Our annual AGM

22nd September 2022

A Big Thank You to Everyone Who Attended Our AGM This Week

This week we held our Annual General Meeting at Kettering Rugby Club and were pleased to see over 50 friendly faces attend our first face to face event in 2 years.

We were sad to see three of our existing Trustees stepping down and we would like to take this opportunity to send them a heartfelt thank you for their years of service and dedication to Accommodation Concern.

On a more positive and exciting note, we appointed three incredible new Trustees in their places, with our new Chair of Trustees Damian Roche stepping up to the plate.

Stepping down:

• Rev John Phillip Staves
• Carolyn Bantin
• Simon Shefford
• Chris Smith-Haynes - remaining as Trustee but Stepping down as Chair

Appointed:

• Damian Roche - new Chair of Trustees
• Helen Aird
• Sarah-Louise Isaacson

Introducing Damian, our new Chair

I am delighted to have been invited to become the new Chair of the board of Trustees. I began my career working in homelessness and housing advice before moving into housing management and have over 20 years’ experience at senior level in a variety of housing organisations, including local authorities and housing associations.

For much of the last decade, I was Director of Customer Experience at a large housing association with responsibility for services to over 4700 homes in the East of England. I have recently joined a housing consultancy firm as a director. I am passionate about the provision of good quality housing for all and am well aware of the fantastic service provided by Accommodation Concern, both in terms of housing and debt advice.

I hope that I can bring my skills and experience to those that need it in our area. I know that the services provided by AC are needed more than ever before and I hope to assist AC in growing the organisation to be able to meet the greater need for services we expect to see in the coming years.