Our Staff
Stuart
CEO
Stuart initially joined First Step as a volunteer counsellor in early 2020. As a qualified Person-Centred Counsellor, he has comprehensive experience in working with clients who have complex mental health conditions as a result of sexualised trauma, both with First Step and a similar organisation.
Stuart’s role developed within First Step into the Clinical lead/Clinical Coordinator role for a number of years before recently being appointed the organisations Chief Executive.
He works in partnership with all stakeholders, facilitating our passion and drive to deliver the highest standard of counselling and support for all service users. His aim is to provide the back up and support his dedicated teams needs so they can focus on supporting and helping the many clients who come to First Step, whilst focusing on developing First Steps service delivery to reach a wider client base.
Vicky
Service Coordinator and Clinical Lead
Vicky has been with First Step for 11 years after joining as a volunteer counsellor whilst completing her degree in Integrative Counselling at Leicester University. Alongside her role as Clinical Lead, she has worked across and within schools, prisons and institutions providing support to those individuals who need it. Vicky is a qualified Integrative and EMDR therapist specialising in supporting individuals affected by sexual trauma, abuse and the wide range of issues created by this. Vicky also successfully works within areas such as attachment, addiction, loss and anxiety. In previous roles she has worked as a Crisis worker at a Sexual Assault Referral Centre and as a Designated Safeguarding Lead.
Vicky is passionate about working within the organisation to create real and lasting change for the clients who walk through the door. She champions the power of the therapist-client relationship in providing a safe space to support, promote and maintain a positive change. She holds an unwavering belief that change is always possible when the work begins.
Vicky has a holistic approach to life and well- being, qualifying as a Reiki therapist in 2022, taking every opportunity to enjoy nature, travel, walking and reading a good book. Passionate about providing an environment where client and counsellor can feel valued, safe and enough; she is warm, down to earth and understands the importance of a safe, boundaried counselling space.
Michelle
Service Coordinator and Clinical Lead
Michelle is our Service Coordinator and Clinical Lead. A qualified Person-Centred Counsellor, she first joined First Step as a volunteer in early 2021, bringing with her a deep commitment to supporting people through their healing journeys.
With extensive experience working alongside individuals who have experienced complex mental health challenges — particularly those rooted in sexualised trauma — Michelle combines her clinical expertise with a warm, compassionate approach. She also brings valuable experience in holistic therapies, helping to create gentle and nurturing pathways to wellbeing.
In her role, Michelle is dedicated to organising peer group activities that build confidence, foster connection, and promote the overall wellbeing of our clients. She works closely with all stakeholders, staff, counsellors, and volunteers to ensure First Step remains a safe, welcoming space where every person feels truly heard, understood, and supported.
Passionate about the power of empathy and human connection, Michelle strives to cultivate a caring and inclusive environment in which both service users and the team can grow, heal, and thrive together.
Emma
Finance and Administration Lead
Having graduated from Leicester University with a languages degree in the Nineties Emma went on to pursue a career in the leisure industry.
In 2016 Emma left Leicester to move to Austria where she bought a small guesthouse which she ran for 5 years before returning to the UK.
Running the B&B fulfilled Emma’s passion for looking after people and taking care of the guests to ensure they had the best holiday experience possible was the highlight of her time in Austria.
Since returning to the UK Emma was keen to work for a local charity and is dedicated to providing a compassionate service in her role which initially began as Receptionist / Admin Assistant for First Step, and has since developed into Finance and Administration Lead.
Our Trustees
Mark Evans, Vice Chair
After studying at Leicester University, Mark joined the NHS working in the Department of Public Health Medicine in West Birmingham, before travelling to Hong Kong where he worked in environmental engineering. After spending several years backpacking, he returned to the UK and settled in Leicestershire, enjoying a varied career working in IT services before retiring. Mark has held senior roles in both large corporate and SME organisations, both in the UK and abroad, and is an experienced board director and business owner. Someone who is solution focused, Mark is drawn to projects that have purpose and bring direct benefit to people. Inspired by the transformational impact First Step can have on the lives of survivors of sexual abuse, and those who support them, Mark is motivated to ensure this important work continues and develops.
Fauna Gill
Having been a counsellor for around 30 years, Fauna has worked in a variety of mental health settings. While living in S E Asia she gained experience in organisations working specifically with suicide, HIV and AIDS, and particularly enjoyed working in a multi-cultural environment. After returning to Leicester, she managed a local charity supporting women who had been sexually abused in childhood, an area that became especially important to her. Fauna was then appointed as Director of a generic, local counselling organisation, where she recruited and managed a large team of volunteer counsellors, most of whom were trainees on placement. She has gained extensive experience of charitable and voluntary sector organisations, acquiring funding and liaising with local authorities, the NHS, various trusts and foundations and other key stakeholders.
Kirandip Gill
Kirandip brings a diverse range of experience from working with vulnerable victims to currently working in a CAMHS service as a Specialist leading clinical decision maker. In previous roles she has worked as a Crisis worker at the Sexual Assault Referral Centre and becoming an accredited Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA). Kiran works as a Community Volunteer for Leicestershire Police and worked for Domestic and Sexual violence charities in Leicester. Kirandip is skilled in using social media and has supported the development of multimedia videos for First Step and the development of the new website which has attracted more self-referrals. Kirandip has grown up in Leicester and has links and knowledge of the demographic of Leicester and provision available for service users.
Jon Putnam, Chair
Jon presently works in the public sector, with experience of safeguarding and identifying vulnerability, as well as supporting victims of sexual abuse. He has worked for charities since the age of 17, with his first role working for Victim Support visiting victims of crime. Jon is an experienced trustee, having served as a trustee and chairman of two charities that offered relationship counselling and behaviour change courses for domestic abuse perpetrators. He specialises in problem solving, change management and modernisation, having previously introduced one of the first fully online appointment booking and diary management systems in the relationship counselling sector. Jon is a great believer in counselling and therapy, and is passionate in supporting First Step to reach everyone who needs it.
Mick Studley, Treasurer
Mick spent 28 years in Leicestershire Police, retiring as a sergeant, and 19 years in the voluntary sector working with and managing victim services as Divisional manager and Deputy Locality Director. He is passionate about victims of crime receiving the best support available and, in particular, those surviving the most challenging situations such as male victims of sexual abuse.
Barry Merryweather
Barry spent the vast majority of his career in Social Work, both in the Public & Private sectors, primarily working with Children and Adults with learning disabilities. A survivor of childhood sexual abuse, he attended First Step in 2014, to receive formal Counselling. Since then he has become an advocate, raising awareness of male sexual abuse via local media. A dedicated supporter of First Step, Barry has been a volunteer support worker, facilitated in running a men’s support group for survivors as well as being involved in various other projects on behalf of First Step. Barry was asked to join the Board of Trustees in September 2024.
Gavin Stafford
Gavin has several years’ experience in the charity sector, working with young people and adults affected by serious violence, sexual abuse, and criminal and sexual exploitation. As a qualified ISVA, he developed an LGBT+ ISVA service within a rape crisis centre and later led a national LGBT+ support service for victims and survivors of abuse and violence, including sexual and domestic abuse, hate crime, honour-based abuse, and conversion practices. Gavin is deeply committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, and is keen to support First Step at a strategic level to take a reflective, accountable and brave approach to EDI—one that values learning, challenges inequity with compassion, and remains firmly grounded in inclusion and equity.