Jessie Joe Jacobs

Jessie Joe Jacobs is a Teesside-based British activist and charity worker. She founded the charity A Way Out in 2002 and is the current director of the Northern Inclusion Consortium. She is currently the Labour candidate in the 2020 Tees Valley mayoral election
Early life
Jacobs was born in Stockton in County Durham and attended the Grangefield Academy before studying pharmacology at the University of Leeds and a master's degree in management at Durham University.
Work
Jacobs founded the charity A Way Out in 2002. The charity works in outreach and prevention with vulnerable people including young people and women with a range of issues.
In 2009, A Way Out won a £100,000 Social Entrepreneur award from the Bank of Scotand. In 2012, Jacobs was nominated for a Gazette Community Champion award for her charity work by Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham. In 2013, she was nominated for the Dods Women in Public Life Award. Also in 2013, Cunningham nominated A Way Out for a Centre for Social Justice award. Since 2002, over 5,000 people have been supported by the charity.
In 2016, Jacobs became director of development for The Newbridge Project, securing Carliol House as a creative development hub in Newcastle city centre
In 2017, Jacobs co-founded The Eclipse, a free newspaper that aimed to give a voice to vulnerable people in the region.
Jacobs became the director of the Northern Inclusion Consortium in 2018.
Politics
In 2014, after stepping down as CEO of A Way Out, Jacobs worked as a researcher for Phil Wilson, the Labour Party MP for Sedgefield. During the 2016 referendum on membership of the European Union, Jacobs was the North East field director for the cross-party Britain Stronger in Europe campaign. Jacobs has also worked for the Trade Union Congress as a policy officer.
Tees Valley mayoral candidate
In July 2019, Jacobs announced she was standing to be the Labour Party's candidate for the 2020 Tees Valley mayoral election. Other candidates for selection were Dan Smith, an engineer and the office manager for the Labour MP Paul Williams, and Darlington councillor Mandy Porter.
Porter didn't win enough nominations from Constituency Labour Party (CLP) groups and trades unions to be shortlisted, while Jacobs was nominated by every CLP and Porter received enough nominations. After shortlisting interviews, only Jacobs was shortlisted. She was hence selected without a ballot of local members. Smith had made social media posts expressing support for candidates standing against Labour candidates and accused Labour councillors of corruption in 2015 and 2016, before he joined the Labour Party.
In January 2020, Jacobs launched her campaign to become Tees Valley mayor.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu