Coleraine charity manager praises Halifax

Pictured here are (left to right): Executive Director Brenda McMullan, Lloyds Bank Ambassador Jim McCooe and Foundation Chair Imelda McMillan

Sharon Gibson, the Regional Fundraising Manager of Community Rescue Service (CRS), benefited from the Charity Mentoring Programme offered by the Foundation in partnership with Lloyds Banking Group.

The charity, which provides emergency search and rescue services for high risk and missing persons, has received £11,000 in funding to help with vehicle costs and with its response to Covid-19.

As part of the mentoring programme Sharon was matched with Simon Gowdy, Learning Programme Manager at Lloyds.

Grants from the Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland have supported many local charities, including Coleraine-based Community Rescue Service

Sharon said: “I was grateful to have been accepted to take part in the Charity Mentorship programme in 2019. Having been assigned Simon as my mentor, I knew from that first meeting that we would make real changes. Throughout the year, Simon helped me to redesign a structure in the aspect of fundraising with CRS and helped me to gain knowledge around delegation and structure. The mentorship program was invaluable to me personally, and to the Community Rescue Service as an organisation. I also feel I have gained a friend in Simon for years to come.”

Community Rescue Service is an emergency search and rescue response team which is staffed entirely by a team of 220 volunteers and its main activities include crisis intervention, suicide intervention, rural and urban search, water rescue, body recovery.