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Trustees
Introduction
Behind the scenes, the trustees play a vital role in overseeing the work of CCM. In addition, several trustees pay an active part in the day to day running of the ministry - from serving in the Coffee Shop to keeping the accounts and producing publicity.
The trustees are:
- Stephen Brown,
- Graham Donald (our Chairman),
- Linda Dyson,
- Jemma Mack,
- Alan Patterson,
- Andrew Street,
- Gerry Summers,
- Julie Summers and
- Dave Wiles.
Also working hard for CCM are:
- Richard Hill (our Company Secretary) and
- Martin Horton (our Treasurer).
The People
Stephen Brown
Stephen joined the board in 2005.
Graham Donald
Graham joined the board in 2002. He is the current chair of the trustees, having taken over in 2006 from Anni Davey, who served us in that role for many years.
Graham Donald comes from Somerset and is married to Gillian. They have two grown up children. Graham became a Christian at university in 1970. He came to Bristol in 1993 and worships at Christ Church Clifton, where he is a member of the PCC. He is also secretary of Bristol School of Christian Studies. His main Christian service in recent years was as secretary of SPACE from 1994 to 1999.
Graham was first challenged to think about how he might be of service to the homeless folk of Bristol when Derek Groves spoke at a Christian business breakfast. Graham became a trustee in 2002 in response to an advert in Streetwise, and became chair of trustees in 2006. He relishes the opportunity CCM gives to meet, talk to, work and pray with Christians from a wide range of walks of life and backgrounds. Graham's main role in CCM, in addition to being chair, is in fund-raising.
Graham spent his working life in the public sector, ending in the senior civil service. His final job was Deputy Clerk of the Privy Council and Director of Corporate Services. Whilst working at the Privy Council Office (PCO), Graham appeared in University Challenge - the Professionals which the PCO Team won in 2005. After retirement in 2006, Graham took on a number of public appointments in professional regulation.
Linda Dyson
Linda joined the board in 2006.
Linda has been married to Maurice since September 2001 when she returned from 21 years living in Greece where she worked as a full-time Christian worker. The Dysons live in the village of Frampton Mansell in the southern Cotswolds. She has an adopted son, Lorenc who is married to Alison. They have two small children, William and Fleur, who both have cystic fibrosis.
Linda worked for 10 years with the Albanian people and previously with various Greek and international ministries, including Operation Mobilisation, Open Air Campaigners and the Greek Mercy Mission which has a similar ministry to the Crisis Centre. She also has considerable experience of working with prisoners, refugees, and displaced people, particularly during and after the Kosovo crisis.
She is currently involved, too, with her local community radio station, 'The Open Line Book' school assemblies as well as being missionary secretary in her local church. Her hobbies are creative writing, drama and pressed flower craft and she also teaches modern Greek for a few hours each week.
She hopes that her breadth of 'hands on experience' at the cutting edge of Christian work can help her make worthwhile contributions as a trustee of the Crisis Centre.
Richard Hill
Richard is the Company Secretary. He is a solicitor who used to work locally in St Pauls, but is now based in the centre of Bristol.
Martin Horton
The Treasurer is Martin Horton, who is self employed and gives us one day a week to keep the finances up to date. He has a background in accounting and an ongoing involvement with the Scout movement.
Martin has now been the Treasurer of the Crisis Centre for some four years. He normally comes into the offices each Friday to keep the books in order. The other four days of the week he does audit work for the Audit Commission.
I worked for almost twenty years for Wessex Water and, having at that time taken a sort of early retirement, I thought it was time for the Lord to be able to use my training and experience as a chartered accountant on a voluntary basis for a worthwhile Christian cause. Just at that time our chairman, Anni Davey (who attends the same church as me - St Mary's Stoke Bishop) let me know that The Crisis Centre was seeking a new treasurer. The rest, as they say, is history.
I have found the task rewarding and challenging, and nicely complementary to my other work for the Audit Commission. It is great to be part of a team that seeks to have such a positive affect on people's lives in an area of great need. At the same time, it is challenging balancing my training and background of prudence and care in financial situations with the need to let God work in what is, after all, a faith ministry. So far, I think, with prayer, this balance has just about been maintained!
Jemma Mack
Jemma joined the board in 2007.
Jemma is a Chartered Physiotherapist who runs her own physiotherapy practice in North Bristol and Clifton. Her past experience with the homeless has been on a voluntary basis and has included the co-starting and running of a homeless befriending project in London which put people who had once been homeless or in prison in touch with people who wanted to befriend them.
Since moving to Bristol in 2006 she has become a member of Christchurch Clifton where she now helps with the Breakfast Run which provides breakfast for homeless people in Bristol on Saturday mornings.
Alan Patterson
Alan joined the board in 2007.
I have recently retired. I worked as a Chartered Architect in Africa designing hospitals in Jos and Zari, and in the Middle East and the UK on sports facilities.
I am married to Julia. We have three grown up children and three (soon four) grandchildren. We worship at Christ Church Clifton.
My interests include sailing, rambling, history and politics. I am an active member of a political party.
Though I was born in London, my family came from Northern Ireland, where my brother and sister and their families still live in Enniskillen.
Our two sons and daughter all live in Bristol, so we are delighted to have them so close.
Andrew Street
Andrew joined the board in 2007.
Gerry Summers
Gerry joined the board in 2006.
Julie Summers
Julie joined the board in 2006.
Dave Wiles
David Wiles was co-opted onto the board when Arkle Bell moved away, and officially became a member at the next AGM in 2002. He has been involved in youth and community work for 27 years and counting.
I am Donna's husband and have three wonderful children who tolerate my ageing sense of humour remarkably well! I like reading, travel, sleeping, walking (when my leg is not broken!) and real ale - not necessarily in that order!
When young people occasionally suggest that I "get a life" I usually reply that I am living 3 already! I am the Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Youth Trust. I have 27 years of experience in youth and community work and believe that this is my 'street cred' - rather than the fancy MPhil I recently obtained at Bath University! I worked for the Children Society for 21 years in a wide range of roles and contexts having come into youth and community work, following a turbulent adolescence, as an apprentice to Bob Holman - who now lives and works in Easterhouse, Glasgow. My current mentor is Homer Simpson: Doh!... Just joking! I think youth and community work is great 'helper therapy' on the basis that I am still working out what happened to me in the 60's and 70's!
I spend a lot of time speaking at a wide range of Christian gatherings (e.g. Crisis Centre Ministries AGM's, Spring Harvest, Greenbelt etc). I have worked out that 50% of my speaking engagements are focused on trying to get people in the world to join the church and the other 50% are used on trying to get the church to join the world! A favourite 'hobby horse' is 'participation and inclusion' and I believe that there is a new call for participation: genuine involvement of people at the grassroots level, where they may begin to shape their own destiny. However, I also acknowledge that many institutions, like the church, will find the call for authentic inclusion extremely challenging and am only too willing to help them try!