At a happy event at the vice chairman, Julie Llewelyn’s home,The Community Foundation for Surrey thanked the retiring chairman, David Frank and two members of the Board Richard Whittington and Graham Williams for 9 years of service at CFS.
Excitingly, Jim Glover ,known I am sure to you all, has taken over Chairmanship.
Gate Street Barn, Bramley hosted an important evening at which Justice and Care a charity “Breaking the Grip Of Slavery” shed light on the enormous problem of modern slavery in Surrey and how they are working with the Surrey police. Surreys Police and Crime Commissioner spoke with passion on the importance of the work.
10,000 hours of student volunteering and a Queens Award for Volunteers sets the scene for what can only be described as euphorically uplifting Festival.
Many many Charities and community groups, as well as Royal Holloway’s own community initiatives, had set up stalls for the students to see and discover and sign up to volunteer with.
I opened the festival at 11am, and by 12am the site was buzzing and the lists for volunteering were filling fast.
An event like this gives you great hope for the future-thank you Royal Holloway.
That was a huge pleasure – I was asked to cut the ribbon and open the wonderful garden and oasis and allotment at Woodhatch Road, Reigate.
This partnership between Reigate and Banstead Borough Council who provided the land, and The Surrey Care Trust in creating the community allotment project is very special.It is to provide space for nurturing and mentoring 100 vulnerable people and families per year,based on social and therapeutic horticulture.
So much community ,with local businesses and local people helping and providing to make this an amazing and important space. Well done and thank you to Surrey Care Trust and all the volunteers.
The Lord Lieutenant and Vice Lord Lieutenant presented at Loseley two BEM awards to recognise those people who go above and beyond in the workplace and volunteering in the community.
A busy morning at Surrey University with entrepreneurs presenting at Pitch at Palace on tour their new and exciting businesses. Two businesses caught my eye, RightsDD, a tool enabling organisation to identify modern slavery risks in their business chain. And GoodGym, combining fitness with volunteering, such as running to see isolated older people or doing manual labour for community projects.
A very meaningful service was held by the High Sheriff of West Sussex at Worth Abbey to support and commend her Majesty’s judges and magistrates, those working in the public sector and those in voluntary and statutory organisations of the County.
The service was so well represented by so many committed people, indicative of the importance and value of the service.
With grateful thanks to the Duke of Northumberland I was pleased to host an evening reception at Syon House to share with others the importance, need and opportunities of the Community Foundation for Surrey.
In the east of Surrey, Viewpoint charity is performing incredible work, offering therapy for young people through working with horses. The horses calm people and learning to communicate with the animals is known to have revolutionary effects on mental health and self-regulation.
I was honored to open the event, which was highlighting their amazing work and introducing a new non verbal toolbox training that viewpoint will be offering to families and carers and professionals. The new course teaches how to read body language and respond appropriately with non verbal strategies.
The High Sheriff Youth Awards have been pleased to provide the funds to enable six young people to benefit from the Horse Course and it was a great pleasure to be able to present a certificate to Viewpoint – Katie and Billy, to thank them for helping in making Surrey Communities safer and stronger.
This is a wonderful charity offering new and impactful help.
I attended a very interesting day at Surrey University, where many different faiths were represented by inspirational and wise speakers. The topic in discussion was ’12 Years to Save the Planet’. The interfaith strength was enormous. There was urgency in the need to collaborate and cooperate in order to combat the despair over our increasingly problematic world caused by the globe’s rising temperatures.
I must now look at Jem Bendell’s paper ‘Towards Deep Adaptation’.