In addition to the Minister, New Unity has a team of staff – each member of which is responsible for a different area.
Nick Toner
General Manager (nick@new-unity.org)
As General Manager, Nick leads the operational, finance and admin staff and reports to the board of trustees. In conjunction with the trustees and other staff, he is responsible for administrative and office management, financial management, personnel and HR matters, rentals and income generation, and buildings management. He also co-runs our arts and culture programme, Arts on the Green.
Nick first attended New Unity in early 2018, and has never really left. He spent that year volunteering on Saturdays with Pets Against Loneliness, and then joined the staff team in November 2018.
Outside of work, Nick is also Deputy Chair of the Abney Park Trust – the registered charity looking after the heritage, biodiversity and community life of Stoke Newington’s “Magnificent Seven” cemetery. He has lived in the local area for most of his adult life, and can often be found walking his dog in Hackney’s parks and in the Lea Valley.
Jacky Clarke
Children and Young People’s Programme Manager (children@new-unity.org)
Jacky is of English, Welsh and Irish heritage and grew up in West Cumbria, the middle of six children. Since January 2020 she has been the interim Children and Young People's Programme Manager. She is passionate about ending all oppression, singing, the environment, recycling and reducing waste, her family and her 7 year old Cumbrian Border Collie. Jacky is keen to build strong links with and between New Unity parents and their young people developing the ethos of love, justice and compassion.
Jean-Guy Sylvestre
Facilities Officer (facilities@new-unity.org)
Jean-Guy, of French Caribbean descent, specialises in music-related youth work. He volunteers and teaches music production to excluded young people, while developing the music department in youth organisation Hackney Quest. A mild compulsion to try and fix broken things, and a strong sense of wanting to work for worthwhile causes convinced him that becoming New Unity's facilities officer was the right call. After recently completing a Computer Science degree, he's now dividing his time between youth work, developing his programming portfolio, and striving to make everything work well and look nice and shiny in New Unity’s buildings - a somewhat Sisyphean task some would say…!
Nomi Lefort
Rental Manager (nomi@new-unity.org)
Nomi is passionate about community, creative expression, and social justice. She believes deeply in the power of shared social spaces to bring people together, exchange ideas, and strengthen civic agency. It was only a matter of time before she joined New Unity’s space!
She has previously worked in Dalston as a live Illustrator for the British Red Cross Women Support Group and was co-running Collective Rage, a monthly film club at the Vagina Museum which platformed underrepresented and marginalised filmmakers.
She has also been actively involved in grassroots community work, contributing to the regeneration and opening of the Russell Park Community Hub Café, where she still works part-time.
Nomi loves being part of vibrant, inclusive environments and is excited to contribute to New Unity’s lively calendar of events.
