Skip to content

About us

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

OUR STORY

Kairos began some 30 years ago with the vision and commitment of Father John Kitchen and Tony Walsh and one semi-derelict property. Today, Kairos Community Trust is a registered charity with 47 staff, 16 volunteers and more than 200 residents and clients – a thriving community of men and women recovering from lives of addiction and homelessness in 30 houses across six London boroughs (Brent, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark and Wandsworth).
This steady and sustainable growth continues to be achieved through the dedication of our staff, volunteers and supporters. And through the support of everyone we work with daily: our clients and their families, and all the care managers, doctors, community psychiatric nurses, probation officers and social workers.

Illustration: The Queue by Robert Ewan from The Gift of Time: Kairos Community Trust Celebrating 25 Years 1991-2016.

Short Histories of Kairos: chapters from our story

Governance and our Trustees

Our governing body is a trust and Kairos is managed and monitored by the Trustees, who are independent volunteers from a wide range of professions in the community. They are: Paul Carter (Chair), Serina Aboim, Duncan Aitkins, Gerald Barry, Carlo D’Agostino, Shawn McCarthy, Hanora Morrin, Dr Jasper Mordhorst and Sarah Potter.

STAFF

Head Office
Mossie Lyons, Director
Mossie Lyons, Director
Admin & Finance
Head Office team, L-R: Judy McLellan (Admin Assistant), Dorothy Woodward-Pynn (Admin Manager), Sahra Khatun, Oye Oke (Finance Controller).
Head Office team, L-R: Judy McLellan (Admin Assistant), Dorothy Woodward-Pynn (Admin Manager), Sahra Khatun, Oye Oke (Finance Controller).
Linden Grove Abstinence-Support Hostel

Vincent Mahe (Manager), Danny Cruse (Assistant Manager), Tim Ash (part-time), Hester Bell (part-time), Mark CullenReggie El Moudden (part-time), Shalomi Gilpin, Sandra Ginnelly, Angelina Graham (part-time), Rachel Johnson, Angela McCulloch (Lead Counsellor), Mick McCulloch, Bruce Morris (part-time), Ian West (part-time).

Volunteers:  Peter Harris, David Lewis

Bethwin Road Residential Rehab

Lee Slater (Manager), Dominic O’Gorman (Deputy Manager), Estelle CarrollChris Farnell, James Hopkins, Hafida Soltani, Simon Woods

Garden Day Programme

Tim Penrice (Manager), Gillie Sliz (Assistant Manager), Luisa Cicuttin, Will Pugh

Aftercare Programme

Jessica Rood (Manager), David Yates (Deputy Manager), Cydney Dunbavin-Hands, Airen Koopmans

Supported Housing Move-On Team

Matt Dear (Manager), Lee Vines (Deputy Manager), Martina Cooley, Louise Fitzgerald, Liz Frampton, Frank McDonald, Giampiero Mozzi, Jason O’Reilly, Steven Polatajko, Jessica Rodmell, Jaime Soto

Volunteers: Louise Brady, Pawel Porzuc

Maintenance

Julian King, Scott Murray

Volunteering

Alongside our staff, volunteers play an important role in the life and work of Kairos. Most are men and women who have gone through the Kairos rehab process themselves, are actively pursuing recovery through 12-Step fellowships, are one year or more abstinent and want to help Kairos.

Volunteers provide help with many vital jobs, such as night cover, accompanying residents to appointments, gardening, shopping, driving, cleaning, carpentry, office work and catering.

Support work training

After volunteering for a period of time, some people express an interest in training to become support workers. Kairos has supported individuals in their studies for the Diploma in Health and Social Care (level 3), which is monitored by external examiners and supervised by Kairos management.

Student placements

Kairos takes part in the professional training of new counsellors. We are able to offer a small number of placements to counselling students who are on diploma/degree courses and for whom a placement forms part of their accreditation requirement. Students are normally in therapy themselves and typically spend two days a week working with qualified Kairos staff across different services.

For more information about volunteering or applying for a student placement, contact Head Office.

Kairos Community Bees

BEE KAIROS

The bee hives in the gardens of head office and some Move-on houses are part of our policy to promote good environmental practices across the organisation, including recycling at all houses, composters in all gardens, water butts to collect rainwater, and solar paneling in one house.

In 2010, honey produced by Kairos bees was declared the best honey produced in London in a blind tasting for the Evening Standard by beekeeper and BBC correspondent Martha Kearney. She scored it 5/5, saying, it had “a wonderful creamy flavour, almost like Scottish tablet/toffee, with subtle underlying scents of different flowers”.

The Kairos bees and their minders also merit a chapter in Bees in the City: The Urban Beekeeper’s Handbook by Brian McCallum and Alison Benjamin.

Beekeepers: Mick Coen (our volunteer expert) and Grace Madden.

Mick and a volunteer rebuilding hives in the garden of Head Office.
Mick and a volunteer rebuilding hives in the garden of Head Office.

And why are we called Kairos? Kairos is one of the Greek words for time and we understand it as the right time for change.