Roundup from Connected Voice AGM 2022

 

On Tuesday 26 April we held our Annual General Meeting (AGM) at St Mary's Heritage Centre in Gateshead. The meeting was chaired by Vice Chair of Connected Voice, Nitin Shukla. Treasurer, Martin Horrocks, presented key information from our Annual Accounts, which can be downloaded in full from our website, along with our Annual Review. Our Chief Executive, Lisa Goodwin, presented our key achievements and highlights from what was an exceptionally challenging year. These were shared in a short animated video:

 

Appointment of Trustees

We are delighted to welcome Busola Afolabi as a new trustee to the Connected Voice board.  For the past 10 years, Busola has been managing Success4All, a local education charity.  Her work at Success4All, has given Busola the privilege to see the incredible talents and creativity the children and young people in the North East possess, and she has a passion for addressing the educational inequalities that are present. 

We are also pleased that Nitin Shukla has been re-appointed as a trustee in the role of Vice Chair for another term.

 

The Power of Local

In addition to the formal agenda of the AGM, we welcomed several guest speakers to reflect on the theme of the day 'The Power of Local'.

Local poet Rowan McCabe shared a piece he had written specially for the event about the beginnings of Connected Voice, our founding member Teresa Merz, and the importance of local community action:

 

 

We also heard from two local organisations about how they harness the power of local here in Newcastle and Gateshead; Chopwell Regeneration Group CIO shared their experiences in setting up as a new organisation to support the communities of Chopwell and their journey towards funding and developing a brand new community space called The Bank.

Dwellbeing, another newly formed organisation, reflected on how they engage the local people in Shieldfield and the importance of art in supporting Shieldfield's diverse communities to flourish.

Rob MacMillan, Principal Research Fellow at the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University, talked about the importance of charities in supporting local communities and implications from the Levelling Up agenda.

Alice Wiseman, Gateshead Director of Public Health reflected on how voluntary and community organisations supported their local communities through COVID-19, and worked with the Council to deliver important health messages.