Together, with every single member of our team, our Board of Trustees play a vital role in making Walsingham Support a great place to be for the people we support and for their families.
Today we’re delighted to announce the appointment of Paul Macdonald as the new Chair of our Board of Trustees at Walsingham Support Community Solutions. Paul comes to Walsingham Support with a wealth of experience. After a 30-year career as a Senior Finance Executive in consumer goods and business services in the UK and abroad, Paul joined Walsingham Support in July this year as a Trustee, concentrating on using his strategy, change, finance and collective governance experience on public service. Paul is also a Trustee at Enable Trust, a company that gives a stronger voice to school pupils with complex, severe, multiple and profound learning difficulties and, in the past, has been Governor at a local primary school in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, where he lives with his wife and family.
Paul has already visited our head office in London, The Barn in Ledbury and Forge Fach in Swansea which he says has “brought to life what Walsingham Support Community Solutions does.” He has the bee house made in Ledbury in his garden at home!
On his new appointment, Paul says: “As Walsingham Support Community Solutions Chair, I will work collectively with fellow Trustees and business leaders to build on the great work that has been done by Maddy and the team to date. I also plan to make sure I get to more locations and meet more of the folks who deliver a difference every day of the week.”
As we welcome Paul, we say farewell and thank you to Maddy Thomson as she steps down from her role as Chair of our Board of Trustees at Walsingham Support Community Solutions. Maddy joined Walsingham Support in January 2006 as Trustee and, with a background in learning and development, has been integral to the charity’s growth over the past 13 years. During this time, she chaired the Quality Assurance Committee and 6 years ago began vice-chairing within Walsingham Support. Maddy’s proudest achievement has been starting Walsingham Support Community Solutions which was set up 2 and half years ago as a subsidiary of its parent company, Walsingham Support. It focuses on 4 areas in particular: training and skills development through creative learning, supported employment, volunteering and community hubs. The ambition? To work alongside Walsingham Support to serve the local community through inclusivity. Maddy is proud of Walsingham Support Community Solutions’ vision and holding onto it in the early years of establishing the charity: “I’ve enjoyed working with Clare (Director of Walsingham Support Community Solutions) to establish something new and exciting. Forming creative opportunities for people with learning disabilities to engage in their community.”
Her support and commitment over the years is greatly appreciated. We wish Maddy all the best for the future and thank her, once again, for her contributions. What next for Maddy? “Have a break!” she says, and “stay in touch with Walsingham Support to continue to promote what they stand for and do”.
Paul Snell, Chief Executive, thanks Maddy “for her longstanding commitment and dedication to Walsingham Support and her success in establishing the strong foundations of Walsingham Support Community Solutions from which we will build further over the coming years.”