Operations Board Meeting at Benenden Health
This morning we came together with some of our Ambassadors from across our members for our quarterly Operations Board meeting. The Operations Board come together to discuss employee-volunteering within their organisations over the last quarter, to share challenges, and to celebrate successes. There is also usually a guest speaker invited to talk to the group too.
Today was an extra special meeting as we welcomed Lucy Pagliaro, Engagement and Wellbeing Coordinator, Beneden Health, into her new role as Chair of the Operations Board.
We asked Lucy to tell us a bit about her role and why she is looking forward to being the Operations Board Chair. Lucy said, “I have been with Benenden Health since 2020, and started my role as Engagement & Wellbeing Co-ordinator almost two years ago. I am extremely passionate about having a wellbeing culture within the workplace, and making sure that our colleagues at Benenden Health feel recognised, appreciated and know that their wellbeing comes first.
I am really excited to become the new Operations Board Chair for York Cares, as I really believe in the value that York Cares brings to our community, and the opportunities that it offers for workplace volunteering. As volunteering is more than just the act itself, it brings so many benefits for the person who is doing it, feeling like they are doing something of value as well as their day-to-day job.
As the new Chair, I am looking forward to being an advocate for York Cares, helping drive our ambassador meetings and chatting to the other ambassadors on a quarterly basis to discuss, share and speak about all things volunteering. I believe sharing ideas and coming together is really important, to have more of a unified approach to volunteering for York Cares.”
We were delighted to welcome Katy Risdell-Smith, Chief Executive Officer, Community Furniture Store to our meeting. Katy spoke about the important work that the Community Furniture Store does to help local communities by keeping pre-owned furniture in circulation, reducing waster through reuse and upcycling and also providing employment and skills experience to people facing long term unemployment or barriers to work.
Katy also spoke about IT ReUse, a project is supported by a group of organisations in York who have shared goals in advancing the causes of digital inclusion, environmentalism and reuse. They accept donations of IT equipment from the general public and local businesses, and then through a network of community workers distribute it to individuals who aren’t able to access essential services and risk getting left behind by the digital divide.
The meeting was a great opportunity for us to kick start 2024 by sharing and drawing upon the experience of Ambassadors in the room to realise connections, opportunities for collaboration and to share challenges related to employee-volunteering.
Thank you again to Lucy for agreeing to be our new Operations Board Chair and hosting this mornings meeting, to Katy for giving your time to share more about the Community Furniture Store and how our members can support it, and also to all the Ambassadors who came.
