April 11, 2024

Cumbria CVS has welcomed more new members to the team over the last six months, all bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience to the organisation.

We extend a warm welcome to:

Gabriela Lipska
Westmorland & Furness District Manager

With a background in education and cultural anthropology, Gabi has spent most of her professional life working in the third sector, allowing her to get to know some amazing people and places across Europe and overseas. Gabi is passionate about participatory leadership and practices that allow tapping into collective wisdom.

 

Sarah Penn
Health Partnership Support Officer

Sarah is a registered children’s nurse with experience working in neonatal care and a former journalist at BBC News Online and BBC Radio Cumbria. Before joining us she worked for north Cumbrian social enterprise the Happy Mums Foundation. Sarah hopes to combine her experience nursing within the NHS and her knowledge of the third sector to help both parts of the system work well together.

 

Jess Longrigg
Community Connectors Engagement Worker

A born and bred West Cumbrian local, Jess brings a varied background to her role, including holding a Master of the Arts in Divinity, spending much of her working life as a fitness instructor and personal trainer, and is currently completing a Masters in Psychology. She is also heavily involved with her local church.

 

Jenny Finnegan
Finance and Resources Manager

Jenny previously worked in education and the charity sector for over 15 years, and hopes to help us with the experience gained over this time. She will oversee the teams that look after our finances and HR functions to make sure we are as efficient as we can be. Jenny also volunteers as a governor at a local school.

 

Cat Moffat
Furness For You Community Connector

Cat is passionate about community with a strong sense of social justice, equality and inclusion. Throughout her career she has enjoyed working in the third sector, in community strengthening roles. Cat is looking forward to building relationships and strengthening partnership working across the voluntary sector in Barrow.

 

Chelsea Kay
This Is Us Volunteer Officer/Furness For You Volunteer Development Officer

Chelsea has a background in Team Leadership as well as running her own online business as a Life Coach & Events Facilitator. Her previous work has given her experience and insight into working with vulnerable groups and individuals, and she is excited to see these two projects come to life in support of local communities.

 

Emma Birkbeck
Furness For You Project Administrator

Emma has an Art background having gained a 2:1 in Fashion Design from UCLAN, followed by roles in the Fashion industry in London. After working for Marie Curie, she spent 15 years working in Education, for a local secondary school as a Cover Supervisor before moving on to primary working at another local Junior School.

 

You can find details of all of our staff team here

 

And we say farewell to colleagues Lisa Cox, Kerry Stockdale, Jayne Povey, Amelia Nicholson, Mary Biddle and Lisa Brown, who have left us recently.

Our sincere thanks go to them all for all their hard work and support during their time with us, and we wish them all the best for the future.