Krissi joins the Trust team

Krissi Cartwright-Riley has joined the Trust team as our new Volunteer and Team Development Lead. The Volunteer and Team Development Lead is a new strategic role that is going to be pivotal in the Trust achieving our ambitions for 2023-25.

Krissi will lead on creating and delivering the Trust’s volunteer recruitment and retention strategy, and be responsible for identifying and managing training and development needs across our small, close-knit organisation for staff, skippers and volunteers.

Krissi has exceptional experience and skills in training, development, and volunteer management through her time working as an Engagement Manager at the University of Worcester and, before that, the University of Bedfordshire students' unions.

Describing herself as having a ‘love for training’, a core part of her career to date has centred around coordinating and delivering training for volunteers and teams. This has included creating training sessions, planning training conferences - in-person and online - and creating on-demand resources and toolkits. She is proud to have run hybrid training before COVID showed the rest of the world the power of video calls!

Many people in the Trust community will know the now 26-year-old Krissi, who first sailed with the Trust aged 13 following treatment for leukaemia. For the past seven years she has volunteered across multiple sailing and outdoor adventures and took part in 2017's epic Round Britain voyage. She has also been part of the Trust’s Youth Advisory Group.

Krissi admits she is excited to be embarking on her new journey with the Trust. She said: "It’s wonderful joining the team and being able to support the Trust in a new and different way.

"I’m really looking forward to bringing new volunteers on board and working with the volunteers we already have to enhance their experience so they can have more of an impact on the young people we support as well as developing personally as volunteers."

Krissi has a strong passion for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) and has created and delivered EDI training, while with a background in Sports Development and Coaching, she also coaches junior netball and girls’ football teams and has been a disability multi-sports lead.

Frank Fletcher, CEO, said: "The knowledge and first-hand experience Krissi brings to the role through her long-standing and varied involvement with the Trust simply supplements the extensive talents and skills she possesses in volunteer management and training and development.

"Our aim is to be accessible to all young people who have a cancer diagnosis in the UK and have the biggest impact possible on every one of them. The Volunteer and Team Development Lead post was created to preserve the magic of the Trust as we grow. I am delighted Krissi has joined the team."