Mohammed Abubakar
Community Leader Activist Humanitarian Public Speaker Educator
Independent Candidate for the Crosland Moor Ward

I was born in the early 1990s and grew up in Thornton Lodge. I was educated locally, attending Crosland Moor Junior School (now Oak Primary) before moving on to Moor End Technology College (now Moor End Academy). My higher education took place across several institutions in Dewsbury, South Africa, and Blackburn, resulting in an undergraduate degree in Theology and Arabic Language. 

After graduating in 2015, I returned to Huddersfield and took up a leadership role at a local mosque, serving as an Imam. This gave me daily contact with families, young people, and community members, and allowed me to work closely with people from a wide range of backgrounds. Through this role, I became involved in interfaith and community-building initiatives, helping to bring different groups together around shared concerns.

It was during this period that I became acutely aware of how little support and provision existed for young people locally. In response, I helped establish a youth club based at the mosque, open to everyone regardless of background. On an average week, around 50 young people attended, many of whom had few other safe or structured spaces available to them.

Recognising that the challenges facing the community went beyond any single institution, I stepped away from my role in 2018 to focus fully on community development work. That same year, using my own savings, I founded Huddersfield Community First, an organisation set up to support young people, families, and vulnerable residents across the town. Through this work, we have delivered hundreds of youth activities, educational programmes, skills courses, and community events, alongside interfaith initiatives and a welfare programme that has provided tens of thousands of hot meals and food parcels to people experiencing hardship. Because of my local work, I was appointed as a trustee of North Huddersfield Trust School.

Believing strongly in the importance of continued learning, I returned to formal study in 2022 and completed an MA in Religion, Culture and Society. My postgraduate work focused in particular on politics, public policy, and their impact on communities.

Alongside my grassroots work, I have held senior national roles centred on community engagement, equality, and ethical governance. These roles have involved advising senior leaders, designing and delivering education and training, and representing organisations in public and policy-facing settings. Across all of this work, my focus has remained consistent: building trust, raising standards, and ensuring that values are reflected in practical, measurable outcomes.