Man due in court over nurse’s death
EVERYONE HAS a book in them, so the old saying goes.
Little surprise, then, that SallyAnne Greenfield plans to write no less than two after stepping down as chief executive of Leeds Community Foundation (LCF) after 13 years.
Achievable, surely, for the woman who has taken the organisation from “nothing”, setting it up at the table in her Yeadon home in 2004, to a force that has distributed more than £33m in grants to some of the city’s most worthy causes.
LCF works with individuals and organisations who want to give to community groups and raises money from philanthropists which is distributed to grassroots projects across the area.
After Leeds City Council set the foundation up as a steering group in 2002, with help from the European Regional Development Fund [ERDF] and Yorkshire Forward, Cumbria-born Mrs Greenfield was appointed following a number of fundraising roles.
Speaking about those, she said: “As soon as I would raise the money, I would lose my job.
“That’s probably the most rewarding aspect [about LCF] – going into the community and seeing the work groups are doing because we founded them.”
And even small sums can do the trick.
A £350 grant to the Wednesday Luncheon Club elderly group, which needed cash in 2011 to buy a sink to wash plates and cutlery so that it could carry on its work, was one of the most inspiring stories Mrs Greenfield can remember.
She said: “Quite small amounts of money, given to the right people, can actually have a massive impact.
“It doesn’t have to be big and shiny new buildings.”
Although large donations have played their part too.
The foundation works with the family of late Leeds entrepreneur Jimi Heselden, founder of the Hesco bastion barrier system used in Afghanistan.
Mrs Greenfield met with him in 2007, secretly hoping he might offer £1m for good causes.
He signed a cheque for £10m, then some time later followed by another for £3m, and then for £10m again.
She thinks that many of the issues in society which need addressing remain the same ones as when she started: social isolation in older people, how best to integrate people from different backgrounds, and poverty.
Fears over Brexit surfaced after the vote last year, both in terms of “a general sense of ill-ease” among minority ethnic communities the foundation works with and ERDF funding it is “assuming is going to stop,” Mrs Greenfield said.
Although she has now finished at the St Paul’s Street headquarters, she will wind down from the role by working from home, where she lives with husband Graeme, before current LCF development director
“I’m going to be back at my table,” she said.
Mrs Greenfield, 53, added that she feels like she has “founding chief executive syndrome”.
“I’m not sure there is a syndrome but it feels like my organisation because I set it up and have been here so long.
“It’s very demanding and rewarding job. I just think that charities and businesses need new leadership to take them through different stages. I feel really confident now that I’ve taken it where I think I can take it.”
A 19-year-old man has been charged with the Christmas Day murder of a nurse at a house in Lisburn, County Antrim.
Jayne Toal Reat, a 43-yearold nurse at Craigavon Area Hospital, died after an incident at a house in Mornington.
The man also faces two counts of attempted murder after another woman and a man were injured in the same incident.
Police said he is due to appear before Craigavon Court today.