Alison Dunn named as new chair of VONNE

At the VONNE (Voluntary Organisations' Network North East) AGM last week, Citizens Advice Gateshead CEO Alison Dunn was announced as the new chair of VONNE, a move that is expected to be made official at the next board meeting on December 9th.

VONNE is an organisation that provides support for charities, voluntary and community groups and social enterprises to be well-informed on the policy, practice, funding streams and strategic developments that affect them. Providing a voice for these bodies, they also facilitate partnership and collaborative working within the VSCE sector and between the sector and external stakeholders.

When asked about her new role, Alison, who has been a member of VONNE’s board for three years, commented:

"It will be an honour to become the new Chair of Trustees for the Voluntary Organisations Network North East (VONNE), replacing Sir Paul Ennals as outgoing Chair.  Sir Paul has done a remarkable job of steering the charity through some difficult times, cementing VONNE’s role as the voice of the sector.  He’s been instrumental in the creation of the North East England Climate Coalition (NEECC0), a cross-sector coalition across the North East region convened by VONNE to tackle the climate emergency, ecological collapse and the need for a just transition for our people and communities. This is a role I’m pleased to say he will continue to perform for us."  

"I will come to the role of Chair at an interesting time for the sector and for VONNE.  As a sector we’ve certainly demonstrated our worth, with exceptional feats of bravery, agility, grit and determination to support our communities during the pandemic, and yet still we experience under-investment, lack of understanding and recognition for our work, as well as the challenge of rising costs, rising demand and diminishing resource and funding, struggling with sustainability, resilience and in some instances digital transformation.  Our fantastic team of staff and Trustees at VONNE is ideally placed to work strategically to tackle these issues, to ensure the voice of the sector is heard, influencing the policy, practice and strategy that will set the conditions within which we will all be required to work in the future.   I can’t wait to get started!" 

Based at MEA House in Newcastle. VONNE also provides Job Finder, Trustee Finder and Workplace Finder services, as well as salary benchmarking and support for recruitment, regular training sessions and events for the VSCE sector.