It's all change for Burngreave New Deal for Communities (BNDfC) as we welcome a trio of new appointments. Vicky Brennan, Jackie Toyne and Cecilia Shields are all hoping to make their mark on Burngreave in a variety of roles.
Vicky Brennan is the new employment one-stop shop manager. She comes from a regeneration project up in Leeds where she has spent the last four-years helping to bring the hardest to reach people into the labour market.
Says Vicky: "These are still early days for us as it is a new project but we have a really strong vision that we want to fulfil. The one-stop-shop hopes to pull together all the resources that are already in Burngreave to provide more support for people to help get them into lasting employment such as providing pre-employment and after care support.
“I'm really looking forward to this new challenge. Fantastic stuff is happening in the area and we now have the chance to pull it all together under one roof.”
Also taking up a brand new role is Jackie Toyne who is the monitoring and evaluation manager. Jackie comes from the University of Lincoln where she was a Sure Start evaluator.
“My role involves seeing how effective the New Deal projects we fund have been in the area and what differences they are making to the community.”
“Getting feedback from local people is absolutely pivotal to the New Deal programme. We will be using a number of methods to do this- including focus groups, citizens panels, telephone interviews, perhaps using local people as ‘mystery shoppers’ and introducing interactive elements to our website for people to feed into. We would love to hear from anyone on any ideas of how we can work with the community to get their comments and suggestions.”
Cecilia Shields is the new employment and enterprise theme manager.
"For the past 20-years I have worked for Jobcentre Plus of which the last five years I have managed the innovative community based project called the Sheffield Action Team. I have been one of the BNDfC Employment & Enterprise board members over the last year. I was also on the Sheffield First for Inclusion Board and the Sheffield First Employment Advisory Board.
"I have gained a good insight to the needs of the community and what employment opportunities there are for local people both within Burngreave and in the city as a whole.
“I am passionate about Burngreave and am looking forward to working for BNDfC and the community to help make a difference especially through the development of the One Stop Shop.”
John Clark, Chief Executive of BNDfC, said: “We are delighted to welcome three new faces to the BNDfC programme team who bring with them a wealth of knowledge and experience. Their appointments will benefit the services we provide for the people of Burngreave.”