Shamim Noronha
Founder and Chair of the Board of Trustees
Email: shamim.noronha@residentswithoutborders.org
Shamim has extensive lived experience. She was born with epilepsy and is currently a carer for her adult brother. She is a survivor of childhood sexual and physical abuse and an adult survivor of domestic violence. She is a first-generation immigrant from Kenya. She comes from a rich, multicultural heritage. She was one of six children when her family immigrated to London. She was brought up in Hackney and moved to Islington as an adult, and in 2008, moved back to Hackney. She is bilingual. She lived most of her childhood in north-east London in poverty, her family struggling to have sufficient food and basic utilities, and they were even homeless for a short period.
She has been working in the London Borough of Islington for over 15 years. During her career, she has served as an interpreter and translator for law firms and at family court, county courts, high court, and with CAFCASS (Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service). Has over 20 years of experience working in statutory and non-statutory organisations. She has held various frontline roles. She has also occupied team leadership and senior management positions, supporting vulnerable young people, families living in poverty, adults with disabilities, the elderly, refugees, asylum seekers, and the homeless. Over three years, she established one of the largest co-productions in Islington with over 800 registered peers.
She also has 15 years of significant executive leadership experience as a partner in an international music production company, collaborating with major international music companies in Japan, the USA, and Europe, and travelling for business to countries like Japan.
Shamim founded Residents Without Borders in November 2024, following a significant setback in her career. She had been made redundant for the third time since 2019, so she decided to turn this challenging experience into an inspiring one. She took voluntary redundancy and used her redundancy money to set up Residents Without Borders as an unincorporated charity. Around 300 Islington residents with lived experience, including volunteers, joined Shamim and supported her in setting up the community-led group. Many Islington partner organisations also supported her. After seven months, the charity has become highly popular and has a rapidly growing number of new registered clients from various boroughs of London. The Charity Commission is currently processing the application for Charitable Incorporated Organisation status. The charity is committed to providing a wide range of services to children, young people, families and adults who are socially and economically disadvantaged living in London.
Rose-Marie McDonald
Trustee and Chair of the Adult Community Involvement Committee
Email: rose-marie.mcdonald@residentswithoutborders.org
Rose has extensive lived experience, is a carer to her granddaughter, and lives in Islington. She was employed to produce and schedule TV programmes and adverts on ACTV on the Sky platform. She was also the founding member responsible for setting up the Black Members Committee of the Broadcasting and Entertainment Union in 2010. Has worked as a freelance sound engineer for Speckle Productions, Rise of a New Eve for Channel 4 TV. She has also worked with the GLC Mayor's Office for Ken Livingstone to film Nelson Mandela's daughter and Rev. Jesse Jackson's 'fly on the wall' video of his trip to London and the Rally in 2019.
She has been volunteering in the community and sitting on committees for over 20 years for voluntary organisations, community groups, and the local authority. She is a Director on the Board for the Community Plan. She is also a member of the Centre 404 Family Committee and a lay member of the GP Federation Islington. She also represents Evidence Islington on the Health & Wellbeing network.
June Steadman
Trustee
June has lived experience of neurodivergent, as well as extensive lived experience of caring, including being a carer for a terminally ill close family member. She was born in Jamaica, the youngest of five children. She is a Windrush child who arrived in the UK in the early 1960s. She spent the next twenty-one years living in Derbyshire. Her father died one year after she arrived in the UK. She moved to London in 1976 and has been a resident of Islington since 1977.
June’s working life has predominantly been within the caring profession, spanning over 35 years. Whilst living in Derbyshire, she co-managed a residential care home offering care and support to children and young people who could not live with their respective families.
Following her arrival in London, she trained as a Nursery Nurse (NNEB) and commenced working with the London Borough of Islington, first as a nurse in an award-winning under-fives day care centre for several years. Later, she undertook further training at the University of Westminster and qualified as a social worker in 1990. After qualifying as a social worker, she worked across the entire spectrum of social work, including child protection, safeguarding, court work, mental health assessments, work with juveniles, adults with learning disabilities, and elderly care.
Over the decades, June has held various volunteering roles in both statutory and non-statutory organisations. Currently, she serves as a Resident Committee member on the Cripplegate Executive Trustees Panel and as a Committee member of the African Caribbean Leadership Council (ACLC).
