2021 has been a time of significant change for The Evelyn Trust. Two Trustees, Bill Pike and Julia Squier, have retired and they will be missed enormously. Will Dawkins steps down as Chairman after a decade in the role, to be replaced by Jeremy Newsum, although Will continues as a Trustee.

“I’m so grateful to Will for chairing the Board so ably and with so much humour over the last ten years and personally I’m particularly glad that he remains a Trustee so I can rely on his guidance as I step into his shoes. My focus will be to build the Trust’s impact from this point. I will be exploring ways in which we can be a catalyst for further improvement in the health of the community, seed funding research and projects which then grab attention and go on to greater things. It’s a privilege to be asked to chair the Trust and I look forward to leading its evolution,” says Jeremy.

November also saw the appointment of Norest Mararike to the Board, who brings a unique perspective from her career as a senior mental health nurse in the NHS. Norest was a logical choice to be a new Trustee given her background as a highly qualified NHS nurse with in-depth experience in both disability services and community mental health.

“At first I wasn’t sure that I really wanted to commit to becoming a Trustee while I’m working full-time as a nurse in a very busy team. Then I realised that this was a rare opportunity to join an organisation that makes a real difference to individuals and society, so I couldn’t resist! With my skills and expertise, I hope to help shape the direction of the Trust, particularly in our work to support communities in Peterborough and Fenland and also to encourage more focus on diversity,” explains Norest.

A governance priority for 2022 will be the recruitment of a further new Trustee to complete the complement of ten. For grant applicants, the most visible development next year will be the implementation of Flexigrant, a new online application system. Rebecca Wood, Charity Director, explains the benefits.

“Flexigrant will make life so much easier for our applicants! Their details will be saved online and that will mean less time filling in forms. From a ‘back office’ viewpoint, it will mean easy availability of relevant paperwork which will save valuable administrative time behind the scenes. The system will also allow us to more easily mine the data about our increasing number of grants.”