Karen Joins the Team!

28 July 2022

We’re delighted to welcome Karen Dynan to our team. Karen is our new Training and Volunteer Manager, bringing with her a wealth of experience and bags of enthusiasm!

Here’s what Karen has to say:

“I started my professional youth work training in 1989 at Westhill College in Birmingham. Sadly, the college is now a film studio / set. On leaving Westhill, I moved to Berkshire and ran a youth and community centre in the Woodley area. In 2003 I joined Bracknell Forest Council as the Quality Assurance and Training Manager, later managing the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, working closely with schools and managing the Adventure Education worker. For almost two years I was acting Youth Service Manager, taking on a range of additional responsibilities. Unfortunately, before the post could be made permanent, youth services across the country suffered huge cost saving cuts and like many others in the profession my post was cut. For a short while, I ran a youth centre in Trowbridge, in a building that had once been a mill. After this, I again took a temporary post, this time with Poole Borough Council managing their Short Breaks, DofE and Participation teams, as well as the borough’s biennial borough-wide youth consultation. Sadly, the cuts to youth services continued and this post too came to an end.

“So, it was time for a change of career as youth service jobs were now quite limited. I joined a national charity managing a team of trainers and then moved to project managing a programme for young people in partnership with the NHS. By now it was 2020, and I will leave you to imagine the impact that that had on the project. However, as a team and partnership we pulled together to deliver the project the best we could in the circumstances, constantly looking for solutions to the challenges we were experiencing.

“As the developing and piloting of the project was coming to an end, it seemed a good time to look for my next opportunity / challenge and I had started to notice new youth work posts becoming available. It was at this point that I saw and was made aware of the Training and Volunteer Manager post at Berkshire Youth. It was a role that excited me with an organisation I have long respected and have had close links with for most of my professional youth work career.

“My hopes for the future are to see Berkshire Youth continue to grow and develop opportunities across the county, and to be part of the team who will develop an excellent offer of opportunities with young people, to support the team to achieve their personal and professional goals and of course to continue to develop my own skills, knowledge and experience. Specifically I plan / hope to widen the access to quality accreditations for young people, to implement Level 2 and Level 3 training for staff, to increase the number of volunteers we have supporting our work, and to support the growth of both our volunteers and youth workers through an effective programme.”

Welcome to the team, Karen, it’s brilliant to have you on board!