Crisis CEO Awarded OBE in Queen’s Birthday Honours List
14 June 2010
Leslie Morphy, the Chief Executive of Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people has been awarded an OBE in Her Majesty the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to homelessness
Leslie Morphy said of receiving her OBE: “I am deeply honoured to have had the work of Crisis in delivering services and campaigning for change for single homeless people recognised in the Queen’s Birthday honours list. It is of course not so much an honour for me personally but recognition of the hard work by everyone at Crisis - our Trustees, our nearly 200 staff, the 10,000 people who volunteer their time and thousands more donors, supporters and campaigners – and not just this year but throughout our 42 year history. I am very grateful to them all.
“Most importantly it is a recognition of the achievements of all the homeless people Crisis has worked with and how, through working together, Crisis has enabled them to transform their own lives – this honour is above all for them.”
For further media information or to request an interview with Crisis spokespeople, please contact Garry Lemon at Crisis, on 020 7426 3880 or
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Leslie Morphy Biography
Leslie Morphy has been Chief Executive of Crisis since November 2006. Her career before coming to Crisis was largely in the not-for-profit sector, with a strong emphasis on social exclusion and expertise in learning and skills development.
She was a Director at The Prince's Trust for nearly 10 years, latterly as UK Director of Programmes and Policy delivering programmes to 40,000 young people a year. During her time there the reach of the Trust to young people through its programmes doubled.
Before working at The Prince's Trust, Leslie was Head of Research and Development at the Basic Skills Agency, whose work formed the bedrock of government policy on literacy and numeracy. She previously ran a social enterprise, Broadcasting Support Services, which connected televison and radio audiences to information and services.
Since being at Crisis Leslie has led the development of a new five year strategic plan to roll-out Crisis’ Skylight education, training and employment centres for homeless and vulnerably housed people in cities round the UK. One new centre has already opened in Newcastle, new services will be operating in Birmingham from July 2010 and a new centre opening in Oxford from spring 2011. At the same time the scope of Crisis services are increasing to put more effort into addressing people's mental health needs as well as providing better support into employment and into accommodation in the private rented sector.
She has degrees from the London School of Economics and Birkbeck College, London University. She is a trustee of Bliss, the special care baby charity. She is married and has two children.
Background on Crisis
Crisis is the national charity for single homeless people. We are dedicated to ending homelessness by delivering life-changing services and campaigning for change. Our innovative education, employment, housing and well-being services address individual needs and help people to transform their lives. We are determined campaigners, working to prevent people from becoming homeless and advocating solutions informed by research and our direct experience. We have ambitious plans for the future and are committed to help more people in more places across the UK. We know we won’t end homelessness overnight or on our own. But we take a lead, collaborate with others and, together, make change happen.
