A world-class team at a company created for young people, run by young people.

We are proud to say that 5 out of 8 of our team members are young people who have come through our programmes themselves - this means the backbone of our company is made up of past Humanutopia students, who've faced similar challenges students are dealing with today

The Team Making it Happen

Our facilitation team is dedicated to excellence, with 10 goals to guide their growth and development. Led by strong Team Leaders who walk the walk, our facilitators demonstrate exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, ensuring every session is impactful and inspiring with young people.

Graham

Founding Director

HU team since: 2004

Graham has been with us from the very beginning, many of the programme ideas coming from his own experience growing up and what he learned in his successful teaching career at some of Merseyside’s toughest schools. Graham has worked with thousands of schools in his career, in the UK and around the world and also runs our highly acclaimed staff training programme.

Ryan

Partnership Manager

HU team since: 2011

Ryan first met humanutopia at his school in Peterborough at age 14. After being a hero and volunteering, he joined the team and has worked in different roles in the company around marketing, programme development, school liaison and most recently he now works to bring humanutopia to as many schools as possible. If you enquire about humanutopia, Ryan is your first point of contact.

Steve

Lead Facilitator

HU team since: 2009

Steve’s background was for many years in the building trade, until many years ago a chance meeting with Graham led Steve to see humanutopia at a school in Bristol. Steve knew from that day he wanted to work with young people. His experience of over a decade now has given him insight into working with young people in so many different contexts - we think Steve has inspired over 100,000 young people in his career so far, and counting!

Tamara

Lead Facilitator

HU team since: 2015

Tamara first met humanutopia when we came to her school in South London when she was in Year 9. After becoming a hero and running a summer school for Year 6 going into Year 7, Tamara joined the HU team for a summer role. After a very successful few weeks she joined the team and now runs many of our programmes from working with large cohorts to smaller groups and has a unique energy to connect with young people.

Stevie

Lead Facilitator

HU team since: 2016

Steve first met us at her school in Northamptonshire. After taking part as a hero, Stevie applied initially for a summer role with us but loved it so much that she now spends her week going up and down the country working with different schools. Stevie is an amazing role model, a great communicator and lots of young people can relate to her.

Sacha

Lead Facilitator

HU team since: 2017

Sacha first met humanutopia when he was in Year 5 in school in North London! As fate would have it, we met again when Sacha was in the sixth form and he helped us work with younger students before applying to join the team. Sacha brings an incredible amount of energy and passion to his work with young people which leads to him building incredibly quick rapport with them.

Ryan

Facilitator

HU team since: 2022

Ryan first met humanutopia at school on the Wirall in 2011. Ryan was a hero at his school and did an apprenticeship with us when he left school. We were delighted when he decided to rejoin our team in 2022 and he can relate to many of the barriers and challenges young people face and helping them overcome these.

Karen

Partnership Support Officer

HU team since: 2022

Karen first started to work with humanutopia after answering an advert on social media. Karen does some amazing work behind the scenes that isn’t always seen by young people or schools but she is amazingly organised and an essential part of our operations making sure everyone knows where they are meant to be and what they are meant to be doing! We couldn’t do it without her!

Billie

Facilitator

HU team since: 2025

Billie first met humanutopia in 2018 as a sixth former at school in Liverpool. After working as a hero and doing work experience, Billie has now joined our team and is quickly becoming an amazing facilitator.

Professional Staff Development Rooted in Neuroplasticity and Student Wellbeing

At humanutopia we operate with a deep appreciation for neuroplasticity — the brain’s ability to change and adapt in response to experience — a central theme in The ReWired Brain. We design our programmes so that we can teach children that negative or unhelpful thought-patterns aren’t simply accepted but identified, reframed, and gradually replaced with more constructive ways of thinking. Just as Chilton emphasises that unconscious reactions from the past need not dictate present behaviour, Our programmes provide opportunities to help young people build systems for reflection and choice, enabling students and staff to pause, notice how their past may be influencing them, and choose healthier, intentional responses.

Furthermore, we recognise the dual systems of thinking described in the book — the instinctive / emotional system and the reflective / intentional system — and we work to strengthen the reflective system through practices that encourage mindful awareness, emotional regulation, and deliberate change.

Our programmes provide structures and tools so young people realise that they can “rewire” their brains: repeated practice, safe environment for experimentation and growth, and consistent support. Over time, these neurobiological insights inform their training, peer mentoring, and culture, allowing all members to move from being driven by fear or habit to being more resilient, courageous, and choice-oriented.