Meet Our Team

The centre has developed into a thriving service to the local community in the last few years and its future is focused on developing a diverse youth and community service to our wonderful community. As a team, our aim is to develop and sustain the centre as a bustling and vibrant hub to meet local needs and to encourage people to come together. If you’d like to help us support this small but ambitious charity, please get in touch.

Here’s an introduction to the team that supports the centre.

John Clavering is our Lead Youth Worker. He runs a weekly youth rock session, supports other users at the centre and liaises with the Youth Committee. He’s worked with young people in various formal, informal and care situations for more than 25 years and with many organisations including local authorities, YMCAs and DePaul Uk.

John is a degree qualified sound engineer and media technician and he specialises in using music to engage young people and to promote positive activities that encourage social and personal development. John’s also a keen naturalist and wildlife photographer with some amazing photographs to his name.

Veena Bumma-Dykes is our immediate past Chair of Trustees. She’s been involved in youth and community development for over 30 years in various capacities. Her involvement with Whitley Bay Young People Centre began in the early 2000s when she moved up north from London. Her role has varied over time and she’s now chair of our fantastic team of trustees, staff and indispensable volunteers.

Beyond her role at the centre, Veena works in education delivering health, social care, education and youth work programmes. Her interests also include spending time with loved ones, health and well-being and walking her lovely little dog Ziggy!

David McCreedy is one of our trustees. He’s has been involved with Whitley Bay Young People’s Centre for over two years and is hoping to make a difference to the lives of local children, young people, and families. His background includes over 28 years of youth and community work right across the North East.

He’s currently a Director of Youth Programmes at Youth Focus North East and he brings a wealth of experience in developing and delivering services. Dave has been a trustee for various local and national charities for some time and he looks forward to continuing his support of Whitley Bay Young Peoples Centre in the coming years!

Maurice Bransfield is one of our trustees. He’s a retired Community & Youth Worker. In the late 1970s, he volunteered while studying for an engineering degree. He ended his ambitions for a career in music and began work as a trainee Youth Worker, developing a music collective that became the Riverside venue. Maurice’s career was an even split between the statutory and voluntary sectors.

Perhaps his most notable post was 13 years as a detached Youth Worker on the Meadow Well Estate during which he helped create the Federation for Detached Youth Work. Later on, Maurice moved to Northumberland, where he worked as a Principal Youth Officer and as a board member for the Confederation of Heads of Young People’s Services. He’s now happily retired!