We want to make a difference
We are delighted that our team includes so many people who want to support our community with varied skills, vast knowledge and a common purpose to connect and support others.
We want to make a difference, nurture social innovation and impact and help to continue to create a healthier and happier Bailiwick Community.
Our Patron
Our Board
Louise is Chairperson for HC. She has volunteered as a member of the board with the Charity since 2002. Louise started her career as a General Nurse, working in UK, Guernsey and overseas. After a period of work in both primary and secondary care Louise worked in public health and eventually moved in to education. During the day, Louise is the Principal of The Guernsey Institute. The links between Health Connections and education are strong; learning new knowledge or a skill and gaining success is a route to health and happiness. Louise is married and has two adult children. Louise completed a professional doctorate in education in 2022, loves walking and being with friends.
Steve has over 20 years of business experience in both private and public utilities, culminating in his current executive role as Managing Director of Guernsey Water. He has Board level experience from previous roles with the Environment Agency’s Anglian Regional Flood and Coastal Committee, the River Nene Regional Park and with the Governing Bodies of two schools in Northamptonshire; he is also a serving member of the Guernsey Dairy Management Board.
Steve is passionate about the vital role that water plays in public health. He also has a keen interest in promoting the value of ecosystem services for physical and mental wellbeing.
He returned to his home island with his family two years ago to take up his current position with Guernsey Water. As a keen novice quadrathlete you might find him swimming, kayaking, cycling and running in all weathers any time of the year, training for his next challenge.
Catherine Griggs qualified as a Chartered Certified Accountant (A.C.C.A) in 1996 and has worked in the financial services industry for nearly 30 years.
She is currently Managing Director of Stenham Asset Management Inc, where she is also a director of many investment funds and other companies within the Stenham Group. Before moving to Guernsey in 2013, she worked for Stenham Advisors PLC in London as a senior manager in operations, finance and client services. Prior to that she was Chief Finance Officer and a Partner at Montier Partners LLP and before joining this firm in 2000 was Group Financial Controller and Compliance Officer at the Gaiacorp Group. She has recently completed the IOD Certificate in Company Direction and currently continues her lifelong learning on the IOD diploma programme.
Catherine enjoys spending time with her two daughters, running on the cliffs with her dog, playing golf and singing in a church choir.
Bella has over 30 years’ experience of working with people at their most vulnerable and most resourceful in the public, private and charitable sector. Her health career began when she worked as a Nurse and Midwife. She holds an MA in Health Management and is an accredited Executive, Resilience and Systemic Team Leadership Coach.
Her personal mission is to support others to live happier, more fulfilling lives and to be as healthy as they can be. Whilst leading Health Connections LBG and privately practising at Wings Coaching she remains resourceful by connecting with nature and her 3 children, colleagues, friends and large extended family (she has 4 brothers and 4 sisters with 25 nieces and nephews!!).
She is confident that the success of the charity will be because of the collective responsibility of its dynamic Board of Directors, staff and volunteers as well as the donors and supporters who are dedicated to compassionately creating a connected community.
Contact Bella directly by email: bella@healthconnections.gg
Born in Guernsey in 1955 of local parents and of French descent. He has an identical twin and one older brother. Pierre chose general nursing as a career aged 17; following his mother’s footsteps. He retired at 62 having spent most of career as a District Nurse and Urology Nurse Specialist. Presented with the Emma Ferbrache award 2010, RCN award of Merit 2016 and runner up nurse of the year award 2017. He is married with four adult children and eight grandchildren. His interests include: open water swimming, walking, cycling and music: He plays piano and sing in a small local choir. He has a keen interest in all health matters. He volunteers for Health Connections as he believes in their social model for health improvement and support.
Alison has been a Senior HR Manager for BWCI Group where she led the HR function for the last 8 years. She now works in a senior role at Law at Work.
Prior to this, Alison held a number of management roles in public and private sector organisations and has achieved an MSc in Management with HR.
Alison is driven to ‘give back’ to the community and seeks to share her knowledge and skills to add value where it might be needed. She has a strong alignment to health and wellbeing initiatives, believes in taking an holistic approach to problem solving and is a keen advocate of the “Directory to Doorstep” model of community support offered by Health Connections.
As well as raising her children, Alison likes to keep fit through a variety of different activities and may also be spotted boating or fishing when the weather permits!
Mimi is the newest addition to the board. With roots in Marketing, she has extensive experience having worked for advertising institutions such as Ogilvy & Atomic London, on household names like Coca-Cola, BP, Cancer Research & the NSPCC, as well as a plethora of startups, scale-ups and local Channel Island brands.
