24th May 2019
JourneymanUK is a registered national charity (no. 1149581) founded in November 2011 which provides mentoring and mentor training to local communities. We run small-scale yet successful and effective community-based mentoring programs for teenage boys in Bristol and Stroud and have new groups forming in Glastonbury and Edinburgh.
For some years now our former CEO and one of the co-founders of JourneymanUK, has repeated claims concerning the period between April 2011 and April 2013, when he resigned as the CEO of the charity. These claims – relating to administrative process and branding issues – are well known to the trustees and leadership of Journeyman UK, were thoroughly investigated at the time, cross-referenced with others who were present and working closely with him and found to be unsubstantiated.
As a mentoring charity we take our safeguarding responsibilities very seriously. Indeed, in our many years of operation, working regularly with young people from a wide variety of backgrounds, no complaints have ever been brought regarding the safeguarding and well-being of young people.
We welcome all scrutiny both public and professional into our organisation and have robust governance systems in place for continual improvements in the safety and effectiveness of our work. Our former colleague continues to publish historic claims and other views on social media and internet forums and, in 2014, informed us that he planned to release a ‘full report’ on his concerns to the Charity Commission. We would welcome this opportunity for public clarity, though to the best of our knowledge it has not happened. Whilst open to well intentioned communication we will not be engaging with him and his claims on public forums.