Sara Mair

 For the past fifteen years I've been self employed - helping arts and heritage organisations deliver exciting projects that give people opportunities to explore, make connections and develop skills. I've worked with a wide variety of organisations, big and small, who need help managing projects, like The National Archives, the BBC, Hull Museums, Wimbledon Museum and community groups from all over the country. The work I do is very varied, one day I can be creating a tour of a haunted house, the next organising a museum workshop for young parents to make books for their babies. A lot of my work (for YUMI and others) involves evaluating projects so I get to do my favourite thing...talk to people and find out about their experiences.

I first got involved with YUMI when I was asked to evaluate the Open Day in 2012. I was struck by what a friendly and encouraging organisation it is; everyone involved is so committed and hard working. The YUMI ethos fits well with my approch to projects which is to make sure they make a difference to the people involved. This was definitely the case with YUMI's International Street Festival that I managed and wow, what a huge achievement!

I'm currently working on a communications project for YUMI. My role is to support volunteers to organise new social activities and train an event co-ordinator to help us organise events in the new year. The events will be for people who have come to live in York from around the world, providing a chance to meet other people and address loneliness. They will also provide a chance for people to share experiences about coming to live in York and get advice and information about living here.

I'm always thinking of ideas for new projects that old and new YUMI members can get involved in to meet people and be supported to develop skills and challenge themselves.