Zain has a decade of first-hand experience of the asylum and immigration system. This evoked a deep passion in Zain to campaign for reform throughout. Zain has given several public speeches on issues related to the asylum journey, mental health, access to higher education and more. He has delivered talks at universities and produced an award-winning podcast series: We Are Voices. 
 
Zain obtained a full-paid scholarship to go to university and graduated with a First-Class Honours in Philosophy and Global Studies. Zain is currently a Community Organiser with Citizens UK, a Funding Manager at the Civic Power Fund and a Board of Trustee at IMIX. 
 
Zain looks forward to contributing to Synergi by combining his organising and funding experience with his understanding of the challenges grassroots groups striving for justice face. In his spare time, Zain loves to read and study Philosophy. 

Abdirahim is the Founder of Coffee Afrik CIC, overseeing seven hubs, 17 projects rooted in mental health recovery, culturally, sensitive, problematic drug use projects, a research and litigation lab, two women’s co-ops and a thriving youth hub the busiest in Tower Hamlets.

Abdirahim has spent 20 years organizing communities campaigning about housing injustice and believes in systemic change and good trouble.

Anita is INQUEST’s Head of Casework and member of the Senior Management Team. She provides specialist casework and support to people bereaved following a state related death including deaths in police and prison custody, immigration detention, and mental health settings.

Anita has over 30 years’ experience of leadership in the voluntary sector including assisting with grant applications.  She is a Trustee for Waltham Forest Community Hub, providing a variety of services across the borough. Anita’s commitment to social justice is central to her work and stems from personal experience of race and other forms of discrimination. 

Jerome Sewell is an Executive Film Producer, Project Manager, Bid Writer and Managing Director of two companies, one which assists young people from gang hit communities called Unique Talent CIC where he heads their media and film department and sustainable transport department and a second company named Therapeutic Productions which provides mental health services through the creative arts.   

Ursula is the CEO and founder of Adira, a survivor led mental health and wellbeing service that supports black people with mental health issues. She has over 12 years experience of being a community gate keeper. This is a cultural awareness trainer and considers herself a full time systems disrupter.

Adira was started in response to the ever-growing number of black people over populating the psychiatric wards in Sheffield, the lack of culturally sensitive, culturally appropriate and culturally competent services in Sheffield and the fact that mental health is such an incredibly taboo subject in the black community. We wanted to build a bridge between the black community and predominantly white statutory services.

Micha Frazer-Carroll has a background in campaigning, journalism and communications. At university she founded Blueprint, a mental health magazine, and went on to be elected Welfare and Rights Officer at Cambridge University Students’ Union. Since then, she has acted as an editor for platforms including HuffPost, gal-dem, the Guardian and the Runnymede Trust; as a columnist for the Independent and the Guardian; as Editorial Lead at Healing Justice Ldn, and as a writer for many other publications.

In 2023, Micha published Mad World, a book on the topic of mental health from a radical political perspective. She has experience of conducting communications work for charities, abolitionist groups and grassroots campaigns, and is a trustee of the National Survivor User Network.