Westway Trust look ahead to continuing our journey with the communities of North Kensington
Westway Trust are pleased to announce Mark Lister as our new Interim Chief Executive.
Mark joins the Trust with a wealth of experience in the fields of care, community and advocacy as well as rights and social justice. He brings formidable experience in leading organisations through challenging times and he will take us up to the point where we can appoint a new permanent CEO, through an open and transparent process.
The board is committed to bringing a new approach to the organisation, that will genuinely place the local community at the centre of the 23 acres and show the values of North Kensington.
Our Chair, Toby Laurent Belson, will work closely with Mark over the coming months and has this to say about the changes taking place at the Westway Trust.
"The first all-important step in our journey of change has been completed. Four of our eight trustees have spent five years campaigning for a Trust that works differently. Other trustees, past and present, have supported that call and we now have a board that, for the first time in the Trust's near fifty year history, is made up of residents from the area of benefit with strong and established links to the grassroots community of North Kensington.
Mark will support our new board in bringing more local people into decision making spaces (including the creation of spaces where they don't exist) and help us to embed the values that make North Kensington a beacon of community action.
A new Chair, a new board, a new Interim CEO and the soon to be published Review into Institutional Racism are very real actions for us to build on.
A new Chair, a new board, a new Interim CEO and the soon to be published Review into Institutional Racism are very real actions for us to build on. They give the Trust a strong foundation for further change and in Mark we are confident that we have someone who can lead our talented and committed staff and help us to manage our vital resource, at a time where our community will no doubt once again be creative, caring and resilient through a period of great pressure."
Some words from Mark on his new role at Westway Trust:
"North Kensington is a great community, rich in its diversity, creativity, social action and campaigns. It's renowned for its welcome of others from outside and across the globe and I've experienced that in my early days.
Ensuring the community is at the centre of all we do is a key goal of the new local trustee leadership and I will strive to ensure we achieve that while leading through difficult financial times at Westway Trust.
So I feel privileged to work alongside this local community, and look forward to learning and understanding the challenges being faced during these unprecedented times. Ensuring the community is at the centre of all we do is a key goal of the new local trustee leadership and I will strive to ensure we achieve that while leading through difficult financial times at Westway Trust. It's also a time of communities coming together in remarkable new ways when Black Lives must Matter and when caring people delivering key services, often on lower wages, are finally valued as heroes in society. So there's a new space for the people of North Kensington to take a lead and raise their voices and I'll be proud to support the changes they demand for social justice.”