Featured Image: Alison Flath and Felicity Carnegie.
Reproduced with kind permission from Suffolk News (article link)
Article by Camille Berriman.
As a Bury St Edmunds charity held its 33rd annual meeting, it also waved goodbye to two of its founding members.
Alison Flath and Felicity Carnegie, who have been ‘front and centre’ of Bury’s Child Contact Centre since the beginning, have retired.
Alison, a former Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service officer, and former solicitor Felicity have spent many years supporting parents and children to stay in touch with each other after family breakdown.
Judge Fiona Shanks, charity patron, paid tribute to the contribution Alison and Felicity had made to the contact centre and wished them a happy retirement.
She said: “The local knowledge and professional expertise Alison and Felicity brought to their roles at the contact centre have been instrumental in its success and longevity.”
Set up in 1989, Bury Child Contact Centre brings together experts in family law, family services and other members of the community to provide a safe space for families to meet each week, supported by volunteers.
It is run by a committee of trustees and co-ordinator Alli Field.
The contact centre has allowed hundreds of families to maintain contact with each other over the years – and still does – offering a safe, neutral and comfortable place for children to see their non-resident parents or family.
Affiliated to the National Association of Child Contact Centres (NACCC), the contact centre is a charity run exclusively on grants and donations.
For more information or to make a donation, go to www.burystedmundschildcontactcentre.org.uk
Alison was short-listed for the lifetime achievement award at the 2022 Bury Free Press Community Awards for her work with the contact centre and Helping Hands.
She and Felicity said they were looking forward to keeping in contact with the centre through the social events organised each year, which help to keep the community of staff, committee and volunteers in regular contact.
A centre spokeswoman said: “These two prolific women have provided a backbone to the service through their professionalism and immense local knowledge – they hugely deserve our respect and admiration.”