'Gong' for Cresco Trust's chief officer Margaret Lee MBE

COMMITMENT to her adopted community saw an MBE also go to Margaret Lee, Chief Executive Officer of the Cresco Trust.

Responding to news that she was to receive a New Year's gong from the Queen, Margaret said she was "excited" by the award, but "also a little bit overwhelmed".

She was awarded her MBE for 'services to social enterprise' in Londonderry. Margaret heads up a committed team of workers who have a three-strand approach to 'social enterprise' that aims to get people into work.

Integral to that is the comparatively new 'Strive to Work Programme' the aim of which is to move people into employment following the completion of a three-week pre-employment programme.

"We run monthly programmes and we regularly have graduates who move into employment, but it was particularly exciting as the week of Christmas the nine people came in and did that programme and all of them got a job," she said, adding: "For us that's the headline news, because that's why we do what we do.

"It's marvellous for the organisation, and of course my family here and back in New Zealand are delighted.

"We're a community regeneration company, and we do a lot of work preparing people for employment, and we run social enterprises in the city.

"I want to pay credit to the team at Cresco. We have an excellent team here, working across three areas, and this is just one area. We also have a policy and research and an intervention function, and that is our 'Strive to Employ Cresco Family' as we call it," she said.

Margaret has been a resident in Londonderry since 1981, and in the intervening years has worked consistently in a community capacity with dedication and drive. In addition, she was High Sheriff for the Borough of Londonderry for one year in 2004, and currently serves as the Honorary Consul for New Zealand in Northern Ireland.

"I am both shocked and delighted to receive an MBE on behalf of the Cresco team. It is fantastic as Cresco is relative new organisation and is just six years old. So it is a great honour to be recognised for trying to look at things differently, and I have no difficulty accepting it on behalf of the organisation. Everybody on team will be thrilled," she said.

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