To say my first year as Chairman of Norfolk CVYS has been ‘interesting’ would be a major understatement. I would like to commence my review by paying a heartfelt tribute to my predecessor James Kearns. James’ enthusiasm, hard work and perseverance, some times somewhat against the odds, meant that on my taking up the reigns a secure foundation had already been built and thus my role and vision for Norfolk CVYS was made so much easier.

In the past year we have been building an exciting team both at governance and operational level, to establish the vision and strategy of Norfolk CVYS and then to ensure we can work towards achieving that vision. An Away Day earlier in the year led to us firming up an exciting new vision and challenge, that is to become “the Norfolk umbrella agency supporting voluntary and community sector organisations working with children & young people aged 0 to 25, and their families/carers”. This will take a number of years to successfully establish but we believe builds on the excellent work that Norfolk CVYS has become renowned for with regard the voluntary youth agenda. It will also enable us to champion the voluntary sector engagement in relation to all the changes and opportunities that are coming about as a result of the Every Child Matters and Youth Matters agenda and the development of Norfolk Children’s Services.

With the increase in activity we have, rather inevitably, been placing a significant burden on our small staff team. I would like to pay tribute to each and every one of them. Joyce retired at February having carefully looked after the training and finances side of our work. We were enormously fortunate in being able to appoint Tracy Dack to take on her role and some additional new areas of work. Tracy grew into that role very quickly and is already a vital cog in our machinery. Marguerite continues to provide invaluable support and has a wealth of experience to draw on. Pauline also plays a very useful role in supporting the team in all those thousand-and-one jobs that take up a lot of staff time. We have recently been very fortunate in appointing Shenaz Kedar as our International Youth Project Development Officer. Her role is to capacity build, support and encourage all youth organisations to provide opportunities for international experience. We are already benefiting enormously from her huge knowledge and experience in this field, but also her considerable enthusiasm and dynamism in this role. And I would like to say a special ‘thank you’ to Mike Tingley. As Chairman I have asked a tremendous amount of him over the past year and I know at times taken him outside of his comfort zone. Mike has always responded with cheerful enthusiasm and striven hard, not only for Norfolk CVYS, but for the sector as a whole and the young people of Norfolk. We are very fortunate to have such a competent and dedicated staff team.

I would also like to pay tribute to the Trustees, not only have they put up with me for the past year, and done so with a smile (well at least to my face!), they have also shared in the joy and hard-work of setting the vision and the strategy. I believe this has led to a real sense of ownership and shared responsibility which I feel will provide a really secure base on which to build the future. It has meant they have been willing to give up their Saturdays and actively participate in lengthy evening meetings. For that dedication I am sincerely most grateful.

Over the year Norfolk CVYS has been really grateful for the excellent partnership it has experienced with both the Youth Service specifically but also Norfolk Children’s Services generally. The support and encouragement Lisa Christensen and Graham Hanson have provided to us has been much appreciated. Although we experienced some tensions around the proposed threatened cuts the maturity of relationship that has been built up has ensured that we continue to strive together for the benefit of Norfolk’s young people.

The challenge for the year ahead is to ensure we now carefully build on the foundation my predecessor laid and the exciting vision we have been putting in place. The Voluntary & Community Sector working with children and young people in Norfolk is really strong and doing some fantastic work. Norfolk CVYS has a challenging and unique role to play within that. With all of our members support I am convinced our vision is achievable and together we can make the five outcomes of Every Child Matters a reality for all of our children and young people in the county, and ensure the sector goes from strength-to-strength.

Richard Draper
Chairman