Trustees

I have lived and worked in Suffolk for most of my life except for a 7 year sabbatical in Kent, moving back to Suffolk in 2011. I live with my partner and our rescued black Labrador. I love walking, gardening and anything that keeps me outdoors I also dabble in jewellery making and furniture restoration.

Work/Professional/Skills

I currently work as a project manager on a national community engagement project for Royal Voluntary Service focusing on asset based community development working to reduce health inequalities in communities. I am also the deputy chair of the organisation’s staff forum.

My previous career includes management of residential care homes, CEO of Age UK Medway in Kent and area management of hospital retail and volunteer led community services for a large national charity.

Whilst working in Kent I was a Trustee of CVS Medway, a role which I really enjoyed as I was able to give my time and share skills and experience. I also completed my City & Guilds Certificate in Training in the Life Long Learner Sector (CTLLS)

Why did I volunteer to become an ihAg Trustee?

Work and personal experiences in the last 5 years have given me more of an insight into homelessness and the complex circumstances that people face such as health inequalities, poor physical and mental health, poverty, debt and loneliness. I felt that it was time to stop talking about volunteering and start doing.

Personal Information

I was born and bred in Ipswich and have lived here for almost all of my 30 something years. I have an avid passion for almost all sports, more watching than playing, though I do enjoy playing badminton, tennis and squash. I will quite happily watch almost any sport on TV and can normally convince myself that I am interested! I also volunteer as an Enterprise Adviser in a local Pupil Referral Unit. Perhaps my proudest achievement was trekking the Inca Trail through the Andes as part of a fundraising expedition.

Work / Profession / Skills

I have spent almost all my career in retail, starting as a Saturday boy with Burtons, before working my way up to manage an assortment of different Dorothy Perkins stores. Finally I moved across to BHS and managed both the Ipswich and Colchester stores, responsible for a team of 250 people. Following the company’s sad demise, I moved across to Ipswich Building Society as a Customer Experience Manager, looking after our flagship branch in the town centre and the move across to our new building on the corner of Princes Street and King Street.

Why did I volunteer to be an ihAg Trustee?

I must confess I had absolutely no real knowledge of homelessness and no knowledge whatsoever of ihAg until joining Ipswich Building Society. There I was fortunate enough to encounter ihAg both as our branch’s nominated charity and also as a couple of my team volunteer with the Chapman Centre. I was incredibly impressed by everyone I encountered and the work they do, and therefore decided to try and get involved in helping out any way I could.

Personal Information

Married to Anna and we have three children. The eldest has finished university and the second has finished his masters and is about to move on to a PhD. The youngest is soon to go into the final year of her degree. I was brought up locally though spent many years working in London before returning to the area around 20 years ago. I unwind by running or getting out before sunrise with my camera though I can sometimes be found deep in a cave in the West Country!

Work / profession / skills

I spend about 80% of my time as MD of another local charity working with young people who are or have struggled with mainstream education. The rest of my time is spent leading photographic workshops and making landscape prints for sale. Back in the late ‘80’s I trained as a Chartered Accountant in a global public practice and after 11 years doing a variety of things I moved on to a large Insurance Broker. I worked mostly in Ipswich but also in London covering a variety of finance based roles. I have a broad financial background and bring the experience and skills to the ihAg board.

Why did I volunteer to be an ihAg trustee?
I first came across ihAg when I was the Treasurer of the Ipswich Umbrella Trust which ran what is now the Chapman Centre before ihAg took it under its management. Following a period of grace, I applied to become a Trustee and have been so since June 2015.

Personal Information

Entitled to state pension, lived in North Essex / South Suffolk for 37 years. Moved to East Bergholt in 2011. Married to Coral with three adult daughters, one of whom lives in Ipswich and whose job entails helping rough sleepers and the homeless. Naval Father and South African mother with family scattered around the globe. I enjoy fly fishing, reading, walking and “people”. I recently walked some of the Camino in northern Spain meeting diverse and interesting individuals.

Work / profession / skills

A retired construction director and management consultant. Previously MD of local companies for 30 years working with Housing Associations, Councils and private clients providing affordable homes. Worked in Africa and the UK on Major civil projects, was adviser to the Government on Health and Safety and established a National Occupational Health Scheme for the Construction Industry (CBH). Currently chair of East Bergholt Community Housing.

Why did I volunteer to be an ihAg trustee?

I am deeply upset about the lack of and poor state of housing. As a student I helped in the Simon community in Exeter, and more recently with the Soup Kitchen in Colchester. Construction employs diverse people and I have had some very distressing personal experiences, particularly involving ex-offenders and people with learning difficulties. I have a few years, post-full time work, during which I believe that my skills may be useful to an organisation like ihAg working at the front line in combatting homelessness.

Personal Information

I was born a Yorkshireman, grew up in The Lakes and Kent. After a couple of drinks you will hear the accent wander.I moved to Ipswich from Kent for work 20 years ago initially to stay for 6 months, I met my future wife and as they say the rest is history. I have a love of music, reading, exercise and nearly anything involving water frozen or liquid, colliding with the liquid version is more forgiving than the frozen.

