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Volunteers

John Hawkins brings his management experience to BulliesOut

After taking early retirement from the civil service, John wanted to put his skills to good use. BulliesOut in Cardiff supports children and young people and their families who are suffering from the effects of bullying. John became a trustee of the organisation working in a training and development role, supporting the volunteers who go out and make presentations to schools, professionals and parents. He has also advised the charity on grant funding and marketing. John has become very passionate about the cause, "I believe in a united approach, working together with parents and teachers to change the culture of bullying so that it will no longer be tolerated." John is currently working on a new strategic plan to take BulliesOut forward into the next decade.

Gail Thornley brings management skills to Advocacy for Older People

Advocacy for Older People, in Bedfordshire, provides an advocacy service to help older people retain their independence, live with dignity and control their own lives. Being a small charity, Advocacy for Older People urgently needed to strengthen their board of trustees. TrusteeWorks volunteer Gail Thornley brought to the Board extensive experience in senior management, IT and business development skills. She has helped revamp the client database and is working with them to help develop a consortium of local charities to procure funding and business contracts. Gail’s professional knowledge of high level contract and procurement work with the NHS is enabling the charity to implement a new strategy and prepare themselves for  this stage of transition.

Judy Muir brings her administrative experience to Our Celebration

Soon after Judy Muir became a trustee of Our Celebration she was appointed Company Secretary. The York based charity was founded in 1986 around a kitchen table to help people recover from mental ill health, predominantly schizophrenia. The charity has since grown by leaps and bounds and now occupies custom-built premises to help and support 100 service users. These services help them progress towards recovery, social inclusion and integration in mainstream activity such as learning, volunteering or employment. Judith brought strong administrative and management skills in education. "Very few fail to make progress," says Judy.  "We give them structure and purpose and broaden their social circle because they are often isolated." She adds, "And it’s such a warm and compassionate place to work."

Sue Turner brings her HR skills to KIDS

Each year KIDS has 1,200 staff working with disabled children, enhancing the lives of the children and their families through play, leisure, education, family support, information, advice and training. Sue Turner had a career background as Human Resources Director at Barclays and subsequently Group Human Resources Director for The Body Shop. Sue initially became involved with the charity when she was between jobs as a volunteer HR director. Once she found permanent work Sue maintained her involvement with the charity contributing her skills and experience as a trustee. Sue had always wanted to ‘help in the charity sector’ and found great satisfaction in continuing to make a difference to such an incredibly dynamic organisation.

Philip Benton brings his business expertise to CAPE

Phil was keen to volunteer for a mental health charity but as Director of Vaccines at GSK UK and with three small children at home, he was concerned that he had few free hours.  With the Reach service he was able to specify his requirements and found that a trustee role in a local organisation, Community Activities Project Ealing, suited his circumstances perfectly. When asked what he gets out of the role he says, "You do feel that in some small way you are contributing to the sustainability of a cause that is important to you and society."