Who we are
Who we are
Our Board
Gillian Hamilton - Chair
Gillian Hamilton is an experienced leader having worked in the Community Sector in various roles including Mental Health, Youth Work and Employability. She currently manages a community education programme working towards reducing educational underachievement and raising aspirations.
Gillian also has experience working for statutory health and social and its integration with the community and voluntary sector across Northern Ireland. She is a strong advocate for the work of TIDES and has experience engaging internationally in peace and reconciliation.
Gordie Walker - Vice Chair
Gordie has had vast experience in the field of peace and reconciliation stretching over a 40 year period and held various positions within the voluntary and statutory sector. Roles include Community Development Worker with Belfast City Council, Development Officer on the Peace Programme funded by the SEUPB, Development Office on the Peace Walls Programme funded by IFI and Policy Development Officer within CRC. He has contributed to the development of interventions in and around interfaces in Belfast, Portadown and Derry/Londonderry; delivered briefings to senior government officials and European members of parliament including MLAs and MPs. He has planned conferences and formal sessions with victims and survivors.
At present he is responsible for the management, development, and delivery of good relations programmes within the North of Belfast and further afield. This includes community safety, Policing and event management.
He is the Vice Chair of Duncairn Community Partnership a group funded by the IFI, focusing on developing relationships across the peace barriers in Duncairn, Tigers Bay, North Queens Street and the Limestone area. He also sits as an independent member of the Belfast PCSP.
Tony Clarke - Treasurer
Tony Clarke is a certified public accountant (fellow). He has in depth and detailed knowledge of the charitable sector including working with a range of funders and grant making bodes. Tony has a unique understanding of the wider sector and the challenges faced by charities especially relating to funding cuts and increased competition in the aftermath of Covid-19 and current Government departments cuts.
Tony has a wealth of experience working with CEOs and Boards assisting with organisational budgets, preparing, and presenting management accounts and payroll workings.
Tony is also a member of the SORP committee, CO3 2023 trustee of the year recipient and trustees of Association of Charity Independent Examiners (ACIE), Families Beyond Conflict and Start360.
Cara Collins - Company Secretary
Cara worked in finance and financial management for 10 years, predominantly in the charitable sector. Feeling unfulfilled in her work life, she went on to become a counsellor. Bringing together her financial management skills and her new skills working with complex mental health issues, it felt like a natural progression to start up a charitable organisation.
Since then, she has co-founded and grown uHub Therapy Centre from the outset, to a large mental health charity who receives in excess of 120 referrals per month. She is also co-founder and CEO of Find Help NI, a digital mental health not for profit, SeEd NI a professional mental health training partnership, and is on the Board of Trustees of Athena Foundation (equine therapy), who secured the first ever PSA accreditation for animal integrated health interventions in the UK.
Cara has years of front line experience working with a wide demographic of people experiencing mental health challenges, and 10 years experience in operational management in the charitable sector.
Dr Emily Stanton
Dr Emily Stanton has worked within third sector non-profits for over twenty years. Her disciplinary and professional background is in the field of Conflict Transformation. Emily was awarded a doctorate in International Conflict and Peacebuilding with INCORE based at Ulster University in Northern Ireland. Her academic studies have been a complement to her professional practice in peacebuilding including mediation, trauma and resiliency and community relations specialising in school-based interventions. She has also held governance roles a member of several voluntary boards in the community voluntary sector in the last 10 years.