Cynthia is a passionate and ambitious professional with a background in fundraising, project management, and concept and product development. As a certified participatory action researcher, she enjoys tackling a wide range of complex issues that bring together creativity, connection, and change.
Cynthia has gained experience in various roles at different charities. For example, she worked at the Red Cross as a fundraiser, campaign manager for emergency aid campaigns and 3FM Serious Request, and as a business developer focused on creating new fundraising concepts. Finally, she worked as a product developer in the social services sector. In this role, she collaborated with local and national partners to experiment with different models of school breakfast programs and subsequently contributed to the national School Meals Program. She also established the community engagement initiative. In her most recent role at Leergeld Utrecht, she served as a manager, gaining extensive experience in leading an organization of volunteers and staff, fundraising, collaborating with organizations and the municipality, and coordinating and improving services for children and their families. She gained experience with Participatory Action Research during her internship, where she brought the organizational system closer to the lived experiences of children and their families. You can read more about this action research on the project page.
“I find Participatory Action Research to be a truly unique method for arriving at (creative) solutions with a diverse group of stakeholders. In addition to the ‘immediate’ benefits, I also see many indirect benefits. People who truly engage in conversation with one another, people who feel energized during the joint sessions, people who immediately incorporate the insights they hear into their daily work. And above all, the realization that you can only come up with good solutions if you listen to everyone and bring them together.”
In addition to her work, Cynthia brings a lot of creativity into her life through songwriting, singing in a band, and drawing and painting. She hopes to incorporate creative methods into Participatory Action Research in the future because she believes that creative activities encourage people to think differently and can truly connect them.