Team
THE TEAM
Thriving Through Venture was founded by Caro Strover, with support from Dr Nick Maurice OBE, in recognition of the challenges facing young people today as they move into adulthood.
FOUNDING PATRONS
Caro Strover
Dr Nick Maurice OBE
THE THRIVING THROUGH VENTURE TRUSTEES
Jo Del Mar
Josephine (Jo) is a qualified teacher and former university lecturer who studied English Literature, Art History and Museum Studies in Australia and UK before lecturing at Middlesex University and the ICA. She is a co-founder of the Marlborough Lit Fest. She is Chair of Operaluna and Thriving Through Venture. She is also Vice- Chair of Pewsey Vale School and is governor responsible for SEND and Safeguarding children. Jo teaches English to refugees in Swindon and assists Wiltshire Council with integrating Afghanistan families in and around Netheravon. Jo was awarded a Point of Light Award from 10 Downing St in 2016 for her services to the Shakespeare Schools Festival and local schools in Wiltshire and Swindon. She was awarded Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire in 2024.
Dania Pegna-Trustee
Dania Pegna is a lawyer and CEDR commercial mediator. She previously lived and worked in Asia for 26 years, most recently specialising in educational and employment conflict resolution as an associate on the Singapore Mediation Panel. Dania also holds a master’s degree in psychology, with a particular interest in the neuroscience of the teenage brain. Her concern for mental health and well-being of young people inspired her to join Thriving Through Venture as a trustee, focusing on the strategic side of the charity. She now also sits as a magistrate in Wiltshire. Dania is half Dutch, a mother of two daughters and brings her global perspective and dedication to supporting young people to her role as trustee.
TTV LEADERSHIP TEAM
Programme Coordinator
Louise Spence – Photography
Louise has been working at New College Swindon for 20 years and is the Head of A-Level Photography at New College Swindon. Louise also runs enrichment programmes for ESOL students (English for Speakers of Other Languages). She is a talented photographer who has exhibited her own work in selected shows, artists’ residences and workshops.
Before starting her Degree as a mature student, she travelled and worked widely in the USA, Australia and New Zealand, which then funded extended trips to India, Nepal, Thailand and Bali. In her capacity as a teacher she has organised and led student trips to Andalucia, New York and Morocco.
“The whole point of taking photographs, is so that you don’t have to explain things with words”
Elliot Erwitt
Why Photography?
For young people, photography is the perfect vehicle to explore much bigger issues. To take good pictures, photographers need to focus beyond themselves to explore and understand others. They have to collaborate, to nurture, respect and care for their subjects, to capture truthful, honest and respectful images. For less confident individuals, the camera also provides an ideal means to access and work with others.
Photography is a subtle tool to explore some of the pressing issues in society today. This project will give the participants a meaningful lifetime skill, but also influence fundamentally their ways of seeing and understanding the lives of others.
‘Stories are a communal currency of humanity’
-Tahir Shah in Arabian Nights.