Lumos, formerly known as Children's High Level Group and briefly as The Children's Voice, is an international non-governmental charity (NGO) founded by the author of the ''Harry Potter'' book series,

J. K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and Philanthropy, philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to ...

. Lumos promotes an end to the institutionalisation of children worldwide.

History

In 2004, Rowling read an article in ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' about children with disabilities who were placed in cage beds. She and Emma Nicholson co-founded the Children's High Level Group (CHLG) in 2005. CHLG was briefly renamed The Children's Voice, but then changed back to its original name because "The Children's Voice" was trademarked in the US. It became Lumos, after a spell in ''Harry Potter'', in 2010. Rowling stood down as a trustee in 2013 but continued as the charity's president. Lumos and other organisations have worked to encourage the European Commission to establish regulations that state that funding to EU member states must be used for community services, not to build or renovate residential institutions. Even before the regulations were passed, as a result of years of advocacy and awareness-raising, this principle of funding supporting '

deinstitutionalization Deinstitutionalisation (or deinstitutionalization) is the process of replacing long-stay psychiatric hospitals with less isolated community mental health services for those diagnosed with a mental disorder or developmental disability. In the late ...

' (DI) had already helped divert more than €367 million of EU funding away from institutions towards community services.

Governance and people

Georgette Mulheir stepped down as CEO in 2020 after trustees identified "management and cultural challenges" and commissioned independent reviews into governance and culture. The charity has received 19 reviews on the employee ratings website, Glassdoor, and has an overall score of 2.4 out of 5. Peter McDermott joined as CEO in June 2021 succeeding Interim CEO, Sir Roger Singleton. Carol Copland is the Chair of the Board of Trustees. Other trustees include: Billy DiMichele (Senior Vice President of Scholastic), Tanya Motie,

Neena Gill Neena Gill, is a British Labour Party politician. She served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands first from 1999 to 2009, and then from 2014 to 2020. Early life and career Gill was born in Ludhiana, Punjab, Ind ...

CBE, Nick Pasricha, Dr Doreen Mulenga, Kate Wills, Jimmy Paul and Usman Ali. The Lumos Foundation USA Board is headed by Billy DiMichele as chairman, other members are Leslie Little who serves as Treasurer and Liz Robbins.

References

Works cited

External links

* {{official website, https://www.wearelumos.org/ Children's charities based in the United Kingdom Child welfare in the United Kingdom Charities based in England Organizations established in 2005 2005 establishments in England 2005 establishments in the United Kingdom