Mike Vance is a senior teacher working for The Learning Trust in Hackney. He runs a number of writing and performing projects, developed in primary schools but extended to incorporate secondary schools. These include coaching individual children and working on rap poetry in schools.

Mike is dedicated to young people developing their own lives and is very well-regarded and trusted by the many diverse communities that reside in Hackney. He is the Board’s Vice- Chair.

Reece Cadette is in his first year of a degree in Dance at  De Monford University. He teaches dance at Lister/Lynk Reach workshops and prepared a dance show at Lister (our business partner, providing our premises and offered first refusal on leading appropriate projects) in June. 

Reece won the 2007 Islington Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Hilary Carnihan was a head teacher in Greenwich for 12 and half years.

Martin Cook, originating from Australia, is a secondary school teacher at Kingsford Community School, Newham, who has been involved in several projects with Lynk Reach.

He is very passionate about SLAM and has formed the club ‘Poets gone wild’ with students who participated in the 2006 SLAM. The group has now extended to include other students in the school, and has judged a primary school poetry competition, among other activities.

Zafer Felik is from Cyprus. He works for the Shoreditch Trust as a Community Development Manager. He is also the principle of a Kurdish and Turkish Saturday School, called the Shoreditch Community School.

The school was founded in 2005 for primary aged pupils. Over 200 students attend the school. Zafer is responsible for training and developing courses for Hackney's Ethnic Minority Communities in partnership with the Learning Trust on behalf of Shoreditch Trust.