The Latest
Published on December 06, 2010
Introducing Pam & Colin...
Can I have a drum roll, please? Jigsaw4u would like to offer a warm welcome to our three new Heads of Service, Pam Byfield, Colin Butterworth and Eny Osung!
In honour of this auspicious occasion I, Naomi- a member of the Head Office team, had a quick chat with the Colin and Pam (Eny was, unfortunately, unavailable- I'll be catching up with him soon), to help us get to know them a bit better.
Welcome to Jigsaw4u! How are you enjoying working with us?
Pam: I'm having a great time. Before I applied for the job I knew some Jigsaw4u employees and really felt at ease coming to work here. The staff were really welcoming and because I have worked in Merton before, I also knew a lot of the local partners, which made for a smooth transition. It's good to be working with an energetic and positive team.
Colin: I'm loving getting alongside the children and young people and their families. More than that, despite the serious nature of the work, there's lots of fun and humour- you never know what the children and young people are going to say. There are also great opportunities to be creative. Since I started in May, the time has absolutely flown by - it's a lot of work, though, as I'm the only paid member of the team; everyone else are volunteers. I really look forward to my Jigsaw4u day every week. It is great working so closely with Anne- she is a brilliant mentor for me in this new role.
there's lots of fun and humour- you never know what the children and young people are going to say
What working background have you come from?
Pam: I trained as a social worker and then went on to act as a manager for 17 years. I've worked in a number of positions, across a wide variety of different agencies and projects. I was a Sure Start program manager and I have worked in children's social care and family support. I also worked with children with disabilities as part of a respite care team, and at an early years centre in Wandsworth, where I helped assess children and provided support for them.
Colin: Originally, I worked as a children's nurse in acute settings in hospitals. More recently, I worked in the hospice movement, where I was doing bereavement support by default. I have also volunteered in a childhood bereavement charity before coming to Jigsaw4u.
How did you come to get involved with Jigsaw4u?
Pam: Working in Merton, I knew about Jigsaw4u's work and partnered Chris Roe on some of the domestic violence projects. It seemed natural that when the job became available, I should look in into it as I have a lot of respect for the work Jigsaw4u does. I also wanted to work in a responsive environment, where I could identify the needs of young people and gaps in the services provided, in such a way as to give young people a voice.
Colin: As part of my healthcare degree I looked into the effect of the death of a child on the father in the family. Then later, when I was working with dying children in the hospice, I began seeing and thinking more about childhood bereavement. Through this, I started working with a childhood bereavement charity and went to a conference after the Asian tsunami. There I saw a woman named Anne Davies. I didn't get involved with Jigsaw4u until later - after I met a volunteer for them at college, where I was doing my Post Graduate certificate in Childhood Bereavement. I got in contact with Anne, and before I knew it I was the Head of Service for the North West.
What do you see as the biggest challenge facing Jigsaw4u?
Pam: Financial! The economy has made it really hard for charities to carry on what they're doing. At the moment, the Local Authority's spending is having to adapt to changing government priorities so Jigsaw4u is facing a challenging future.
Colin: I completely agree with Pam—funding is a massive problem at the moment. Getting bids is really difficult and people have less spare money to donate.
What vision do you see for Jigsaw4u's future?
Pam: Firstly, I want to ensure that the great projects already going on at Jigsaw4u are able to carry on—I want to hold the service together and maintain the projects in this difficult time. Other than that, I want to find opportunities to develop.
I want to continue working on the domestic violence projects, giving young people who have suffered from domestic violence a say in their lives. Other than that, there are so many areas of need that I can see and want to help with - children with parents in prison, boys who need mentors and young people whose parents are substance abusers. I have become increasingly aware that substance abuse is often coupled with mental health issues and I want to help young people facing this by helping them find their voice.
I want us to do the best we can. Children are born into situations not of their choosing and I know Jigsaw4u can make a real difference. We can't do the impossible, but we can give it a go.
Colin: My first goal is to build a good, strong team in the Northwest. Until that's done, it's going to be difficult to develop in other areas.
I would love to help create a purpose-built centre of excellence where people could drop in and do workshops. At the moment, we're having to rent rooms for our groups. It really annoys me that there's no centre of excellence from Birmingham upwards—that's a huge amount of the country with no place to go. This needs changing.
Like Pam, I see a real need for mentoring boys. I want to make sure that there are enough male members of the team who can act as positive role models in difficult times.
What most impressed me, as an interviewer and a 'young person' ( I am now 22) was how likeable these two Heads of Service are. My meeting with Pam happened face-to-face; she is an elegant woman, with a quiet air of authority and a keen sense of humour. During our chat, I found myself laughing a lot as we went off on different tangents. Colin, who I interviewed on the phone, is easily one of the most enthusiastic people I've met. He has such a passion for Jigsaw4u and an easygoing, friendly nature which makes him immediately likeable.
Yes, they'll do very well.
We can't do the impossible- but we'll give it a go