Work / profession / skills
I have worked in Internationals Sales for the last 20 years in lighting and audio. I have worked in large, medium and small companies.  I bring a broad range of commercial business experience to ihAg covering sales, marketing, management and board level.  The company I currently work for is of a similar size to ihAg.

Why did I volunteer to be an ihAg trustee?
Ipswich has been very welcoming to me over these last 20 years and I wanted to be able to give something back to a community that has given me so much. 

Why ihAg?Through no fault of my own I was very close to becoming homeless myself, I know how quickly it could happen and I want to be able to positively assist a charity that is helping those that could so easily have been me.

Personal Information

I have lived in Ipswich for the last 21 years, having moved here from London.  I have brought up my two children here and made many friends in the Ipswich area. I enjoy feeling part of the community and making a contribution where I can.

Work / profession / skills

I am a Solicitor at Kerseys in Ipswich. I specialise in Family Law and have a lot of cases involving children and disadvantaged families. I encounter a lot of problems relating to inadequate housing,  problems with alcohol and drug use and financial problems. I therefore have a good understanding of the kind of difficulties experienced by people who come to IHAG for assistance. As a lawyer I am used to dealing with a lot of information and trying to make sense of it, as well as looking for practical solutions to problems.

Why did I volunteer to be an ihAg trustee?

After I graduated I worked as an Adviser at a Housing Aid Centre in North London. I did a lot of work with homeless people, helping tenants with unscrupulous landlords and assisting with benefit problems. It gave me a lasting interest in housing and homelessness.  I think that ihAg does very valuable work in the town and I wanted to do something outside of my day job. I volunteered to be a Trustee in the hope that I could be of use to ihAg generally.

Personal Information

I currently live in Saxmundham preferring to live near to the coast and the sea. I originate from Bedfordshire but have lived in Nottingham, Canterbury and Cambridge. I lived near Bury St Edmunds for over fifteen years. My interests include running, singing in a choir, gardening, reading, cinema, music, theatre and ballet. I am a big fan of Radio 4 and I love The Smiths, balsamic vinegar and old roses!

Work / profession / skills

I currently work for the Children’s Safeguarding Board in a quality assurance role. My career history has been varied but always in Local Government. I have worked in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. I originally started my career as a qualified careers adviser giving careers guidance to young people in schools. I moved on from this job to becoming an adviser for careers education to schools. I then became the Training Manager for the Careers Service and then the Connexions Service in Suffolk. From here, I became responsible for training staff in Social Care and preventative services. Recently I moved onto a job as a Professional Adviser in the QA team. I am also a qualified coach and auditor. My skills include presentation and training skills, management of a training programme and training budget, report writing, analysis of performance data, case auditing. I work more than full time!

Why did I volunteer to be an ihAg trustee?

I volunteered to be a trustee for ihAg for two main reasons. Firstly, I wanted to be involved in an organisation where I could try and make a difference in some small way to people who are in need of some additional help. Being involved with a charity whose main focus is housing is important to me. I believe that everyone has a basic right to an affordable and permanent roof over their heads. I rented for five years and I understand what it is to be at the mercy of a landlord and letting agent who doesn’t care about tenants.

Personal information

I grew up in a large village on the Essex/Suffolk border, and have lived and worked in both counties all of my life. I have been married for almost 15 years, and we have four children. In our spare time together as family we are members of the National Trust, and enjoy trundling around visiting their properties. We also have a VW camper van called Tango, (she’s bright orange), and make the annual pilgrimage down to Cornwall with friends for camping, body boarding, and pasties. I have a huge love for music, (all genres), comedy, Guinness and Gin (in moderation though).

Work, profession and skills

I decided to step into the world of care and support over 20 years ago and I haven’t looked back. My first position was a Support Worker in a long stay hospital, working with adults with learning and physical disabilities. I went on to work in community support, then older persons residential care as a Deputy Manager. In 2005 I became a Service Manager for a Housing Association managing a specialist younger person with dementia unit and an older person Extra Care scheme. I have remained with the same organisation for the last 13 years and have been promoted twice during my time there to Head of Service Older People and Business Development Manager across the support and care division incorporating, Learning Disabilities, Temporary Supported Housing and Older Persons. My current role includes project management, and developing the growth of the organisation, it’s a very diverse and sometimes challenging role which keeps me on my toes! My experience over the last 20 years has enabled to develop skills with a wide range of customer groups, including operational management and strategic leadership.

Why did I volunteer

Volunteering as a Trustee will enable me to gain a greater insight into the services ihAg delivers and contribute based on my existing knowledge to the development and future sustainability of the organisation. I am keen to learn more personally from ihAg, its employees and customers about their experiences and I want to make a commitment  to an organisation that is passionate about its cause. My aim is to make a positive difference as a trustee.