A huge welcome to new board member Dianne Watt. Here, she tells us about her experience and why she wanted to join the Cariocca board…
At the invitation of Louise Da’Cocodia, I joined Cariocca Education Trust, an initiative of Cariocca Enterprise in 2005. In 2008, Cariocca Education Trust was re-named the Louise Da’Cocodia Education Trust in honour of her contributions to community developments in areas of Education, Employment and Enterprise. Alongside my voluntary work, I also coordinated the Mentor Service at City College Manchester. After obtaining my Ph.D. I joined the teaching team at Manchester Metropolitan University, Faculty of Education. As a senior lecturer, in addition to undertaking research and the publication of academic papers, my role included teaching on the under-graduate and post graduate programme in Youth and Community Work. I am also an Associate Lecturer with the Open University. Currently, I am actively involved in the development of the Louise Da’Cocodia Saturday Supplementary School. Given the origins of the Trust, joining the board of Cariocca Enterprise Ltd does indeed compliment the work of both organisations. However, unlike the Trust which consists primarily of trustees from the educational sector, this is also an opportunity for me to work with board members from a range of professional backgrounds.