MAURA Jackson has packed more life experiences into her 46 years than most people do into a lifetime.

Fortunately, she uses those experiences to help hundreds of young people as CEO of Bolton Young Persons Housing Scheme, giving a home and hope to 340 young people aged from 16 to 25 every year.

Born and brought up in Daubhill – she was head-girl at Mount St Joseph’s School – Maura was one of three children and attributes her upbringing, and the strong example of her mum, to developing a vital life skill: resilience.

She herself became a single mum at 18 “but I was determined not to be a single mum on benefits”, she explained, so she got a job working in admin in Bolton Housing Department. They suggested Maura take a housing degree and she began studying in the evening while working in the day and also doing part-time youth work.

Small wonder that in 1994 Maura took the national Working Mother of the Year title.

In 1997, her first experience of BYPHS came along when she got a job as a support worker. In her spare time she volunteered at Fortalice, Bolton’s refuge for women and children escaping domestic violence, and then became a support worker there. “I really enjoyed working with women,” she recalled.

In fact, she left to manage a local women’s hostel for the Irwell Valley Housing Association. She was 29 and this was her first role in management. “I was way too enthusiastic, though,” she laughed, “But I learned a lot.”

From here, she moved back to Bolton Council, this time as manager in the Supported Tenancies Team helping adults with a variety of social and mental health problems.

Maura’s first experience of setting up a project from scratch came with a job with the charity Action for Children on the first Families Intervention Project in the country, helping families at risk of homelessness because of anti-social behaviour.

“It taught me to be resourceful,” she said. “We had to hot-desk, have meetings in cars and do what we needed to get by.” It not only gave her a proven footprint in social care but also involved her with Louise Casey, head of the Home Office’s Anti-Social Behaviour Unit.

Her next role was with the Ministry of Justice, setting up services in Liverpool and Salford for women offenders. The aim was to divert women from prison, still working on topics such as homelessness, domestic violence and a range of other issues that force women into offending behaviours.

The project was so successful that Jack Straw, then Home Secretary, allocated funds for it to be rolled out nationally.

She then applied successfully for the role of Chief Executive of domestic violence charity Advance. Here she ran a staff of 13 on two groundbreaking projects dealing with high-risk casework and spent three fruitful years. This included setting up another brand new service: a centre in Hammersmith for women at risk of offending.

“I learned that there’s a big difference in the reasons that women and men offend, and with the way that women are dealt with in the legal system,” stated Maura.

While she loved the challenges her career was bringing her, Maura – by then a grandmother – welcomed a return to her home town when the job of head of BYPHS became vacant.

She has been there for five years during which she has taken the annual turnover from £465,000 to £1.8 million, the number of units for young people from 33 to 100 and the number of staff from 13 to 52.

The charity has relocated to Breightmet Street and opened new projects and initiatives to help more young people making it far away from being “just a landlord with some support”.

Much of this is down to Maura. Her straightforward approach and obvious commitment to the charity impress all who meet her. She’s never afraid to call a spade a spade and more often than not uses language that’s far more colourful.

She has to deal with many situations surrounding young people and their lives which would prove daunting to the average individual but her approach is “how can we help to fix that?”

Sometimes, she is listening to what has happened to a young person and “feels really choked”. But, she has come to realise that she has “an unlimited capacity for other people’s problems.”

At the same time, she can “compartmentalise them – I don’t take them home with me.” She is happily married to Ian, is a loving mum to Leah and doting grandmother to Ruby, now six.

Maura says she is “always open to learning” – from the young people BYPHS helps to the “great staff” around her. And you get the impression that, for Maura Jackson, there are many more life experiences to come.