Our Team

Base Council

As young people are at the heart of what we do, we’re passionate about integrating their voices and perspectives into our decision-making. Our Base Council is a group of young people who access TRAIN’s provision and meet once a month to share their thoughts and discuss the strategic direction of TRAIN.

If you are interested in being involved with Base Council, please get in touch with Justina justina@trainyouth.org.uk

Volunteers

Volunteers are essential to our team – enabling us to support young people in Didcot and Wallingford. We have an incredible team of passionate, committed, and enthusiastic volunteers who support us in various ways, from supporting in sessions, fundraising, DIY, administration or detached youth work on the street.

Trustees

We are lucky to have a passionate, knowledgeable, and experienced Board of Trustees committed to helping us achieve our goal of supporting young people in Didcot and Wallingford.

Staff

Ben Drabble

Chief Executive

Ben combines a strong background in charity leadership, a long history with TRAIN, and a deep commitment to supporting young people. He began his journey with the organisation in 2010 as a detached youth work volunteer and spent time on the Board as an Operations Trustee.

He previously worked as the Director of Communications and Fundraising at a large international charity. Before this, he led an international volunteering gap-year programme for young people for several years, having transitioned into the charity sector from a civil engineering background.

Justina Hodson

Youth Work Manager

Justina is a JNC-qualified youth worker with over 15 years of experience supporting young people across Oxfordshire and beyond. She holds a First Class BA in Youth Work from Coventry University, where she was awarded the Faculty Award of Excellence for her practice.

Her career has included leadership roles in local youth centres, young carers services, and mentoring programmes, as well as several years at TRAIN.

Justina is passionate about empowering young people through participation and co-production, ensuring their voices are central to programme design.

She has particular expertise in safeguarding and multi-agency working, and brings both professional and lived experience to her role. She re-joined TRAIN in 2025 to lead our youth work team and to continue building meaningful opportunities for young people to thrive.

Georgina Dawson

Senior Youth Worker

Georgina joined TRAIN in 2023, having worked as a Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner in several schools and outreach environments.

She has a BSc in Psychology from the University of Portsmouth. Georgina plays a crucial role in the Mentoring programme at TRAIN and believes in empowering young people to make informed decisions.

She is passionate about building young people’s confidence and supporting them to reach their full potential.

Lydia Halsey

Senior Youth Worker

Lydia was involved with TRAIN as a young person from around

15 through our detached work, so she knows what it feels like to have a youth worker in your corner.

She's built up a lot of experience since then: an

apprenticeship with Oxfordshire Youth, working with young people in supported accommodation on practical life skills, and a role with Oxford City Council where she set up a youth club from scratch.

She's super organised, and loves making budgets work to plan

trips that young people will talk about long afterwards. She's currently working towards her Level 6 JNC Youth Work

apprenticeship

Char

Youth Worker

Char is our longest serving youth worker. She started

working for TRAIN in 2019, but her connection to the organisation goes back further. A TRAIN youth worker showed up for Char when it counted, and now she's here to do the same.

She knows the Didcot community well and relates to a lot of

the young people she works with. She's stayed at TRAIN because it genuinely centres young people, and that’s not always a given.

She's working towards her Level 6 Youth Work apprenticeship,

and her favourite parts of youth work are the informal conversations and the youth club sessions where trusting relationships are made.

T'Quan Campbell

Sessional Youth Worker

T'Quan came to TRAIN as a volunteer and quickly became a

familiar, trusted presence across our youth sessions. He's now part of the
team as a Sessional Youth Worker.

He brings hands-on experience in one-to-one support,

outreach, and detached youth work, including time with Abingdon Bridge working alongside young people who feel overlooked or unsure where they belong.

T'Quan was supported by youth workers himself as a young

person, and has a particular interest in supporting young men's groups and sees activities like exercise as a real way in: building confidence and supporting wellbeing in a natural way.

Nicole Rolston

Charity Support Officer

Nicole keeps TRAIN running smoothly behind the scenes. From

finance to office management, she handles the details so the youth work team can focus on supporting young people.

If something needs sorting, Nicole sorts it. (Including the

new kitchen. Paintbrush, anyone?)

She brings a strong background in the charity sector,

including a previous role as HR Manager for a Charity supporting those living with social inequalities. She lives locally in Didcot and loves being part of a charity that makes a real difference on her doorstep.

Outside work, she's all about her little boy, good coffee, cake, and Netflix. Not necessarily in that order.

Becky Pickering

Fundraising & Communications Coordinator

Joining from the business insight world, Becky brings a research mindset to everything she does - always on the hunt for opportunities that help TRAIN deliver real, lasting impact for young people.

Before joining TRAIN in 2026, she honed her skills in operations and communications at a Baby Bank Charity in Warwickshire, where she learned first-hand the difference a passionate team can make in a community.

Alongside securing funding, Becky is the voice behind TRAIN's communications: championing our work, spreading the word, and making it easy for people to get involved. So, if you drop TRAIN a message on socials, chances are Becky's the one replying. Say hi!