Our Team
Resilient Lives CIC draws on expertise from a range of sectors, all of it focussed on person-centred, community-focussed practice. Passion and people are at the heart of what we do, and we bring our respective expertise to our projects to support our communities as holistically as we can.
Simon Dyer
Founder and CEO
Simon combines his extensive experience of managing complex projects in the charity and educational sector. His experience working in homelessness, mental health and recovery services has given him a strong commitment to trauma-informed practice, while his own personal experience of managing his mental health, added to his creative energy and passion, help to shape the vision and ethos of the organisation. He has a deep passion for helping men with their mental health, working collaboratively, supporting young people, and building community. He also loves pizzas and pirates.
Matt Croston
Director
Matt is an experienced project manager, and has practical experience of strategy development; partnership working, third-sector stakeholders and communities; design and delivery of system-level interventions; and learning and evaluation. He has been involved with Resilient Lives since 2021, originally working for Pizza Pirates, and now chairing the board of directors. Matt works for a non-profit social change organisation, Social Finance, dedicated to creating lasting change for people & communities who experience a range of entrenched social issues. Prior to this, Matt had a 13 year career in multinational corporate insurance, occupying consultancy and leadership roles for Asia-Pacific portfolios of business.
Derek O'Toole
Director
Derek has extensive experience working within statutory, voluntary and independent management sectors, including NHS & Social Care management consultancy and prison mental health lead for the Department of Health and Social Care.
Recently retired from the NHS as the Head of Mental Health and Social Health Commissioning (Devon CCG), where he managed the overall mental health allocation for both Children and Adults. He has incredible experience of managing budgets, commissioning services and working across the public and VCSE sectors. Derek is also a radio presenter on a local community station, a personal trainer, facilitator in ‘The incredible years’ parenting programme, and a trained outdoor education and leadership mentor.
Kurt Gillespie
Director
The Wellness Builder. Kurt is a trained carpenter, and has run his own building business for over 25 years. He also has experience in his native Canada working in catering and healthcare. He became involved in Resilient Lives in 2023 as a volunteer facilitator with Dough Bro’s, he's now heading up our Pizza Pirates operation too, bringing his expertise and support to help run our two flagship programmes.
Sima Cutting
Director
Sima is an entrepreneur and chef who has experience of running a successful food business providing local, seasonal and ethical food. She is the embodiment of food as a social function. Her previous business provided supportive and nurturing food and employment to her community, as well as offering training and work experience to young people with learning disabilities. She brings her vast knowledge of catering and community business skills to the organisation.
Maisie Clark
Occupational Therapist
Maisie is a registered mental health occupational therapist with years of experience working for charities and the NHS. With a growing expertise in trauma-informed practice, she has worked at the front-line of community and residential mental health services and takes a thoroughly client-focussed and non-psychiatric approach to helping others understand how to manage their own trauma.
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details and accept the service to view the translations.