Lisburn woman appointed as youngest chair of Halifax Foundation NI

Gillian, 39, from Lisburn is determined to use her wealth of experience in the community and voluntary sector to support the foundation’s work providing funding to grassroots organisations.

One of Northern Ireland’s largest charitable foundations, the Halifax Foundation has contributed £43m to more than 12,000 projects in Northern Ireland in its 38-year history, supporting mainly smaller grassroots charities through grant funding, IT equipment and mentoring.

The Foundation receives an annual donation from Lloyds Banking Group to fund all its Grant Programmes with the aim of improving the lives of disadvantaged and disabled people.

Gillian, the service manager at the Cedar Foundation’s Youth Matters Service, says the Foundation will continue to do all it can to help disadvantaged communities.

“I want to see the Foundation being able to support and mentor more charitable organisations, encourage innovation and work with other funders to strengthen the community and voluntary sector whilst continuing to be a nurturing funder to our grantees,” she explained.

Foundation chief executive Brenda McMullan said that Gillian, who became a Trustee in 2017, has been a real asset to the board.

“Gillian truly understands what it’s like to work in the community and voluntary Sector where there is a massive desire to help the community but so much uncertainty around funding. Her first-hand experience will be invaluable to us as we listen to what the sector is saying and use the funding to reach the people who most need it,” Brenda said.

Gillian’s full-time job at the Cedar Foundation involves supporting young people with brain injuries, autism and physical disabilities with their personal development, providing high level youth services and delivering disability awareness training to the wider public.

She believes that her experience and that of other community and voluntary representatives that have recently joined the Halifax Foundation Board has been very positive.

She added: “Increasing the diversity on Boards is important so that people see themselves represented, this challenges the stereotype of who can participate at Board level and hopefully encourages those from underrepresented communities to get involved.”