Our Fosters Solicitors Community Hero for January is Colin Bland, a volunteer and chair of trustees for local homeless charity St Martins Housing Trust.
For the charity’s takeover day, we wanted to highlight a person who was unwaveringly dedicated to the cause, a passionate member of the community and a faithful Norwich City supporter.
Colin epitomises all those things.
St Martins CEO Dr Jan Sheldon said, “We rarely get to recognise the contribution our trustees make, so this is a fantastic opportunity to acknowledge Colin’s tireless dedication to St Martins.
“Colin is an exceptional chair, providing exactly the right amount of support to me in my role as CEO, never overly engaged in day-to-day activities but always on hand if a sounding board is needed.
“The relationship between the chair and CEO is critical to the successful running of a charity and I am very fortunate to have a Colin as our chair at St Martins.”
Having been a trustee for 13 years, Colin steers the strategic direction of St Martins, ensuring the charity stays efficient, moves with the times and continues to fulfil its mission of nobody needing to sleep rough in Norwich.
On being chosen as a community hero, Colin said: “St Martins is a fabulous charity that provides much needed support for homeless people.
“I am privileged to be chair of trustees of such a well-regarded organisation in the area.
“I was surprised but very pleased to be nominated as a community hero and I am looking forward to attending the match.”
The charity provides 254 beds every night of the year and supports 300 people at any one time.
Colin had an important role in securing St Martins House as the charity’s latest housing project on Thorpe Road near to the stadium, which provides 23 ensuite bedrooms.
To find out more about the charity and how you can get involved, visit their website at stmartinshousing.org.uk/
Since 2019, Fosters Solicitors have joined our partners Norwich City Football Club in highlighting the great work of local individuals and organisations in our community.
Every month during the football season, a ‘Community Hero’ is chosen for a selected matchday – providing an opportunity to showcase that person(s) or initiatives selfless work or important community campaign.
Previous Community Heroes have included young carers, veterans, equality campaigners, charity fundraisers and their beneficiaries.
Would you like to nominate a Community Hero this season? Please go to canaries.co.uk/club/heroes to tell us all about them!