Thank you to all those who attended our third Festival of North West Thinking event, which also incorporated our AGM. We know switching to digital interactions for events like these has sometimes proven hard, so we appreciate your continued patience, enthusiasm and commitment.

We are very happy to welcome back all of our Board of Trustees, who have succeeded in making sure that VSNW can continue to work together to enable the VCSE sector to positively shape the future of the North West. This includes: Alison Page, Chair of VSNW; Ed Moss, Vice-Chair; Dan Moxon, Treasurer; Dave Packwood and Sally Yeoman.

In turn, we are also pleased to announce three new members to the Board of Trustees, voted for by our members during the AGM:

Firstly, Gill Bainbridge, who is the Chief Executive at Merseyside Youth Association in Liverpool City Region. Gill has experience working with some of Merseyside’s most vulnerable young people and working strategically and operationally with and on behalf of them. Gill presently represents the sector on the Liverpool City Region Youth Task Force, the Liverpool Providers Alliance, Liverpool Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing Partnership Board and Liverpool’s City-wide Fairness and Anti-Poverty Group. She is a member of VS6, the Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Social Care Leadership Group and Health Watch Community Engagement Group.

We are proud to welcome Gill to our Board of Trustees and look forward to working with her.

Secondly Dr Ridwanan Gurjee; she is a Principal Lecturer, leading the Centre for Volunteering and Community Leadership (CVCL) at the University of Central Lancashire in the School of Social Work, Care and Community. Ridwanah is the employability lead within the school, supporting subjects in Community Leadership, Children, Schools and Families, Social Work and Applied Community and Social Care Studies. Ridwanah also leads the International activities within the school and has developed her specialism of peer mentoring, globally, with UCLan Students and young people from the Agadir Orphanage Centre in Morocco.

Ridwanan’s vast experience, will be vital in her role and we look forward to learning from her expertise.

Thirdly, we welcome Khansa Taha. Khansa is a trainee solicitor, soon to qualify and intending to continue practicing within Family Law. Her current role is within a specialist domestic abuse firm working with local and national charities to support service users to bridge the gap to legal recourse, including Victim Support/New Era and the National Centre for Domestic Violence. She also has experience working with young people and youth participation including Youth Focus North West, UK Youth Parliament and Bolton Council Children Services.

Khansa will be a great asset to the board and we are pleased to welcome her.

Thanks again to all those members who voted in our AGM. For those who are interested in becoming a member and having a say at next year’s AGM, please click here for more information.

For more detailed profiles on our current trustees, please see our Board of Trustees webpage.