The Conservation Volunteers’ new Director of UK Operations, Rachel Slade, has joined us following her appointment announcement last year. After a few weeks of settling in, we spoke to Rachel about her thoughts on the impact of TCV and what she plans for the future.

I am really proud and delighted to be taking on this role at TCV, especially as we look to launch our new five year strategy this year, which will take TCV into its next chapter.
TCV has had an incredible impact over the last 65 years, bringing people closer to nature and improving green spaces across the country. I have only been here for a few short weeks, but you can already tell it’s an incredibly special organisation that has fantastic, dedicated staff who are passionate about the environment and its impact on local communities.

What I have been struck by already is the impact that TCV has on strengthening local communities, making people proud of the local spaces that surround them and proud of themselves for being part of maintaining and developing them.
So many people, of all ages, are suffering from poor mental health – and reconnecting to nature and green spaces is a wonderful tool to help improve this and I am especially excited to see how TCV can support this national agenda over the coming years.
Local communities taking ownership for, and pride in their local outside spaces is vital to strengthen and grow local communities – and it’s fantastic to be part of an organisation that puts volunteering at the centre of this. There is a great deal of evidence about the benefits of volunteering for individuals’ physical and mental wellbeing, such as the studies into TCV’s Green Gym showing significant increases in wellbeing.
TCV is special in that it brings together the individual benefits of volunteering for people – and links it so successfully to enhancing nature and the rich biodiversity that exists across the UK.

I am thrilled to be bringing together all of our operational delivery into one united team, which will enable us to learn from each other and strengthen how TCV delivers its great work across the UK. TCV is at an incredibly exciting stage with a new CEO, a new strategy soon to be launched, and a mission that speaks so clearly to the needs of the people and communities across the UK at the moment.
I am delighted to be part of it and hope to grow TCV from strength to strength over the next 5 years of our new strategy.
Rachel is joined by two new Assistant Operations Directors, Pippin Searle (Scotland) and Marcella Aldous-Brown (South Central England). They join an existing operations leadership team of Caroline Crossley (England North), Dianne Keys (Northern Ireland), and Richard Evans (London).
With the formation of this new team, we also say goodbye and thank you to Fiona Richards, who has been TCV’s Operations Director for six years and has brought a huge amount of enthusiasm, leadership direction, and impact to TCV. After a successful career, we wish her well in her retirement.
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