Jewish Action and Training

Welcome to the Spring/Summer 2010 JAT Newsletter. Below you will see From the Chair - Ruth Hilton. For the full newsletter including all the regular features including the Director’s Diary - Janine Clements and fundraising updates please click the link below.

Spring/Summer 2010 JAT Newsletter

If you would like a printed copy of the full newsletter please contact us

From the Chair - Ruth Hilton

Greetings,

Since the departure of our Hon Treasurer from the Board in December 2008 Paul Collin an independent financial advisor, helped us manage JAT’s finances. We would like to thank Paul Collin for his help in guiding us financially over the last year.

The Trustees have created a Strategy Document that identifies current priorities for JAT. This should enable our Staff to develop focussed work plans that can also support funding bids.

From April this year, Trustee Louise Morganstein has agreed to serve as our Hon Treasurer and thanks to contacts from two of our Trustees we are delighted to welcome a financial advisor Anton Winston, and an accountant Laurie Cowan who are both providing services pro-bono to JAT.  In order to streamline the work of the Board we have created several sub-committees and elected Lesley De Meza as our Vice Chair. Nigel Sears has taken a sabbatical for 6 months and Stacey Hart will act as Honorary Secretary in the interim. We recently welcomed David Cline, a former Education Worker at JAT, onto the Board of Trustees.

Jennifer Weiner and Giselle Kendal, have been appointed on fixed-term, part time contracts, to support Susanne Fraser, our Education & Training Manager, over the very busy summer period.

The failure of clauses related to PSHEE in the Children, Schools and Families Bill to get through ‘wash up’ prior to the dissolution of the last Government has been a bitter blow. Although elements of SRE are still required within Science, had PSHEE become statutory it would have provided a clear lever and direction to develop our work with schools. We are unsure as to how it may affect some of the funding we currently receive.

In this time of financial crisis and with a new Government publicly stating that they intend to implement major cuts in public services, funding remains our major challenge. Thanks to strenuous fundraising efforts plus the implementation of a charging tariff, we are currently still able to hold our heads above financial waters. The increasing demand for our work is a clear sign that we are needed in the community and I hope that our finances enable us to fulfil those demands long into the future.

I hope you are able to enjoy a long, warm summer