Staff
Say hello to the dream team at UHCYT, and find out exactly what makes each of them a uniquely valued member of our staff. Without each of these change-makers, we'd just be another non-profit organisation.
Paul Thompson
Director of Youth Services
Paul and his wife, Karen, have been invested in the community for over 15 years, and continue to build strong relationships to be able to make a real difference in people's lives.
As director, Paul oversees the overall work of the trust, and supervises the rest of the team. Read more about Paul in the Director's Story.
Shontel Oloapu
Youth Worker
Shontel is one of our youth workers at Collision, and loves being part of an organisation that provides safe spaces where young people can just come and hang out, and also learn some new skills and realise their own potential.
Shontel is also a trained barista and teaches young people the art of making café style coffees, at no cost to them.
Rosie Bartley
Youth Worker
Rosie works in Heretaunga College as a chaplain, overseas our faith based "Royals" programme, Belle, and helps out with Shift.
Rosie is passionate about seeing young people be the best they can be and has a background in youth ministry in a faith based context.
Matt Maa
Youth Worker
Matt joined our team in 2018 and works with UHCYT in Collision Youth Centre, and has started a new boys group "Dream Kings".
Matt has a huge interested in all sorts of media including video, music, and social media.
Belinda Lord
Administrator
Belinda joined our team in mid 2018 as administrator with primary responsibility for overseeing our transport social enterprises.
Belinda also runs an amazing fruit and Vege Coop for Upper Hutt.
She is the go to person if you want to hire a van or a bus.
Graeme Knowles
Bus Driver
Graeme joined our team as our key bus driver in mid 2017. If you have hired one of our buses since then the chances are you will have had Graeme as your bus driver.
Graeme is also skilled in video editing, and is currently writing his own short film.