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The Valrec Team
Right Honourable Ron Davies
Director
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The Director of Valrec brings nearly 40 years of experience in a wide variety of fields. His experience and understanding of Government, both Local and National plus a life time’s commitment to equality and human rights has been instrumental in turning Valrec around from being an organisation struggling to exist to one which is viable, dynamic and with a clear vision for the future.
Elaine Clayton
Deputy Director
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Elaine has specific responsibility for developing the commercial activities especially training and the various consultancy programmes Valrec offers. She is the former Deputy Director of the South East Wales Race Equality Council and has over 13-years experience of developing/providing training for which she has an enviable reputation throughout Wales.
Christine Protheroe
Assistant Director of Development
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Christine has worked on issues affecting minority groups across all the equality mandates for the last 15 years. She has gained considerable experience and expertise both on a strategic level and local level working with public, private and voluntary organisations to promote equality of opportunity, eliminate discrimination and promote good relations between individuals and all groups.
Christine role aims to ensure that Valrec remains a forward thinking, sustainable organisation delivering measureable outcomes that meet both the local and regional needs of communities.
Cathy Monk
Office/Finance Manager
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Cathy joined Valrec in July 2002 as an Administrative Officer. Since 2003 she has worked on the finances of the organisation and has seen Valrec grow from 3 members of staff to the current number of 12.
As part of her role she ensures that the projects are run within their budgets. She also ensures that all of the policies and procedures within Valrec are adhered to.
Prior to joining Valrec she worked in a small media production company in Cardiff and the University of Glamorgan Business School.
Laura Richards
Criminal Justice Service Diversity Officer.
Race Initiatives Programme Co-ordinator.
Valrec / Rhondda Cynon Taff Youth Offending Service
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Laura graduated from University of Wales Swansea in 2003 with a B.A (Hons) degree in English Literature. Having spent some time working with young people as a sessional play worker whilst at university, and having completed her youth worker qualification, Laura decided that a job working within the community was for her.
Laura enjoyed previous posts based at the Tylorstown On Track project, promoting social inclusion and for Caerphilly County Borough Council promoting the education of Looked After Children before embarking upon her second degree, B.A (Hons) Community Justice at University of Wales, Newport. This degree, coupled with an NVQ in Working with Offending Behaviour, gained Laura the qualified Probation Officer status.
Having enjoyed the diverse opportunities available whilst working within the Probation Service, Laura developed a particular interest in working with racially motivated offenders. It was this interest, coupled with her interest in diversity and equality in general, that led to Laura applying for the post of Criminal Justice Service Diversity Officer for Valrec.
Laura is thoroughly enjoying her new post, particularly working with partnership agencies and researching and developing effective tools to assess and work with young people. In her spare time, Laura enjoys reading, travelling and spending time with her friends and family.
Mirco Cordeiro
BME Young Persons Officer CCBC & RCT
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Mirco was born in Mozambique, grew up in Portugal even though his name is Italian. His skills and experience are as diverse as his cultural background; he studied French, English, German and also speaks Spanish and basic Italian. While studying Sociology in University he worked for the Portuguese Office for National Statistics, was an ambassador for his University, worked in a Communication and Marketing company where he organised Portugal’s 1st Stand-up Comedy festival and was a freelancer doing statistical analysis with SPSS software. In his spare time he volunteered with International Habitat, develop multicultural social and media workshops for children and young people, organised street performances for the 25th anniversary of the Portuguese revolution, was part of several youth theatre groups and came to Wales as an international volunteer via the European Volunteer Service (EVS), programme funded by the European Commission.
As an EVS volunteer, he worked in schools with Portuguese children and young people and with the adult migrant community via Glamorgan Gates project. On his spare time he also volunteer with South Wales Police, Community Race Relations group, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, Libraries, School nurses, Career Wales and Merthyr Youth Service, Valleys Kids, UNA Exchange and Valrec.
Wayne Lee
Senior Development Officer (Economic Inactivity)
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Sobia Iqbal
Development Officer (Economic Inactivity)
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Sobia started with VALREC in June 2009 after spending the previous 7 years working specifically with disadvantaged and hard to reach young people. She is a qualified Youth worker and holds a BAHons Diploma in Youth and Community work.
Her decision to move away from working specifically with young people came after hearing about some of the work that VALREC were involved in. Like challenging prejudice and inequality through the work it delivers at grass roots level, for example the diversity workshops in schools, community projects etc.
Rez Jamal
Senior Development Officer (A Voice in the Valleys)
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Rez has recently joined the VALREC team as the Senior Development Officer for the big lottery funded project entitled ‘A Voice in the Valleys’. Previously, he managed his own business which was an excellent opportunity for him to utilise the skills that he has acquired over the years. The lessons learnt from overseeing the business have proved monumental in the ways he approaches challenging tasks. Prior to this he worked for; AWEMA (All Wales Ethnic Minority Association) as the Senior Development Officer, for the BBC as a radio presenter and producer and has many years of experience working as a Manager in the retail fashion sector.
Darren Ralph
Development Officer (A Voice in the Valleys)
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Darren was born in 1982 and was brought up in the Garw valley areas of South Wales. When Darren’s grandparents were resident in Chennai, India, he was fortunate to travel the country on several occasions. Since then Darren has travelled widely absorbing different cultures and customs for which he has a passion of interest. Darren initially studied for his BA Honours in ‘Theology and Religious Studies’ at Trinity University College, Carmarthen and was later educated at the University of Kent at Canterbury where he received an MPhil in ‘Applied Theology’ for his submission of a research thesis. Darren’s research contributes to the Secularisation debate and argues against a religious decline by investigating the extent to which religious themes and imageries are fundamental in contemporary popular culture, namely, the medium of film. Darren is dedicated to his work in equalities and human rights and feels that his studies around world culture will strengthen the compassion and understanding of those in society who suffer prejudice, discrimination and injustice. Darren will begin his MSc in ‘Equality and Diversity’ at Cardiff University in September 2009 and is eager to feed any new found knowledge directly into his project and casework.
Antony Dodd
Specialist Caseworker (LGBT)
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Tony has done a number of different things over the years, to many to list he says. He has studied British Sign Language at University, worked as a teaching assistant while he was a student before entering into nursing. He currently is based at The Valleys Regional Equality Council, running the Rhondda L.G.B.T Support Network.
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