A statement from our newly elected Vice Chair of the Board at Paisley YMCA Karen Murphy:
“I am delighted to have been elected by my peers within the board and wider membership as the Vice Chair of Paisley YMCA. I have several years of experience within the youth work field, as well as a Masters degree in community development and youth work. It was during my university placement that I began working with Paisley YMCA in a voluntary capacity which led me to join the board. Furthermore, in my current role as Volunteer Coordinator, I am developing a nation-wide volunteer programme, which is giving me a wider pool of knowledge and experience to bring to my role with Paisley YMCA.
“The last couple years have been a trying time for Paisley YMCA, as well as the wider youth sector, due to the impact of COVID on our service delivery but also our young people. We are also still recovering from the fire at William Street. We have a lot to rebuild and redevelop. However, I am confident that we can build Paisley YMCA up to again be the national leading organisation within the digital youth work field. We are redeveloping our High Street premises to be another ‘makerspace’, which I know our young people are keen to see . We will not disappoint them.
“It has been emotional to see so many long-standing board members leave us and we hope to properly celebrate their contributions soon. Yet, our AGM has brought in new board members including Gillian, Stuart, and the return of David. All three bring different specialist knowledge which will help the development of Paisley YMCA. We are lucky to still have Alex and Diane on board, as well as Craig leading us in his new role at the helm as Chair. As such, we have an extremely knowledgeable and experienced Board who I know can bring about the changes needed to develop Paisley YMCA into the organisation that we envision: a fellowship of like-minded people. We also have the opportunity to co-opt another 3 board members to help fill in the gaps in our boards’ areas of expertise. This will be a long process; however, we have a great staff team led by Claire to support us in this – and we will also be guided by our young people.
This opportunity to be Vice Chair is really exciting for me personally but also for Paisley YMCA, in that I am the first ever female office bearer for the organsiation. My colleagues on the board and I hope to continue to modernise Paisley YMCA in its practices; but our Christian values and our organisational aims remain the same: to support the communities of Paisley and the surrounding areas to flourish.”