Meet our new CEO
I’m delighted to have joined Community Impact Bucks as CEO. It’s an exciting time to join, building on nearly a decade of excellent work by the charity, and with the opportunity to revitalise in preparation for the next 10 years.
I’ve spent most of my career working for national funders, most recently as Head of the London & South East region for BBC Children in Need, where I oversaw more than £40m worth of grants and worked in partnership with other charities and public sector bodies to tackle issues such as youth violence and provide funds to support children affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
Time and again I saw that the most profound difference was made when local communities were enabled to identify their own needs, devise solutions that build on their strengths, and create lasting change. So when I got the opportunity to come and work with communities here in Buckinghamshire, where I grew up and which is now my home again, I jumped at the chance.
Community Impact Bucks is the backbone of voluntary and community action in Buckinghamshire. We support and enable people to get involved and make a difference, and we build connections to enable people and groups to come together to create the change that they want to see.
To borrow a line from a colleague in Staffordshire, we are like the safety net and the trampoline at the same time. We’re here to help when charities and groups are going through difficult times: we offer support and advice and help them to get stronger and be resilient, so they can keep making a difference. And we’re here to help new ideas get off the ground, help groups to set up or grow, put in place the structures and funding and people they need to be successful.
We are living through times of great change and uncertainty about what the future will look like, from national and international politics to our new Unitary Authority, global issues like climate change and technological change to local issues like the significant development of roads, rail and housing in the county. We will all need to adapt to big social changes over the coming years; this brings significant challenge, but also great opportunities for innovation – many of them outlined in our Volunteering Innovation Report. Community Impact Bucks is here to help our communities, charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to navigate these changes and thrive, and I’m very much looking forward to working together to achieve that.
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