Suffolk ACRE

Suffolk ACRE Good Neighbour Scheme Co-ordinator Gavin Hodge was the keynote speaker at a Good Neighbour Scheme conference organised by Pembrokeshire County Council.
Gavin gave a presentation to 58 delegates at Letterston Village Hall near Haverfordwest, and fully explained the working of the Suffolk ACRE Good Neighbour Scheme, which now numbers 19 individual schemes around the county.

Pembrokeshire has been developing its own Good Neighbour Scheme with strong reference to the Suffolk ACRE GNS toolkit which was supplied by Gavin some three years ago. A GNS Co-ordinator, Rachel Gibby, has been appointed and Rachel is working with three villages in North Pembroke to develop the first three schemes. 

The conference delegates were mainly professionals from Pembrokeshire County Council, with guest professionals from the neighbouring counties of Carmarthenshire and Ceridigion. Rachel said the conference evaluation forms revealed that the majority of delegates had found Gavin's presentation to be the most useful part of the conference. 

Gavin has been in post since July 2003 when Suffolk ACRE launched the Good Neighbour Scheme. His post is currently funded until June 2008 with funding from Suffolk County Council, West Suffolk Local Strategic Partnership (LSP), Mid Suffolk LSP, Babergh LSP and Lloyds TSB.

(Photo taken by Martin Cavaney)