President’s message

I started my working life as a Nursery Nurse in a Nursery School situated on the outskirts of Chester, in an area which in those days was referred to as ‘deprived’. My career path then veered into Social Services when, after six years, I took a slightly different role in a Family Day Centre; in this job I worked alongside families who could not cope with the routines of family life and saw many children being placed into the care system because of neglect, physical and sexual abuse.

In 1986 I took the decision to change my career and trained as Rehabilitation Officer for People with a Visual Impairment, a role I am still in today. I work with children and adults undertaking holistic assessments and providing skills training in mobility, daily living skills and communication. I am also involved in awareness training for other staff groups and in organising and running an annual conference for specialist workers within the field of Visual Impairment which attracts delegates from around the UK. Over the years I have also represented the Authority on Regional and National Committees.

For many years I was involved with Girl Guiding, first as an assistant guider then Guider in Charge before becoming involved at District then County level where I was Assistant Outdoor Adviser; in this role I was responsible for the delivery of training and assessment of Guiders taking an outdoor holiday qualification.

My family is very important to me, as are my hobbies and interests, which include dancing, walking, reading, gardening and DIY. I strive to be fair and dependable and hope that people feel I am approachable.

It is with some trepidation that I take on this role, as I have only been a Soroptimist for four years. I am confident that my fellow Soroptimists will help and guide me along the way whilst allowing me to ‘make my mark’. We have several on-going Programme Action projects and I look forward to being involved with new tasks. We will continue to give service to the local community and undertake fundraising events to benefit my chosen charity, ‘Save the Family’, one of the largest homeless family charities in the UK, offering emergency accommodation, training and support in an effort to keep families together; the charity is currently developing further facilities in Cheshire. I have a particular affinity with ‘Save the Family’; its Founder was Head Mistress of the Nursery School where I started my working life. I have seen at first hand on many occasions the desperate lives and conditions some people experience and can only hope that in a very small way I can work with the Club to support the charity’s work.

During my year I intend to support our on-going recruitment campaign whilst valuing our existing members; forefront in my mind is that we should have fun, tolerate each other, cater for everyone’s needs and show the wider community, through our actions, what Soroptimism is all about.

Karen Webb