National Trustees Week is the perfect time to celebrate the work of trustees across the UK.
There are approximately one million trustees, who give their time freely to help charities do good work.
Trustees’ voluntary commitment amounts to a staggering monetary value of £3.5 billion per annum.
Here at Colchester United Football in the Community, we have a diverse, skilled and passionate board of trustees from all walks of life including education, public services, business, sports development and of course representatives from Colchester United.
And we are pleased to welcome four new members to our board:-
Linda Gaine
Linda has been the Strategic Lead Delivery Manager at Active Essex, since March 2013.
Before that she was Partnerships Manager for the Essex County Council 2012 Legacy and Sports Delivery team from 2007-2012 and Essex County Council County Sports Development Manager from 2000.
Her role now is working closely with Public Health on the Physical Activity agenda. Linda was previously a Sports Development Officer at Braintree District Council with a key remit to develop sport and physical activity opportunities and build volunteer capacity within the communities and district.
Linda has a wealth of experience having worked in the sport and physical activity sector for the past 27 years. Key to Linda is the ability to work in partnership to link physical activity and sport to other agendas, in order to maximise resources and opportunities, to benefit partners and the wider community.
As a volunteer Linda is very much involved in the sport of netball where she co-runs a local netball club with around 300 members, she also coaches and umpires and plays very occasionally. She is also the Chair of the Colchester Netball League and a life member of East Essex County Netball Association. Linda is aligned to our Health and Inclusion strand.
Miles Bacon
Miles joined the teaching profession in 1991 after a first career in television and corporate video production, including contracts with the BBC and work for major international clients such as BAT Industries, Glaxo Smith Kline and Saab-Scania.
He was appointed Head Teacher of Thurstable School in 2006, and served as the Chair of the Association of Secondary Head Teachers in Essex between 2012 and 2014.
He has an MA in Education Management, and holds the National Professional Qualification for Headship. Miles is aligned to our Education strand.
Anne Turrell
Anne was one of the original Parish Councillors for Myland Parish Council (now called Myland Community Council). They were the first new Parish Council for 100 years and started in 1999.
In 2002, Anne became a Colchester Borough Councillor and she became Leader of Colchester Borough Council in 2008 until she stepped down in 2014.
Anne then became Deputy Leader until 2015 when she resigned from Colchester Borough Council. In 2005, she became an Essex County Cllr and was re-elected for another four years in 2017. In 2009, Anne became a member of the Essex Fire Authority.
Throughout her time as a Cllr, she has been involved in various Community Events from helping to start the Myland Fete to recently going to the Myland Lunch Club to support the volunteers. Anne is looking forward to helping Colchester United Football in the Community.
Jon De Souza
Jon spent 11 years at Luton Town as a player and then a coach, where he worked his way up to U18s and reserve team manager.
Jon left Luton to join Brentford where he spent five years as U23s coach and worked very closely with first team manager Uwe Rosler.
He also had a spell as an FA Tutor for Level One and Two coaching courses.
Jon is a holder of UEFA A Licence and Advance Youth Award, as well as a masters in Business Management.
With Jon’s extensive knowledge and experience within sports coaching he is aligned as a trustee with our Sport Participation strand.
Colchester United Football in the Community's Corin Haines said: "Our trustees work together to provide effective governance of CUFITC, including strategy development and review, financial oversight, scrutiny and support to the staff team.
"Each trustee brings their own experience and ideas to the board and sets the tone for how we do things by championing our core values - Focussed - Inclusive - Trusted and Creative.
"CUFITC is growing and we have undertaken a number of important steps in recent years to ensure we achieve our goals as effectively as possible.
"We’d like to say a huge thank you to our board of trustees, past and present, for their special contribution towards supporting children, young people and families across Colchester and North East Essex to achieve their full potential."
To find out more about our Football in the Community scheme, click HERE.