housing,isolation,loneliness,mental health,mission

Election Address: Lyn Garwood
For most of my working life I was a Civil Servant, working in the north of England,
dealing with housing and regeneration issues across a variety of local authority areas,
both rural and urban.
Following the Heseltine initiative, I went to work on Merseyside, again on housing and
regeneration matters. This brought me into close working contact with both the Police
and Directors of Public Health, as well as local authorities and potential bidders for
regeneration resources.
For the final 6 years of my working life, I worked for a large Metropolitan Borough
Council, implementing a regeneration project, in conjunction with European money and
working with the community and voluntary groups. As a result, I have continued to be
involved with voluntary sector organisations either as a trustee or chair of the board of
trustees. I am therefore familiar with the workings of the Charity Commission, as well
as a range of grant and accounting requirements, the need to become more
businesslike in delivery and the benefits of working in partnership with others.
Currently as a churchwarden, I have been involved at a parish level with the Golden
Valley Pilgrim way project, through the steering group, which manages the project on
behalf of the Abbeydore Deanery Joint Council, of which I am currently a member. The
DLT are working together to deliver a range of mission strands of which the pilgrim
project is one.
I have a keen interest in community and rural affairs, particularly loneliness and mental
health issues which can result from isolation. I am also interested in the more
nontraditional approaches to engaging people and encouraging involvement in worship.