How long have you been a trustee?
12 months.

What made you want to become a trustee?
I wanted to do a role where I could give something back. I loved the objectives of Druglink and felt it aligned with causes I feel passionate about supporting.

Why did you want to support a substance misuse charity?
I have a background in offender management and found it really hard to find support services for those being rehabilitated back into the community. I felt Druglink was trying to plug that gap and was impressed by the services being offered to everyone, including
ex-offenders who are complicated to support.

Did you know much about this charitable cause before you became involved as a trustee?
No. It’s been insightful to understand more about the funding side and the challenges to keeping a charity running.

What do you feel trusteeship adds to your personal and professional development?
It allows me to build relationships with new groups of people and share my learns on how to manage risks from a corporate perspective, trying to adapt that to a charity setting. Professionally it develops my ability to communicate as I have to find different ways to engage and show my will to support the mission of Druglink.

What value have you been able to add to your charity with your personal and professional experience?
Broader insight into different types of risks. My investigations background in a corporate and public sector settings allows me to share insights into having robust processes to call things out in the moment, protecting everyone connected to Druglink.

What do you think is the biggest challenge currently facing charities?
Funding uncertainty driven by lots of uncontrollable factors both politically and on the global landscape.

What would you say are the important attributes a trustee should have?
Passion and ability to communicate .

If you could give one piece of advice to someone thinking about becoming a trustee what would it be?
Take the time to learn about the charity and the services it provides, ideally by seeing them in person.