YMCA EDINBURGH
Meet the team
Mike Kerracher
Chief Executive Officer
mike.kerracher@ymcaedinburgh.com
Mike has over 20 years’ experience in the voluntary sector. He joined YMCA Edinburgh in 2011 and has led the organisation as Chief Executive since 2019.
He is passionate about co-produced service design and building relationship-focused services that make a genuine difference in the lives of children, young people, and families across Leith and Edinburgh.
With extensive experience in mentoring — from programme delivery and design to research and community consultation — Mike brings a deep understanding of how trusted relationships can transform outcomes for individuals and communities.
His leadership is rooted in integrity, collaboration, and shared vision, and he is dedicated to influencing systems change so that decision-making reflects the voices of all in the community.
Alana Taylor-Campbell
Operations Manager – Mentoring and Youth Services
Alana has dedicated her education, volunteering, and work to improving the lives of young people.
She has worked with young people around sexual health, substances, and mental wellbeing. For the past 15 years, Alana has specialised in setting up and running mentoring and befriending projects, encompassing service delivery, research, design, and innovation.
Alana is passionate about the impact of Mentoring and has attended global events, sharing her expertise and best practices while learning from others. Alana is committed to volunteering and currently sits on the panel for the Children’s Hearing System.
Shelley Bowman
Business Manager
Shelley has a long history of working and volunteering within the voluntary sector, working at the Broomhouse Centre in Edinburgh, setting up the Young Carers Project many years ago, and latterly within the Home-Start network for 13 years in senior management roles.
A passion for volunteering, she is a Trustee at the West Lothian School Bank and an Ambassador for Home-Start Worldwide.
Shelley joined us as Business Manager in May 2025, supporting the management team in all things finance, service delivery and administration.
Louisa Richardson
Participation & Wellbeing Lead
Louisa is our Participation & Wellbeing lead, offering support for people who want to shape their local community and providing wellbeing mentoring to young people.
Louisa has worked in the voluntary sector for 20 years, specialising in emotional health support. She joined YMCA Edinburgh in 2022, initially providing whole family support and transitioned into her current role in 2024. Louisa has a keen interest in working with people to build resilience, self-advocacy skills and self-empowerment.
In addition to being involved with community and youth participation groups, Louisa also runs the YMCA gaming group.
Paul Scott
Youth & Play Coordinator
Paul has worked with children and young people in areas of socioeconomic disadvantage for over 15 years, striving to empower the voices of those who struggle to be heard. This includes extensive work delivering sexual health and drug misuse seminars across Edinburgh’s high schools, as well as serving as a project worker for key Edinburgh health and wellbeing projects, including therapeutic one-to-one work.
Paul’s current role at YMCA Edinburgh involves running our play projects and helping to develop a youth forum that enables young people to shape the direction of YMCA Edinburgh services, alongside an advocacy forum specifically for children and young people living at Cables Wynd House. Additionally, we are working to support children and young people to campaign for action against climate change.
Developing epilepsy as an adult, Paul continues to push his resilience, and hopes to help children and young people build their own resilience and thrive.
Maureen McGonigle
Adult and Families Co-ordinator
Maureen started at the YMCA as a sessional worker in 2019 to support the Women’s Group in addition to working at Pilton Community Health Project at Women Supporting Women, offering one-to-one support and in a group setting for women and their children who had experienced trauma. She was naturally drawn to working with YMCA Play Rangers and Playscheme, too.
She has drawn on her lengthy experience of working with a diverse client base on a one-to-one basis and in a group setting in a trauma-informed and holistic way.
She also volunteered with The Cyrenians in their Conflict Resolution Project for Young People and has facilitated “Raising Children With Confidence” for the City of Edinburgh Council in various Community settings.
Nataliia Pasichnyk
Youth and Playworker (Ukrainian Support)
Nataliia joined YMCA Edinburgh in January 2023 as a Play Worker within the YMCA Play and Ukrainian Support programme. In 2025.
She expanded her role by joining the Mentoring and Women’s Group team, where she is supporting children and women through meaningful connections and empowerment. Passionate and dedicated, Nataliia is skilled in building trusting relationships with individuals from all backgrounds and creating safe, supportive spaces for them.
Dawn Munro
Mentoring and Wellbeing Coordinator
Dawn has worked with children and young people since 2014, starting in residential care, moving to mainstream education then into the voluntary sector.
She joined YMCA Edinburgh in January 2021 and is the mentoring and wellbeing coordinator. She works across our three mentoring projects and delivers two wellbeing groups for young girls, in partnership with Pilmeny Development Project.
Jane Ryder
Mentoring & Wellbeing Worker
Jane joined YMCA Edinburgh in October 2024 as part of the Mentoring and Friday Night Lights team.
She is a passionate and dedicated youth worker with over 7 years of hands-on experience volunteering at The Citadel Youth Centre.
Skilled in building trusting relationships with young people and offering meaningful opportunities, Jane works to promote community engagement amongst the young people of Leith and the surrounding areas.
Steve Ritchie
Mentor Coordinator
Following a long career in technology and finance, Steve ran his own business providing coaching and leadership training to corporate clients and individuals across Europe and the Middle East.
He returned to Edinburgh in 2014 and soon joined the Children’s Panel and a volunteer panel member, a role he continued in for over 6 years.
Steve joined YMCA Edinburgh in 2022 as a Mentor Coordinator with a particular focus on volunteer recruitment and training, having previously spent 2 years working with the Community Support team of Co-Op UK.
Governance
Sir Andrew Cubie
President
Donald MacDonald
Chair
Judi Syson
Vice Chair
Helen Boath
Treasurer
Lynzi Leroy, Graeme Duncan, Ben Forsyth, Jeanette Third, Ella King, Monica Jancsik
Trustees
Contact us
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Annual Report, Accounts and Policies
Annual Report 2023
To read the report as a Flip book please Click Here
Trustee Accounts
Policy for the Protection of Children and Young People
Data Protection Policy