social enterprises
Consultancy Team
Our Consultancy and Training services are delivered by experts in their field at Community Links. In addition to the core team we also call on the expertise of our wider team of practitioners across the organisation.
WeiHsi Hu is Community Link’s Consultancy & Training Manager. WeiHsi holds more than 10 years of experience in programme management, research, and community engagement. WeiHsi brings extensive experience as a community developer working with the diverse communities supporting community organisations and government agencies in Canada and UK. In 2008, he worked as the programme manager for the Department of Children, Schools, and Families, supporting central strategic policy development for the Schools Directorate. WeiHsi specialises in engagement strategies of people with diverse backgrounds. In the past ten years, he devoted his efforts in advocating for social inclusion and engagement of vulnerable populations in policy development processes.
Aaron Barbour is Head of linksUK, the national team of Community Links, and prior to this as Community Links’ Research & Policy Manager. Aaron has directed research and consultancy teams for the last eight years, delivered pilot projects and led successful campaigns on subjects including the informal economy, the benefits, tax credits and tax systems, housing, and children and young people. Aaron has worked in the UK’s voluntary & community sector over the last 22 years, for a range of local, national and international organisations, as a practitioner, researcher, campaigner, fundraiser, policy advisor, trustee (currently for Fair Finance, a micro-finance organisation) and volunteer.
Dr Marlen Llanes is Community Links’ Research Co-ordinator and a lecturer for the Open University. Marlen has extensive experience of working in Latin America, the USA and the UK. Her experience in social science research spans over 15 years including field research in Rural and Urban Sociology, Political Science and for her doctorate in Urban Planning and Policy Development. Her research has addressed issues such as social organisations, poverty and poverty alleviation, women’s participation, education and health policies and administration, public sector reform and regional development in the USA, Central and South America and over the last ten years in the UK.
Maeve McGoldrick is Community Links’ Campaigns Coordinator situated in the national policy team. Current campaigns include the national grassroots campaign, Need NOT Greed which aims to reform the welfare system to formalise benefits claimants work and a nation wide campaign on working age poverty. Maeve has worked for Community Links for two years and has developed the strategic planning and implementation of campaigns. She is responsible for developing support for campaign asks in various networks and influencing decision makers at a local and national level and capacity building for campaign supporters who wish to become activists.
Richard McKeever is the Communications Manager at Community Links. Richard has over 10 years experience producing publications for everyone from the Prime Minister to local charities. He is a member of the judging panel for the BURA awards for Community Inspired Regeneration. As the chief editor of Community Links publisher initiative, he has produced publications for DCSF, Sinnott Foundation, Prime Minister’s Council on Social Action, and Community Links’ Evidence Paper Series. In addition, Richard has worked with partners to delivery a wide range of training manuals such as The Young Activists Workbooks – encouraging young people to become engaged in their communities; and a series of books that enable practitioners to reflect on issues such as Development and Leadership which arise from their work with communities.
Will Horwitz is Community Links’ Communications Coordinator. Will works with Community Links’ national team to communicate national policy work in the media, online, and through dissemination of resources. In addition, he is responsible for conducting policy audits and policy analysis across the organisation identifying key issues and setting Community Links future research and campaign agenda. Prior to Community Links, he was Oxfam’s UK Poverty Communications Officer where he carried out communication strategies including online strategy, media coverage, publications, and stories/case studies compilation.