Surrey Youth Focus An AGM with Purpose

It was a great opportunity, as always, at the AGM to meet many Surrey Youth charities as well as hearing from Dawn Plummer of Collaborate on the changing paradigms of delivery .Fascinating -“outcomes are not delivered by organization” but by 3 things being human,learning and adapting and nurturing.Checkout Collaborate CIC. Thi s year saw the retirement of John Walshe who has had a long and very active association with SYF.

Click to follow link www.surreyyouthfocus.org.uk

Service Of Remembrance at Guildford

Thank you to Councillor Richard Billington and Canon Robert Cotton, and all those who helped in making the Remembrance Service in Guildford a special time of remembrance and reflection.

Colonel Patrick Crowley DL shared with the congregation more on our local regiment, The Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment, in the fifth of his centenary talks.Fascinating ,a real privilege.

I was pleased to have made the time to admire the recently sculptured new memorial in the Castle grounds.

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ABF-Antiques Road Show – at Farnham

What a treat eight antique experts descend on the Reservists center on Friday evening to entertain us with an insight into our treasures from the attic.

With grateful thanks to The Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars who were able to organise the experts to attend,we started the evening with John Benjamin sharing with us his knowledge on jewelry ,its fashion and value. A delicious curry dinner as you would expect for an The Army Benevolent Fund-The Soldiers Charity-Fundraising evening.Congratulations to the local ABF for such a great evening g.

Safe Drive Stay Alive

14 years on and 160,000 students through Dorking Halls, and the Surrey Fire and Rescue Services are welcoming a further 12,000 students this year to witness the hard hitting presentation on safe drive stay alive.

Enormous thanks are owed to the brave performers who volunteer their time to give graphic and unforgettable details of traffic accidents and fatalities they have witnessed.

The messages are clear; the mobile phone ,drinking,drugs,tired and fast and reckless driving

can be fatal.The performance is grueling,the message clear, and the effect is measurable.

Thank you to everyone involved,it was a privilege to be able to present an award from the High Sheriff Youth awards who have supported this work for several years.Thank you to all the many other supporters who enable the annual presentations to happen.

To Skillway with grateful thanks..

It was a happy moment to be able to present the High Sheriff Youth Awards certificate to Skillway in Godalming and to thank the staff and dedicated volunteers for all they do to help 45 young people a year learn out of the school environment carpentry,metal work and creativity arts. The importance of this opportunity to these young people cannot be over emphasised. Thankyou Skillway for making Surreys communities safer and stronger.

“The virtuous circle”

The Mayor Of Guildford kindly hosted an event for The Guildford Philanthropy Fund at The Guildhall.It was an evening of conviviality and surprises as we learnt how the Guildford Philanthropy Fund one of the Community Foundation for Surreys Community funds is growing with positivity and achievement.So to the virtuous circle,Peter Cluff chairman of the the Guildford Philanthropy fund shared with his guests and philanthropists, amongst other achievements, the virtuous circle involving work and training for young people and a sandwich round for Guildford businesses! An exciting evening as philanthropy grows with enthusiasm. See more www.guildfordphilanthropy.org.uk .

Celebration For Surreys special Volunteers

County Hall Kingston Upon Thames was abuzz with stories of volunteering ,commitment and dedication,as Tony Samuels Chairman of Surrey County Council presented medals to twenty one individual volunteers and The Vice Chairman Helyn Clack gave a short citation on each .

A great evening with time to chat afterwards and thank the volunteers for the work do which makes Surrey a much better community.

Such care and kindness at RBWA

Womens refuges are in short supply. RBWA in East Surrey is one of the few,,a charity providing a refuge for eleven women and their children. It is much more than a refuge it is home and a place of care and professional help, when so much is lost and lives need remaking.After a morning at the refuge with the incredible CEO I realize how we must find the way to continue to support this and other women’s refuge who rely on charitable donations to survive.Click on link www.rbwa.org.uk

Family day At HMP Send

It was a privilege to have the opportunity, together with The High Sheriff of West Sussex, to meet the Deputy Governor and the family engagement worker of the Prison Advise and Care Trust at HMP Send, during a family visit day.We were given an extensive tour and an opportunity to meet with an inspiring mother and prisoner.

Again I came way from HMP Send full of admiration for the effort that the prison is making to try and make some sense of the custodial sentences for the womens lives in the future .

35 New Citizens Welcomed To Surrey

It was a great pleasure to be a part of the important weekly Citizenship Ceremony at County Hall Kingston, to welcome 35 Surrey residents and grant them UK citizenship .There was a buzz of exciting and great enthusiasm during the ceremony.