Monica Shafaq

Chief Executive

Monica has been involved with the charity sector for a number of years and has been the Chief Executive of The Kaleidoscope Plus Group since 2010. It is under her leadership that the charity rebranded from Sandwell Mind into The Kaleidoscope Plus Group and has obtained a place on the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to Work For every year since 2015.

Monica holds a MSc in Housing and previous to her employment with the Charity spent several years working in the social housing sector.

Committed to promoting the role of women and Black and Minority Ethnic individuals in leadership roles, she has chaired the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisation’s national Black and Asian Leadership Special Interest Group and has also been involved in a national group addressing Governance in the Third Sector.

Throughout her career, Monica has held a number of non-executive roles and currently sits on the boards of Birmingham County Football Association and Citizen Housing where she has lead responsibility for equality and mental health. She is also is a member of the Premier League’s Equality and Diversity Panel and a Non-Executive Director at Kidderminster Harriers Football Club. Having a keen interest in supporting young people and addressing issues of inequality, unemployment and poverty, Monica is also a trustee for the Paul Canoville Foundation.

Monica can be contacted on monica.shafaq@kaleidoscopeplus.org.uk

Claire Dale

Director of Operations

Claire Dale is the Kaleidoscope Plus Groups Director of Operations (Deputy Chief Executive) and joined the organisation in 2012. Claire provides both strategic development and operational support for the services that the Charity provides and she also has responsibilities for securing new business.

Claire has worked in the Health and Social Care Sector for more than 20 years with an academic background in Special Needs and Inclusion and has experience of working in social housing as well across the third sector in both employed capacities and also in voluntary roles as a Trustee.

Alongside her core roles Claire also delivers a range of Mental Health First Aid training products in a variety of settings and also volunteers for a Crisis Text Messaging Service.

Claire has a passion for people and seeks to develop services in conjunction with others which help people to thrive and not just survive.

Claire can be contacted on claire.dale@kaleidoscopeplus.org.uk

Alison Francis

Director of Finance & Resources

Alison Francis joined KKPG in October 2019. As Director of Finance & Resources she is responsible for leading on Finance, Facilities, Risk and Governance.

Before joining The Kaleidoscope Plus Group, Alison had more than 25 years experience in management and accounting at a senior and board level, including within the FTSE 100 company in the Oil & Gas Industry.

Her work is focused on ensuring long-term financial sustainability, compliance with external and internal requirements, as well as driving improvements by highlighting opportunities for better ways of working.

Alison can be contacted on alison.francis@kaleidoscopeplus.org.uk

Daniel Fisher

Human Resources Manager

Daniel is a results oriented HR professional, energised by a challenge, with a number of years of progressive human resource management and leadership experience within the private and not-for-profit sectors.

Graduating in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts in Human Resource Management, Daniel is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development and Safeguarding Lead Governor for a group of Birmingham Academies.

Primarily, Daniel’s role is to work with senior management teams as a trusted advisor and business partner to provide pragmatic and legally sound HR solutions and to ensure that the people strategy fits into the overall business strategy and charity mission. He has a varied remit covering both operational and strategic HR Management, including complex employee relations, performance management, talent and development, organisational development, reward, recruitment and data and information.

Daniel can be contacted at daniel.fisher@kaleidoscopeplus.org.uk

Sue Vincent

Talking Therapies Manager

Sue began working for the charity in 2011, originally managing the IAPT service and a Young people’s Counselling service in South Staffs.

She is a qualified counsellor with over 23 years previous experience of working with children and young people with her first counselling role as a school counsellor. She has also worked with adults for many years in various roles.

She currently manages the Affordable Counselling service and the Primary Mental Health Workers’ service for children and young people as well as a role in managing the KPG part of a service provided by The Children Society (The BEAM Project Sandwell).

Sue is a qualified Mental Health First Aid Practitioner as well as a qualified Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Trainer.

She attended Birmingham City University and has an MSc in Counselling and Psychotherapy

Sue can be contacted on sue.vincent@kaleidoscopeplus.org.uk

Melanie Griffin

Suicide Prevention Co-Ordinator

Melanie Griffin joined The Kaleidoscope Plus Group in 2020. Having been bereaved personally by suicide she has spent the last 10 years working to support those thinking of suicide and those bereaved by suicide.

She has received recognition and awards for her dedication to the cause and her holistic approach of working. She will go anywhere and everywhere to talk about suicide!

As well as supporting individuals and our communities, she works with a variety of key partnerships across the UK working to improve both national and regional suicide strategies.

She has become one of around 7,000 Worldwide ASIST trainers (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training by Living Works) along with also delivering a variety of different cost effective and timed training packages to our community, showing the importance of awareness raising.

She is also working currently with other organisiation(s) and charities, to improve their suicide safety plans and building staff confidence around suicide.

If you would like to speak with Melanie about anything suicide related, please do not hesitate to get in touch directly on Melanie.Griffin@Kaleidoscopeplus.org.uk

Vicki Fox

Care Services Manager

Vicki has worked for KPG since 2002 and manages Nicholl Grange, the charity’s Reablement Scheme for people who experience mental ill health.

Vicki also manages the Independent Living Service based in Walsall. This service provides support for people who experience mental ill health that live in their own home. Vicki is a qualified Mental health First Aid trainer and also delivers a host of other training modules such as Mental Health Awareness for Managers and Menopause Awareness.

Vicki can be contacted on vicki.fox@kaleidoscopeplus.org.uk