Meet the Team
Staff
Lisa Norcross - Lisa was a founding member of Kairos Housing back in 2021. She joined us as a member of staff in January 2023 as our Project and Fundraising Manager. Previously she coordinated community English classes for Asylum Seekers and Refugees and volunteer recruitment across the ARC Project and headed up the Lancashire Sanctuary Homes Project for Together Lancashire under the Church Urban Fund.
Nancy Kinyanjui - Nancy joined the team in October 2023 as our full time Support Worker. With lived experience of the asylum process, promoting anti-discriminatory practice in society is close to her heart. She has worked in various roles supporting people on the margins of mainstream society and led diverse research initiatives and projects with a focus on equality, inclusion, and diversity to raise awareness and influence policy.
Trustees
Aftab Mughal - Aftab is a journalist and minority rights defender with four decades of work experience. His area of expertise is human rights advocacy, religious freedom, democratic practices, social justice, peacebuilding, women empowerment, and refugee issues. He is the Director of Minority Concern, and the Co-Coordinator of Racial Justice of United Reformed Church Northwest Synod of England. Also, he is the member of the advisory committee of the Interfaith Forum Blackburn with Darwen. For more than 17 years, he has been working with religious minorities, migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in different roles through various organisations, including Community Harmony Project and Blackburn YMCA as Project Coordinator. From 2001 to 2003, he served as an executive member of the International Jubilee 2000 Debt Campaign. Three times from 1998 to 2003, he gave oral statements on minority rights during the United Nations Human Rights Commission’s sessions in Geneva, Switzerland. From 1992 until 2005, as an Executive Secretary, he served the Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) of Pakistan, a national human rights body of the religious congregations of the Catholic Church.
Daleen ten Cate - Daleen is a co -founder of Kairos Housing and started the project as a result of finding a refugee homeless in the snow. Daleen works for the North West Synod for the United Reformed church as Missional Discipleship Mentor and is also the DEO of Churches Together in Lancashire. She has a passion for social justice and encouraging churches to work together in mission.
Charles Gent - Charles is the newest member of our trustee team...his bio is coming soon!
Debbie Smith - Debbie has been a primary school teacher (for more years than she cares to remember) and joined Kairos after having volunteered as an English teacher and case worker with asylum seekers and refugees at the ARC Project for 10 years.
Hein ten Cate - Hein joined the Kairos team in 2022. Hein works full time in the National Health Service as a Clinical Psychologist and has a special interest in working with trauma, resilience and the well-being of staff (caring for the carers).
John East - John has been supporting asylum seekers and refugees for over 20 years. He first started a drop in at Central URC Darwen and then was employed by Blackburn Cathedral as a Asylum/refugee support worker. He then set up a drop-in at Wesley Hall now the ARC project. After retirement he was asked to form a new drop-in at Central URC by the British Cross Red which then became DARE. He remains the Chair of DARE and still supports the various needs of asylum seekers and refugees in Darwen along with lots of fantastic partners and volunteers. He also helped to set up the YMCA welcome project and is a non-serving elder and local preacher in the URC church. He is an elected Darwen Town Councillor and lobbies and supports the integration and cohesion of new residents from conflict areas of the world who live in the Blackburn with Darwen. His main background of employment for over 35 years was in the local newspaper industry.