Tara-Lily Melling

Tara-Lily's values and experience

What skills and experience do you bring to your Trustee role?

I bring a strong blend of lived and professional experience to the trustee role. As a young person with lived experiences of mental health challenges, I became a YoungMinds activist, developing skills in storytelling, advocacy and fundraising, contributing to national stories around youth mental health. This is complemented by my professional background in technology and finance, where I have worked across strategy, data analysis and sales. These roles have strengthened my critical thinking, problem-solving and ability to navigate complex information, capabilities that directly support effective governance, oversight, and decision-making at board level.

Which of our values do you relate to most, and why do you think it’s an important value for us?

The value I relate most to is 'we are optimistic.'

I truly believe there is good in every day, and that by choosing to focus on the positives and celebrate progression the atmosphere created is better and happier. :)

About Tara-Lily

We celebrate what makes you, you. What three words describes you best?

Bubbly

Curious

Driven

What do you do to switch off and take care of your mental health?

Exercise and socialising (ideally combined) are my happy places. My favourite way to switch off is a long cycle with friends, however I have also found that the structure around training for races (marathons/ironman) helps me to stay well mentally.

Meet more of our Trustees

Our Board is made up of 12 amazing volunteers who bring a huge commitment to our cause, some with own and family lived experiences of mental health needs, as well as a wealth and diversity of experiences and skills. They expertly oversee the charity under the leadership of Caroline Hope, our Chair of the Board.

The role of trustees is to share their knowledge, skills and expertise, as well as give up some of their time unpaid as volunteers, to help us achieve our mission: to make sure all young people get the mental health support they need when they need it, no matter what.

They help us to enhance our three main strategic programmes:

Never alone: Helping young people to look after their own mental health.
Someone to turn to: Making sure young people have adults around them who can really help.
Powerful young voices: Building a youth-led movement to make sure mental health support is there for anyone that needs it.

Our Trustees oversee everything we do, from setting our strategy to being responsible for our work and finances, in line with the key duties as set out by the Charity Commission. They empower our CEO and Senior Leadership Team to take responsibility for the day-to-day running of YoungMinds, but they are the final decision-makers with ultimate responsibility for our success or failure. The Board are supported by the Senior Leadership Team, our wider Leadership Group and our Youth Panel; a group of 14 young people directly involved in our governance and strategy.