‘Experience of life and its ups and downs made me want to help.’ Shaun
Experience of life with all its ups and downs and 35 years in management. That’s my background and it’s proved a good preparation for my time as a Citizens Advice trustee.
Shaun Jones is a long-serving trustee at Citizens Advice Epsom & Ewell. (3 minutes)
Some 18 years ago I had the opportunity to take early retirement from my career in international tax management. It had taken me all over the world but I wanted to settle back into my local community. I hoped to find something useful to do as a volunteer, something to help others.
I felt that my financial and business skills would be put to best use as a trustee and found that Citizens Advice was looking for trustees. Their trustee board was then without a chairman and had been for some time. I joined the board in 2006 with a warm welcome and before long was persuaded to take the Chair. In that role I served for 6 years.
When I stood down as Chair in 2013 I continued to sit with the board as Secretary. Soon afterwards they asked me to re-join as a trustee and I’ve been here ever since!
It’s all been very rewarding. I’ve learned a lot of valuable new skills including IT, web management, pensions and fundraising. I’ve also been able to support our excellent mental health outreach (MHO) service for many years.
Mental health support
Mental health is regrettably a growing issue in Surrey (and everywhere) and a subject close to my heart. As MH lead on the board, I sit in on MHO team meetings and receive regular monitoring reports. Funding is a perennial issue. When meeting prospective funders it’s good to be able to talk with authority about the project’s history.
I’ve served on our Finance Committee since it was set up 15 years ago. Around that time we recognised core funding had become inadequate for our needs and needed to raise an additional £10k-£15k a year to stay solvent. Happily we achieved that and are still solvent, but the annual challenge goes on!
Lisa Davis, CEO at CAEE
In Trustees’ Week 2023 I can think of no one better than Shaun Jones to highlight the contribution Trustees make in the charity world. At every stage of his long service Shaun has supported CAEE with good advice, a can-do approach and ever-present support for our activities.
“On a personal note, he is great to have as a sounding board, always giving open and honest views. He is a huge bastion of support to me and the team, providing so much of his time on matters of mental health and IT.”
More about our Mental Health Outreach project