About Us

Adrian is Professor of Modern British History and Head of the School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities at the University of Sheffield. Before this he read history at Merton College, Oxford, and stayed there to study for his D.Phil. In 2002, he took up a Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Centre for Contemporary British History (CCBH), Institute of Historical Research, University of London. He remained at the CCBH to hold a three-year British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. Adrian's main research interests are in the political, social and cultural history of twentieth-century Britain. 

Alimatu Dimonekene is an award-winning leading Women and Girls Rights Advocate. She is a tireless activist who has dedicated her life to enhancing the reproductive health rights of women and girls especially those affected by harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and child/early forced marriage and exploitation. Winner of the Rosie McGrath Activist Award 2018, Alimatu has also been recognised for her dedicated work by winning the African Achievers Award 2017 for her work in raising the voices of African women and girls through empowering the next generation. She also is the founder of A Girl At A Time (SL) leading organization in Sierra Leone engaging, empowering and educating young people around the issues of gender base violence and advocacy. A fellow of the OpEd Project the inaugural 2022 Public Voices Fellowship on Advancing the Rights of Women and Girls. A graduate of Middlesex University London, she was awarded an MBE for services to the prevention of violence against women and girls. 

Aneeta was born and raised within the sound of the London’s Bow Bells, while her family originates from Himachal Pradesh, ‘The Land of the Gods.’ She was the first qualified female Black Belt karate instructor in the UK. Aneeta is a Magistrate, chairing adult, family and youth courts. Aneeta is the Founder of Freedom Charity, which works to eradicate abusive practices such as forced marriage, female genital mutilation, virginity testing and hymenoplasty. She is the author of “But It’s Not Fair”, a book for children and young people exploring Forced Marriage and “Cut Flowers”, which explores Female Genital Mutilation. Aneeta suffers from the condition Trigeminal Neuralgia and is the CEO of the Trigeminal Neuralgia Association. She was awarded an MBE in New Years Honours 2023 for charitable service.  

Dr Howard Williamson CVO CBE FRSA FHEA is Professor of European Youth Policy at the University of South Wales. Previously he worked at the Universities of Oxford, Cardiff and Copenhagen and has held visiting positions at universities and research institutes in Hong Kong, Malta, Croatia, China, France, Australia, and Iran.

He is a nationally qualified youth worker and ran a youth centre for 25 years in parallel with his academic research that spanned issues such as youth crime, youth unemployment, vocational training, enterprise and entrepreneurship, substance misuse, homelessness, school curricula and youth work. He conducted the original ‘status zer0’ research that produced political attention to young people not in employment, education or training (‘NEET’) and has followed the lives of a group of men (The Milltown Boys), whom he first encountered when they were young offenders in the early 1970s. His third book about the ‘Boys’ is The Milltown Boys at Sixty (Routledge 2021). His latest book, with Jim Côté, is Advanced Introduction to Youth Studies (Edward Elgar 2022).

He has advised many levels of governance on youth policy issues, from the Welsh and UK governments, the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the United Nations. He co-ordinated the Council of Europe’s international reviews of national youth policy and wrote three volumes on Supporting Young People in Europe. He is a board member of Grassroots – the Cardiff City Centre Youth Project, the Restorative Justice for All International Institute, the European Forum Alpbach Foundation, and the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award for Young People Foundation.

Since 2002, he has been Organisational Secretary of the International Sociological Association Research Committee 34, the global network for the sociology of youth. He was also chair of the European Network of Youth Research Correspondents until 2008. In his spare time, he rides horses and motorbikes, plays the guitar and harmonica, and is a football coach and qualified referee, and Safeguarding Officer for Pontypridd Town Association Football Club.

In 2002, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and, in 2016, a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO). In 2019, he received an Outstanding Contribution to Youth Work award from the First Minister of Wales.

Paul was educated at St Paul's School, London before studying Nazi Germany and the Holocaust at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Paul trained as an accountant and is currently Director of a property development company focussing on residential new build and industrial investments.  From the 1980s to the present day, Paul has been a Trustees of the British Friends of the Jaffa Institute, an organisation dedicated to improving the lives of the most deprived citizens of Jaffa across all ethnicities. From the early 1990s, he was involved in forming the War Crimes Committee whose aim was to establish legislation to prosecute Nazi war criminals who had sought refuge in the UK after the Second World War. He became a Trustee of the Holocaust Educational Trust in the mid-1990s and served as Treasurer, Vice Chair and, for 10 years, Chairman. He is now Joint President of the Trust. His interests are golf, modern European history and aviation. 

Educated at Dulwich College and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, Peter was a journalist for 40 years, split between the Financial Times and The Times, working mainly as a political correspondent and commentator. Towards the end of his time in journalism, he became involved with various charities—first as a council member and then as chair of the Hansard Society which promotes understanding of Parliament and organises mock elections in schools. Since leaving journalism in 2010, he has held various public service roles—as Director of the Institute for Government, a non-partisan charity concerned with improving the workings of government from 2011-16; Commissioner for Public Appointments, an independent office holder responsible for regulating appointments to arms-length bodies made by ministers; and as a Governor of Dulwich College, a south London independent school, for 12 years and board chair from 2015 until 2021. 

Having qualified as an R.E. teacher, Rachel has spent over 30 years in the secondary education and is now in her 10th year as a Headteacher. Having grown up in Harlesden in London and Luton, Rachel has spent her career in Sheffield where she is currently Headteacher of Fir Vale Secondary School. She is a keen runner, swimmer and cyclist (although not usually at the same time), and has raised thousands of pounds for various charities through marathon and ultra-marathon running, and multi-country cycle treks.  

Joe Hayman, the former Chief Executive of the PSHE Association and former Managing Director of the Holocaust Educational Trust. Joe is also the author of two books about Britain - British Voices and British Journey.

Ben started his career in education working with students in Sheffield with Special Educational Needs and those at risk of falling out of education before qualifying as a history teacher and spending over a decade in the classroom in Sheffield and London. Ben is also a specialist in Holocaust Education: he has an MA in Holocaust Studies from Royal Holloway, University of London and for two years worked at the Holocaust Educational Trust developing national programmes for site based and online learning as well as delivering teacher training and consultancy to organisations inside and outside of the mainstream education sector. Ben has additionally worked with educational publishers to produce core textbooks, and taught MA Education students at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, London.

A united, cohesive society with high levels of social solidarity based on shared values. A nation where all citizens, no matter their background or heritage, are able to contribute, fulfil their responsibilities and access the services and rights to which they are entitled.  

To help unite Britain through high-quality, balanced education on British history, citizenship, culture and values for young people, new migrants and the wider public. 

Impartial: a non-partisan organisation committed to young people and new migrants to the UK receiving balanced, honest, agenda-free education about Britain. 

Courageous: we will pursue our mission and our values wherever they take us and will be unafraid of sharing hard truths, even if these are unpopular with some.

Representative: we will always seek to represent the different communities, faiths and nations of the UK in our staff, trustee and advisory groups and will never be tokenistic.

Authoritative: we will be experts in our field, our work will always be of the highest-standard and we will try to recruit the best of the best.

Accessible: we want new migrants and students in all parts of the UK to be able to access our work and we will fundraise to ensure cost isn’t a barrier to them doing so.

Sustainable: while we will move quickly as a start-up, our aim is to build an institution that lasts with sustainable, diversified income from independent and state schools, colleges, universities, local authorities, individuals, corporates, trusts and foundations.