Trustees

Norman Fry Norman Fry

Our team of trustees is lead by the chairman, Norman Fry.  Norman is a former schoolteacher and headmaster and a very keen supporter of the project.  He is very helpful particularly in matters such as funding and of course English grammar!

John Trotman is our secretary and a long standing member of the board of Trustees.  John originally became involved as a service user when the project existed only as a soup run.  He is employed in the area of finance and debt management and supports us with advice where necessary.  His ongoing passion for the project and for our work is really invaluable.

 

Richard Shelly is another trustee with much experience in the area of accounting and health insurance.  He recently attended the Homeless Link conference in Birmingham on behalf of the Shekinah Torbay, together with two of the 'Moving on Crew' and our Operations Manager. 

Dave and Tina Cross Dave and Tina Cross

Tina Cross and her husband Dave have been involved with the project from its early beginnings.  They are both former heroin addicts who have been clean and free of drugs for the past 15 years.  Tina and Dave have previously worked with us as paid staff, and their experience and empathy equipped them with extra special skills for this area of work.  They both moved on to work elsewhere in 2007, but remain involved with Shekinah Torbay, Tina as a trustee and Dave through his guitar playing.

 

Our fifth trustee is Mr Pete Chapman OBE.  Pete also has an incredible story.  He was brought up by his grandparents and worked the East End with his grandfather as a rag and bone man when he was a child.  He then joined the fishing fleet at Hull and drank his money away every time he came ashore.  Having learned how to fight and how to make a few bob at an early age, Pete says he was always in trouble and eventually lost his job. 

 

One day in 1976 Pete was living and drinking in a bus shelter in Weymouth.  A man came to talk to him often and told him he was not alone.  The man and his wife would take him to their home when he was very drunk, and Pete would steal from them.  This man had given Pete a bible which he opened to read one day in the dole queue (you had to be sober to collect your giro). 

He read Proverbs 23 vv29-35

'Show me someone who drinks too much, who has to try out some new drink, and I will show you someone miserable and sorry for himself, always causing trouble and always complaining.  His eyes are bloodshot, and he has bruises that could have been avoided...'

Pete went with his friends from the dole office to fill up a shopping trolley with drink, but he could not raise a bottle to his lips.  He got up and walked away and went to see the man and his wife and ask for help.  Pete says he didn't really understand what love meant but the man and his wife talked about Jesus' love for him and he started going to church.

 

Having overcome alcoholism and homelessness Pete founded The Shekinah Mission in 1992, our sister organisation based in Plymouth.  He opened the day centre to compliment the night shelter in Plymouth because the hardest thing he had to do as night shelter staff was 'telling someone who's really trying (to get clean) to go and walk the streets all day and come back tonight'.  Pete was awarded an OBE in February 2006 for his work with homeless people.  He is familiar with almost every part of Britain and also the pitfalls of a life on the streets.  Pete is fantastic and very wise in his advice, guidance and faith.  Now aged 68, he recently retired as the chief executive of The Shekinah Mission but maintains his involvement.  We are now fortunate enough to have him as a trustee in Torbay.

Special Thanks

We would like to thank Ray Collom very much for his support and help throughout the change of management in 2007.  Ray is very experienced on an organisational level and acted as a consultant to us and our new operations manager, Carsten Stidson.  Both Carsten and Ray were employed for several years by The Shekinah Mission in Plymouth. 

 

Carsten has now been with us for over a year and Ray is kept very busy with his commitments on behalf of 'Steady Work'.  This is an innovative project which provides training and City & Guilds qualifications in plastering and bricklaying for people with a history of prolific offending and drug & alcohol addiction.  Having started in Plymouth as part of The Shekinah Mission, Steady Work came to Torbay in 2006 and has now grown to a nationwide concept, headed up by Ray.  (Shekinah Torbay continues to work closely with Steady Work Torbay and provides lunch for the trainees).

 

Ray has explained that whilst the aim of Steady Work has been to give people a chance to break their habits and work through addictions and other problems, the daily structure and concentration on individual development needs has resulted in high numbers of people (68% - Plymouth figure) gaining employment through the program.