Frances Beecher

Chair

Frances is the Chair of End Youth Homelessness Cymru and the Chief Executive of Llamau, Wales’ leading young people and women’s homeless charity. Llamau works across Wales and with over 8,600 disenfranchised and vulnerable young people and women a year. Frances was the founder and first Chair of Cymorth Cymru, Wales’ umbrella body for organisations working with vulnerable people in Wales.  Frances is a board member of housing equality charity Tai Pawb, a board member of the Institute for Welsh Affairs and also serves on the Advisory Panel of the Children’s Commissioner for Wales.

By profession Frances Beecher is a cognitive behavioural psychotherapist and she has an extensive history of working directly to support people as a counsellor, outreach worker or in women’s refuges.

Dr Peter Mackie

Vice-Chair

Dr Peter Mackie is a Reader at Cardiff University, in the School of Geography and Planning. Peter has a particular research interest in the housing experiences and pathways of vulnerable people. Peter has particularly focused his research on youth housing and homelessness, a field in which he has sought to understand the experiences of young people from their perspectives. He is also increasingly engaged in data linkage with administrative data sets. Recent work includes the review of homelessness legislation in Wales, as well as being a driving force on the development of Upstream Cymru, while acting as a link to partners working on the project in Canada, Australia and the USA. Peter has also been a board member at Llamau since 2009.

Bill Rowlands

Project Manager

Bill is the Head of EYHC and has been in post for over 3 years. Alongside overseeing and supporting the work of Beth and Shaun, Bill leads on setting the direction of EYHC and our work in facilitating the Youth Experiential Learning Simulation, an immersive tool that you can read more about here: Bill holds an MSc in Public Policy and previously worked as the Project Officer for the Housing Support Network. 

Outside work Bill's interests are football (Wales, Canton Rangers, Bluebirds (in that order)), cycling, and country music. Although not a first language speaker, Bill has learnt Welsh over the past 5 years and is fairly fluent.

Bill can be contacted on: BillRowlands@llamau.org.uk

Beth Gallivan

Youth Voice and Engagement Coordinator

Beth joined EYHC in August 2023, in the newly-created position of ‘Youth Voice and Engagement Coordinator’. Beth grew up in Cardiff and is a fluent Welsh speaker.

Although they initially applied for a Junior Researcher role, we quickly realised that their skills were better utilised in a different capacity.

With a degree in Journalism, Media & English Literature, and having lived experience of youth homelessness, Beth’s role is about using their professional skills and personal knowledge of youth homelessness to engage with more young people, and ensure that EYHC’s work is driven and shaped by Youth Voice.

Beth manages our social media and communications, as well as hosting and producing our brand new podcast, ADREF!

Outside of work, Beth enjoys fashion, drawing, cinema, drag shows, and consuming a healthy amount of trashy reality TV.

You can contact Beth on: BethGallivan@Llamau.org.uk.

Shaun Bendle

Policy, Research and Partnerships Senior Officer 

Shaun joined EYHC in November 2023, and leads on all of our research work as well as our political engagement and influencing.

Originally from Neath, Shaun has a BA in Politics and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Swansea University and was heavily involved in student politics.

Before joining the EYHC Team, Shaun worked at Disability Wales as a Mentoring Project Officer for the Equal Power Equal Voice Campaign.

Outside work, Shaun enjoys football (yes he’s a Swans supporter, yes it’s a touchy subject…), going to the cinema, reading, and listening to podcasts.

If you have any questions, or would like to collaborate together, you can contact Shaun on: ShaunBendle2@llamau.org.uk