Our Team
We have a small but growing team of experienced professionals with backgrounds in regeneration, community development, community plans, fitness, healthy living and funding. Our Health Fitness and Activity Team include our trusted instructors who help deliver our classes and sessions! We are managed by a governing Board who ensure that we are achieving all our social objectives, whilst running a viable business!
Core Team
Tony has over 25 years of regeneration experience working for various local authorities and regeneration partnerships in the north of England, as a project and programme manager, and external fundraiser. He is also a qualified sports coach and fitness instructor, passionate about addressing health inequalities and helping people live healthier lives.
Rachael is a placement student from the University of Leeds studying BA in Media and Cultural Studies. Rachael is enthusiastic about digital inclusion and possesses a keen interest in culture, community, and society. She is looking forward to utilising this interest to help benefit the local area and the people within it.
Rob is an associate for 'Your Back Yard' and has nearly 25 years’ experience in private, public, voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations. He specialises in Community Engagement; Programme and Project Evaluation; Bid writing and Business Plan Development and Marketing
Health, Fitness and Activity Team
I am passionate about yoga and the benefits it brings for both the body and mind, and I’m a strong believer that yoga is for EVERYONE. I aim to produce classes that increase flexibility and strength, improve balance, and calm the mind. I am a 300-hour accredited yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance, completing my initial training in India, and have been practicing yoga myself for over 20 years. I have trained in ashtanga, vinyasa, and hatha yoga styles, and also specialise in yoga therapy, having taught yoga classes for over-50s, specialised chair yoga, yoga for mental health, yoga for people living with dementia, yoga for carers, and kids’ yoga. I like to incorporate techniques from a mixture of yoga styles in my classes. I have always loved playing sport and qualified as a football coach a few years ago. But it was only when Covid hit, and I had a bit more time on my hands that I thought it would be great to take this to the next level. I did a level 2 in fitness training and followed it up with a level 3 in specialising in delivering exercise and fitness programmes for older adults. The more I read and study about the huge, positive benefits of exercise and activity on our health and wellbeing, particularly as we get older, the more passionate I become about my new line of work! Really enjoying coaching our mixed and women’s walking football teams and doing the cardio online class. I am currently offering 1-1 programmes for anyone over 40 wanting to boost their fitness levels, with a particular emphasis on strength training. Just one tip for now, if you do nothing else, sit down less, and move more! Arun has been instructing Daoist Tai Chi for the past 15 years, following the advice of the Master Moy Lin-Shin to help people to heal and recover their highest potentials. He brings in a 30year meditation practice, and chi gong training, to refine this practice. The beauty of it is in its simplicity, to re-align the body and mind according to natural principles of innate harmony. We simply “be as nature intended” by stripping away all that distorts us. We learn how to stand up and move about in ways that feel good. We become stronger, flexible, and full of energy and focus. This is joyful health and happiness. Hi, I’m Sydney. I have been practicing yoga for 7 years and qualified as a teacher in 2022. To me, yoga is WD-40 for the mind, body and soul! My classes aim to have you feeling brighter and lighter through guided movement, breath and attention. My yoga journey started with Ashtanga, 20 years ago in a most unexpected way. Believe it or not, I was first inspired by Geri Halliwell aka Ginger Spice's fabulous yoga body (embarrassing! but hey thats how my journey began) and joined a weekly yoga class, recommended by a friend. Before long I was practising yoga daily and feeling the incredible benefits of doing so. I was in love with Yoga and eager to learn more, so after university, I travelled to India and learned Sivananda at the first ashram I visited. After nearly twenty years of having yoga as part of my daily rhythm, I was ready to share with others, trained with Yoga Kula in Leeds & qualified in 2020. I love to teach Hatha, Restorative, Yin, Gentle Flow, Chakra Meditations, Chair & SUP Yoga (yes yoga on a paddle board!). I also run small, cosy Yoga Retreats in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales!
Our Board and Associates
Tabi is a councillor for Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and a champion for fairness and justice, recently working nationally with the DWP.
Lowri is a newly Biomedical Science graduate of Leeds Beckett University who undertook a summer internship with Your Back Yard in 2021. Lowri’s main focus is sustainability and helping communities to adapt to the fast-changing landscape surrounding renewable energy schemes and sustainable practices.
Rob is an associate for 'Your Back Yard' and has nearly 25 years’ experience in private, public, voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations. He specialises in Community Engagement; Programme and Project Evaluation; Bid writing and Business Plan Development and Marketing.
Tony has over 25 years of regeneration experience working for various local authorities and regeneration partnerships in the north of England, as a project and programme manager, and external fundraiser. He is also a qualified sports coach and fitness instructor, passionate about addressing health inequalities and helping people live healthier lives.