About
Mama Haven
Mission &
History
Mama Haven aims to offer low-income parents a path out of poverty, through retraining, rebuilding and reimagining their future. By advancing education and promoting social inclusion, Mama Haven will focus on combating in-work poverty. We aim to connect our users with higher income employment opportunities by partnering with training providers and providing childcare support.
Championing financial equality for all parents, our vision is to create a framework that enables our users to get high level training and high-income employment opportunities.
The idea for Mama Haven came about in 2017, when founder Elise Brown was on a career break after having her second child. Whilst figuring out her next career move, she used this time to attend workshops, talks and researched into returners programmes. Sadly, the retraining programmes were out of reach for her, due to the high costs but as Elise had previously been in a mid/high income role she was able to access free workshops and activate her various networks to get back into work, with support from Action West London. Elise’s vision is to create a specialised support programme for low-income mums helping them to access courses to achieve a higher income and job satisfaction, whilst also focusing on their well-being, goals, children, relationships, and professional outlook. This in turn helps to provide a solution to in-work poverty.
Our Trustees
Elise Brown
Founder of Mama Haven, Elise is currently a consultant and project manager in the classical musical and arts industry. She has a 20-year career in the arts, music and entertainment businesses.
Elise combines her interests in culture and the arts with a desire to assist her immediate and wider community. As well as spearheading her own voluntary initiatives, Elise is on the Development Committee for Clean Break, the task force for Black Lives in Music, a trustee for United in Hammersmith & Fulham and is a Board Director at Leeds Conservatoire.
Elise is a mum to two boys and feels passionate about social economic equality.
Colin Payne
Colin attended school in Hammersmith and Fulham and has a strong affiliation to the local area of which Mama Haven will serve. He went on to study Music at the University of Liverpool, and now heads up the Ticketing department for a leading promoter of live events in the UK.
Mama Haven is designed to give parents the tools to explore new opportunities, which they may not have thought would be available to them. Colin is really excited to bring his professional expertise to the role of Treasurer, and help to create something special that can truly make a difference to people's lives.
Emma Booth
Emma is a solicitor with 22 years of experience, beginning her career in general private client work before transitioning into management roles within the banking sector. Having lived in London since her student days, Emma considers West London her home and is deeply connected to its community.
Originally from Devon, Emma experienced growing up in poverty. Inspired by her mother’s resilience and determination to improve their circumstances, Emma understands firsthand the importance of creating opportunities for families to break the cycle of poverty. This personal journey fuels her passion for supporting Mama Haven’s mission to empower low-income parents and provide them with pathways to a brighter future.
As a mother of two young children, Emma is excited to embark on this journey with Mama Haven. She feels privileged to contribute her personal insights and professional expertise to the organization and is committed to making a meaningful impact on the lives of families it serves.
Zoe Harris
Zoe is a Director at a Big 4 consulting firm having started out as a research scientist before retraining as an accountant then moving into consulting. She is passionate about social mobility - having grown up as part of a huge family in Lincolnshire and being the first generation to attend university. Her family taught her the importance of working hard and that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it! Zoe moved to West London after university and lives with her husband and two young children. Mama Haven is close to Zoe's heart as she knows how important to have support and guidance to achieve your full potential. She is looking forward to bringing her experience to help low income parents to a path our of poverty.