As a registered charity, The Whitechapel Centre is governed by a Board of Trustees who are committed to the work of the organisation and prepared to offer time to ensure that it is run efficiently and effectively.

For the Board to function properly, some members have specific allocated roles. The Chair, has a high profile role, and not only presides over trustee meetings but usually takes on a PR role and works closely with The Whitechapel Centre's Senior Management Team to ensure good communication between staff and trustees. The Vice Chair deputises for the Chair when necessary.  

The Company Secretary, supported by paid staff, provides administrative support to the Board, arranging and administering meetings and keeping trustees up to date with information and news. 

The Treasurer provides financial information to the trustees and maintains accounting standards. She may also act as an "interpreter" for trustees who have little understanding of financial affairs so they can make informed decisions.

Join our Board

The Whitechapel Centre is always on the lookout for people with a range of skills and experience, who have integrity, commitment, good common sense and judgment who can join our Board. We are looking for people with the vision and flair to steer our organisation to fulfill its commitment to the provision of support services for some of the most vulnerable and isolated people in society.

As a Trustee, you will work with other Trustees in governing the affairs of the Charity, determining strategy and policy and ensuring the charity is well managed and meeting its objectives.

Sue Thomas (Chair)
A qualified Town Planner, Sue has held various public sector positions in urban regeneration, housing and social policy.  As Head of Community Affairs at the east end London Borough of Newham, she led the local authority’s special community development programmes and relationship with its extensive voluntary sector. She has lived and worked in Liverpool since 1993, when she took up the post of Director of Community Services at the Liverpool Housing Action Trust, working with tenants, built environment experts and housing/health professionals on a long-term programme to create resilient communities in over twenty high rise estates. Sue also has over 15 years of non-executive Board experience.  She was Deputy Chair of the Mersey South Divisional Board of Riverside Housing, Deputy Chair and Chair of the Lee Valley Housing Association and Chair of the Lee Valley Neighbourhood Board.  She is currently a member of the University of Liverpool’s Research Governance Committee and of its Committee for Research Ethics. 

Val Metcalf MBE(Vice-Chair)
Val has worked at a senior management level in the community & voluntary sector since 1984. Managing a range of services including childcare, family support, homelessness & employment & education for ex-offenders. Mostly latterly before retirement Val spent 7 years managing services for people affected by dementia in Sefton. Val was awarded an MBE in recognition of services to Equal Opportunities.

Alice Brown (Treasurer)
Alice has worked in finance since 1975, first working as an Assistant Accountant in the Littlewoods organisation, then moving to the voluntary sector in 1985 to take up the post of Finance Manager for MCVS. In 1989 she moved back into the public sector as Finance manager for Walter Craven Funeral Directors where she remained until retirement in 2013. For the past 30 years she has been responsible for all aspects of the financial integrity of the companies she has worked for. Since retirement Alice has balanced her passion for foreign travel and photography with her volunteering commitments. 

Steve Collett (Trustee)
Steve's longstanding commitment to the voluntary sector and to tackling homelessness and its associated problems encompasses 36 years working within the Probation Service and 30 years involvement with the Liverpool Simon (Petrus) Community, including 15 years as the Chair of Trustees. He is currently Chair of the Rhodes Foundation Scholarship Trust which supports North West probation staff to undertake short research scholarships in rehabilitation. Steve is an adjunct Professor in the School of Justice Studies, LJMU, and holds honorary academic positions at Liverpool and Manchester Universities.

Ryan Young – (Trustee)
Ryan qualified as a doctor in 2014. His time is mainly spent as a GP with an interest in inclusion health, covering people experiencing homelessness and vulnerable migrants, but maintaining more regular GP work for a half day a week at Brownlow’s Princes Park site.
 
Ryan works with a variety of Whitechapel teams on a case by case basis and provides clinical leadership for the Whitechapel/Brownlow Health Hospital service, in-reaching into Liverpool hospitals to provide care for patients who are experiencing homelessness. 
 
Ryan also works for Freedom from Torture, providing Medico-Legal reports to document evidence of torture that can be used to support asylum cases or for appeals in court.  Recently he has agreed to work with Transforming Choice to provide clinical oversight for individuals during alcohol detoxification and rehabilitation. 

