Petra Salva

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT PETRA SALVA

I am currently on sabbatical where I was the Director of Rough Sleeping, Westminster and Migrants Services for a UK based charity St Mungos. During my working life of nearly 25 years, I have pioneered many innovative services for people sleeping rough, and have dedicated my working life in this field of work. A bit about my background: I studied community and youth studies after returning from working with Roma communities in Romania for a few years. I wanted to focus on community development however, while at University I did two placements the first was in Maastricht working with asylum-seekers and the second was at a homeless project in the City of London. When I left university I decided to apply for a job at the place I did my placement which was a day center for people who were homeless. I failed at my first job interview but got a second chance. That’s how I got involved in this area of work.That was back in 1995 and where I set up the first Outreach Team for the London borough of Tower Hamlets. In 2001 I took a break and travelled the world. On my return I moved to Thames Reach for many years where I honed my experience in outreach and emergency services responding to rough sleeping in London. Following this I set up the Mayor of London’s No Second Night Out Programme before moving to Broadway in 2013. Now I’m at St Mungos and still working to reverse the crisis of rough sleeping on our streets.