Joe Dobson

Background

About Joe Dobson

Privileged to be the Director of The Aziz Foundation. A really agile and passionate place to work, seeking to improve the lives of British Muslim communities and wider British society.In leadership roles with secular and faith based charities and NGOs over 25 years I've achieved consistent high performance in exceeding voluntary income, tendering and trusts/statutory fundraising targets. I've implemented project and organisational governance change to improve the long term sustainability of organisations. I've worked with organisations working around mental health, youth justice/youth development, DV, modern slavery and early interventions in relation to extremism. My early career involved front line youth work and youth work management focused on young people involved in gang related crime.Leading on pro-active and reactive comms for Muslim institutions I've written for the Guardian, Sun, Independent, Telegraph, Daily Mail and appeared on multiple other media outlets worldwide in relation to community cohesion issues and Muslim communities in the UK. Once described by the press as "the reluctant voice of Britain's Muslim converts"[reluctant because that's a lot of responsibility].I created a groundbreaking project engaging Muslim and Jewish communities with one another, co-developed a national project supporting female victims of sexual exploitation and supported development of a tech-based response to domestic abuse and safeguarding.The highlight of my career so far was absolutely smashing an impromptu rap performance in front of hundreds of students on a campus visit in Bandung, Indonesia. Eminem may not be losing any sleep just yet though.In a voluntary capacity I worked as a youth worker for close to 20 years; in my neighbourhood of Peckham, south London with local teenagers; nationally with Muslim youth groups. My happy place has always been coaching kids football. I've trained a lot of kids who've made it as pro footballers up to the World Cup and Premier League. and supported many others to become coaches. Most importantly, the vast majority of those kids simply became really lovely adults -)