnerable and need extra care and support. Katie holds a level 5 diploma in Education Studies and the CACHE level 3 diploma in Children’s and Young Peoples workforce. Katie has undergone training in Safeguarding, Protective Behaviours, Prevent, Steps and Paediatric First Aid. The creche offers a lifeline to parents who would not be able to attend treatment if it was not for the provision of free childcare in Stevenage. [email protected] Mark Wiseman - Fundraising and Marketing Manager/Data Protection Officer Mark has a background in publishing, has lived experience of addiction and The Living Room services. He has secured funds for The Living Room from grants, trusts, foundations and community events and manages our website content. Additionally, Mark is our appointed Data Protection Officer (DPO) to oversee compliance with our privacy notice and GDPR. If you have any questions regarding privacy and how we hold information, please contact Mark Wiseman. [email protected] Counselling Staff Treatment services at The Living Room are facilitated by 12 counsellors, all of whom are accredited by FDAP (Federation of Drug & Alcohol Practitioners) or BACP (British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy). We are unique as all of our counsellors have their own lived experience of addiction. The Living Room Trustees: Robert Henry - Chair Read more Rob is a retired senior police officer (2016) having served in Hertfordshire police and the Metropolitan police in London. He is married to Helen and has 3 grown up sons. Rob volunteers at Herts Young Homeless on a weekly basis and is an active member of Vineyard Church in Stevenage. Rob also volunteers at the church’s food-bank and helps people to get out of debt. He enjoys global travel, walking his 2 dogs, going to the cinema and studying history. He took on the trustee role at The Living Room in June 2017 Jonas Schirm – Treasurer Read more Jonas is a highly accomplished and results-focused financial market professional, with over ten years of global experience in sales, marketing, business development and operations management within financial services industry. He started his career at Dresdner Bank in Frankfurt before relocating to New York to cover leveraged accounts, and finished his tenure, post-merger, as part of the FX Sales Team at Commerzbank London, managing key Hedge Fund and Asset Manager relationships. After Commerzbank, Jonas spent time at Barracuda FX, a technology provider that specialises in FX Order management systems. Mary Corbett OBE - Trustee Read more Mary’s working life has been in the voluntary sector, either as a practitioner or manager-in education, community development, alcohol addiction, marriage and relationship counselling, and social policy. She is a trustee of two other charities, both involved in education: one with emotionally traumatized teenagers in the UK and the other in Nepal. She is not into housework but loves cooking and having family and friends around a table. A hopeless linguist she is currently learning Arabic, does geriatric Qin-Gong, is a qualified spiritual accompanier. She is rarely without a book on the go and whenever possible indulges in her passion for modern ballet (watching) and walking in wild places. Mary joined The Living Room in February 2013 and has special responsibility for all client services policies. Tracy Lacey-Smith – Trustee Read more Tracy is a solicitor and a Partner at SA Law (based in St Albans) heading up the Commercial Dispute Resolution Team. Tracy has also practiced employment law so has a lot of experience dealing with employment and HR related issues. She has previously been governor of a secondary school in Kings Langley and sat as a non-executive Director and Company Secretary of the Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce. Her commitment to our trustee board began in September 2016. Eddie Mills – Trustee Read more After graduating from University with a degree in Business Studies, he has worked in marketing all of his career to date and currently works for a local renewable energy firm. Sport is a huge passion and he captains the 1st XI at Hatfield Hyde Cricket Club, spending his winter weekends on the terraces at Spurs. Following the death of his younger brother from a brain tumour, he set up the Oli Mills Foundation, which has raised £195,000 for Teenage Cancer Trust to date. He joined The Living Room, as a trustee in July 2017. John Palmer - Vice Chair Read more John joins us from a charity marketing background. He became a trustee in August 2017. Daniel Marshall – Trustee Read more Daniel grew up in Stevenage and studied law at University, whilst volunteering for the local Citizens Advice Bureau. Following his degree, he became Chief Executive of Stevenage CAB, becoming the youngest CEO in the Citizens Advice network of more than 300 Local Citizens Advice, and one of the youngest charity CEOs in the country and now works for Citizens Advice Service at the London Head Office. Daniel is Chair of the Hertfordshire Citizens Advice county CEOs group, Chair of the Local Strategic Partnerships’ Social Inclusion Forum, Chair of a local task-force looking at Child Poverty in the town, and is Vice-Chair of the Local Strategic Partnership (Stevenage Together). Daniel is also a Director of an online marketing company, and believes that charities generally don’t use technology as well as they could, which he wants to play a part in improving. Daniel joined The Living Room as a trustee in July 2017. Charles King - Trustee Read more Charles is a priest, based at St Michael’s Church with St Mary, St Albans. Having originally studied French and German, Charles worked for over ten years in transport planning, both in consultancy and in university research. He enjoys travel, hill walking, the sea, music – especially playing the piano – and cooking. Charles has been a trustee since January 2018. Jenny Brace - Trustee Read more Jenny has worked within the charity and public sectors since 1999. Having worked with a range of charitable organisations, she has experience in strategic planning, project management, change management, stakeholder management and communications. Since 2012, she has focused more specifically on working with vulnerable people, in particular those in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction and has managed the setting up and implementation of a number of new addiction treatment services. Jenny holds a Masters of Research in Public Policy and Management and lives in St Albans with her husband, 3 children and dog. She joined as a trustee in March 2018. The Living Room Founder: Founder and Honorary Life President: Mrs Janis Feely MBE In the late nineties Janis Feely, worked as an addiction worker at a residential rehab project. It was during this time that Janis had a vision for a unique new day recovery treatment centre. In May 2000 after a year of fundraising and lobbying Janis achieved her vision and established The Living Room; supporting many people to achieve recovery from their addictions. Janis retired in 2016 and since then, staff, trustees, volunteers, clients and people in the community have worked hard to ensure this vision remains a reality. Patrons We are honoured to have: Lady Dione Verulam (Countess and retired Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire) and Mr Stuart Lewis DL as our patrons.