Dave Antrobus (Trustee)
Dave is originally from Liverpool and attended University of Liverpool. He worked in various roles including as a Subpostmaster and Administrator of a nursing home. David became an Elected Member on Liverpool City Council for Aigburth and Mossley Hill wards from 1996 until 2008. In this position he was the Executive Member for Health and Adult Social Care, working closely with the Health Sector and the Probation Service. Dave was also a representative on the Sub group for older people (part of the Joint Care Planning Team of Liverpool Health Authority and Liverpool Social Services) and was an active member of Liverpool (Central & Southern) Community Health Council until its disbandment.
 
Dave has also been a member of the Territorial Army (TA) and was awarded Territorial Decoration (TD) in 1978. He was an Independent Lay member of Merseyside Police Authority’s Standards Committee as well as a Merseytravel Advisory Panel member and spent 4 years working as a Logger in Liverpool Crown Court as well as being a Non Executive Director of Liverpool Primary Care Trust.
​
From 2012 until 2017 Dave was the Lay Member for Public and Patient Involvement with NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group. During this time he was also a member of the Independent Monitoring Board, at HMP Liverpool.
As well as being a trustee with The Whitechapel Centre, Dave is also chair of Liverpool Bereavement Service. Dave has 2 children and four grandchildren and his leisure activities include fell walking and abseiling.

Margaret Woods (Trustee)
Margaret has over 40 years experience within the Department for Work and Pensions. Holding a Masters Degree in Public Service Management (Social Security), Margaret's working life has been focused on helping people who are unemployed or unable to work because of a health condition or disability, to move from benefits into work. Prior to retirement, Margaret worked for many years on the governments transformation of the welfare system, implementing Universal Credit across the North West region. Margaret has volunteered on a wide range of projects within her local community, including being a School Governor for 15 years. 
 

Collette McGuire (Trustee)
Collette has over 40 years experience of working within the social housing sector.
During her 30 years of working for Riverside Housing Association she developed an interest and specialism for working with disadvantaged adults with a range of complex needs. After progressing to senior management, she led service delivery across fifty sheltered schemes and over 1,000 units of supported housing accommodation throughout Merseyside. She has experience of negotiating and developing contractual management agreements with voluntary sector organisations and setting and monitoring performance standards. Collette has a track record for developing new services and securing funds to ‘make them happen’.  She played a pivotal role in setting up the first national pioneering floating support project, which provided homeless people with a home with tailored support, to help them live independently. Collette has also led in terms of ensuring organisational compliance with safeguarding legislation requirements. She chaired the National Housing Federation North West Region Care & Support Forum for several years. Collette has worked in collaboration with Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group, Merseycare and Liverpool Public Health England. Most recently working as an independent specialist supported housing consultant.    

David Green OBE (Trustee)
David has worked in social housing for 40 years including as Chief Executive of Liverpool Housing Action Trust from its set up in 1993 to it's wind down at the end of 2005. In 2010 he was appointed to the role of interim Managing Director of a local authority Housing Management Service and was instrumental in improving the quality and performance of a service which had been rated by an independent assessment as being "amongst the worst ever inspected" and for outsourcing the service on a 5 year management contract under European Parliament Regulations. David has many years experience of board membership and was the chair of South Liverpool Housing. He has a keen understanding of current procurement and tendering regulations and has served on Audit Committees, Finance Committees and Business Planning Working Groups. now retired, David continues to be involved and active in the field of housing through a variety of volunteering activities. 

Terry Crolley (Lifetime President)
Terry has been associated with Whitechapel for over 25 years.  Prior to his retirement Terry was National Vice Chair of the Research Officers Association, a Member of the Home Office Working Party on race and Ethnic Monitoring, Secretary to the Board of the Merseyside, Cheshire and Lancashire Council on Alcoholism, Chair of Netherley CAB, a school Governor and a member of the Liverpool Detached Youth Work Committee.  He was also a part-time lecturer on the Social Science Post Graduate Course at Liverpool University. Since retirement, as well as being a former Treasurer of the Trustees, Terry is a contributor to the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and is the author of various publications.  His professional specialism is Social Policy, with particular reference to organisational research.