Community Action Suffolk’s Chief Executive, Chris Abraham, is to step down in September, after over four years in post.
Throughout her time as CEO, Chris has built and led a strong leadership team, and overseen the organisation’s highly respected response to both the Pandemic, and the onset of the Cost-of-Living Crisis.
Chris has been pivotal in the creation of so many relationships and initiatives across the VCFSE sector, and ensured the voice of those in the charity and social enterprise space in Suffolk has been more relevant and acknowledged than ever.
Having spent 23 years in voluntary sector infrastructure, Chris will now be preparing to spend more time with her family from the Autumn, but will in the meantime, be actively working with her staff and board to continue CAS’s vital work in the community.
She said:
“To have led Community Action Suffolk as Chief Executive over the last four years, has been an incredible chapter of my career.
I have spent a collective 32 years working within the voluntary sector more broadly, a change of career path since joining Suffolk Constabulary as a Police Cadet straight from school but all roles I have held have had an ethos of helping and enabling others.
Throughout that professional journey I have gained a privileged perspective of the incredible work being undertaken within this county.
It has made me so grateful to be part of the Suffolk community, and to know that I have been at the heart of a sector which contributes so much to so many.
And of course, it goes without saying that the last few years in particular, have brought intense change and challenge, as a result of both Covid and the onset of the Cost of Living Crisis.
I am immensely proud at the way in which Community Action Suffolk navigated and led much of the community response with regards to these issues (and continues to), and I am thankful that I was able to fulfil my duties as CEO during the pandemic, being aided by so many motivated individuals and organisations.
But now, in the year CAS marks its 10th anniversary, and with my own family life being something I seek to prioritise more fully in the years ahead, it truly feels like the right time to pass over the baton.
I genuinely consider Community Action Suffolk to be in a strong position within the county’s infrastructure, and I know there is still more to do. I am sure the next Chief Executive will be someone who can ably navigate the next chapter and contribute enormously to the sector’s strength and success.
For now, the work within Community Action Suffolk is very much ‘business as usual’, and I will be doing everything I can to assist the board in the process of appointing my successor.”
Remarking on Chris’s intention to move on from her role, Chair of Trustees for Community Action Suffolk, Kevin Ward, said:
“On behalf of the board of Community Action Suffolk, I would like to take the opportunity to thank Chris for the incredible amount of effort, energy and enthusiasm with which she has led the organisation over the last four years.
“Not only has she done so much for CAS itself, but she has played such a pivotal role in developing relationships with public and private sector, as well as championing the voluntary sector at every turn.
“We will be sorry to see her move on but wish her all the best for her future endeavours, and with a strong board of trustees and senior management team, will now be working hard to find a strong successor to fill her exceptional shoes and lead the organisation alongside them in the future.”
For more information about the work of Community Action Suffolk, go to: www.communityactionsuffolk.org.uk