Mimi lives and breathes effective communications and strategic brand growth. More recently, her tactical attitude and creative problem solving has led to more operational and commercial roles, working as a Chief Operations Officer for a UK tech-led football leisure brand and now as an Executive Trading Manager at Norman Piette.
Although a self-proclaimed “import”, Mimi has fallen in love with Guernsey and lives with her locally-born husband and baby boy.
Srabani has over 30 years’ experience in Business Strategy and Marketing in a wide range of industry sectors in the UK, with the last 7 years in the finance sector in Guernsey. Srabani is currently a Director and the Global Head of Portfolio Marketing at a global financial services provider and is responsible for building out audience centric product positioning and strategy to drive revenue.
Srabani has recently completed the IOD Diploma in Company Direction. She has a deep personal interest in health and wellbeing, and is an organic grower of vegetables. Having moved to the island 8 years ago, Srabani has embraced island life and is an active member of Guernsey Rowing Club and can be seen rowing with her team on the bailiwick waters.
Kirsty is our Board Secretary and assists the CEO with ad-hoc projects, particularly focusing on capturing the impact of the charity.
Kirsty has years of experience in a corporate setting and applies her expertise to supporting the Board ensuring excellent governance and improving the efficiency of the charity.
Kirsty has settled back into Guernsey life with her young family after spending 9 years in Singapore. Health Connections is an ideal fit for her as she is passionate about improving mental health, combatting loneliness and alleviating stress/anxiety. The fact that the charity also focuses on sustainability through its Reloved and Preloved shops is the icing on the cake for her. Her previous volunteering experience includes working with a Singapore charity supporting single mothers.
Kirsty is an avid reader and has an annual (realistic!) running target so you may find her along Guernsey’s beautiful coastline armed with either a good book or running shoes!
Our Team
Kerry is the longest serving member of our team, joining Health Information Guernsey in January of 2013 as a Health Information Officer.
She has worked across the organisation, including being involved in the day to day running of the Voluntary Community Transport Service.
She has a wealth of knowledge about local support which she uses in her current role as Health Connector and has recently included an advocacy qualification to her skill set.
Kerry is now Lead Health Connector for the Bailiwick and also leads our Off Island Support team, based at the Vauquiedor entrance at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital.
In her own time, she is often found enjoying many of Guernseys’ beauty spots with family and friends.
Kate joined the Health Connections team as Manager of our charity shop on The Bridge. Her role has since expanded to operations manager for our two charity shops based in St Peter port.
Additionally Kate acts as our Press Liaison ensuring that information about existing projects and future developments within Health Connections shops are widely distributed across all our local media platforms.
Locally born, Kate returned to Guernsey 18 years ago and worked as a curtain maker whilst raising her family. She has long been an advocate of sustainability and is happiest working with our partners, donors and customers in the shop to promote sustainable shopping across the Bailiwick.
Being out in the fresh air with her family and crazy, bouncy dog is her perfect unwind.
Agi joined our shop team as a volunteer in the summer in 2020, following disruption to her her travel plans due to Covid 19.
Agi moved to the island when she was 11. She is multilingual and has travelled to over 40 countries. She has achieved a BA in Fashion Design (University of Leeds) and has worked in lingerie, travel, retail & marketing.
Due to her passion for sustainable living, an incredible ability to merchandise with a natural eye for detail, as well as a warm and helpful style with customers and volunteers, she is one of our shop floor staff as well as our Operations Manager. This includes keeping our Directory up to date and trusted and ensures that her working days maintain a balance of office and shop floor skills, which she has in abundance.
Agi loves meeting new people each day and consistently creates a warm and friendly atmosphere for all our customers and is able to signpost people to support that matters to them via our online directory, which is always available in our CONNECT community hub.
In her spare time, Agi trains Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA, enjoys wild camping and foraging, cooking Asian food & spending time in her greenhouse.
Fiona has 3 children and lives on Herm where her husband is the Herm Technical Services Manager.
Prior to having children Fiona worked in Customer Services for BT in the UK. Since then, she has studied childcare and has been a Homestart volunteer on Guernsey.
On Herm, she has carried out a variety of jobs to serve the local community and in 2020 she started a well being project to renovate Herm’s rundown village hall with the aim of it becoming a community hub. She managed, through the generosity of Guernsey businesses and individuals like Dame Mary Perkins, to raise enough money and equipment to totally renovate and fit out the hall.
In November 2021, she took part in the Community Connector Training with Health Connections and realised how much she would like to work for the charity in a role which enables her to help support people in the community.
She thoroughly enjoys spending time with family and friends, is a keen cook and cake maker and a very successful fund raiser.
Having had a successful 35 year career in the finance industry, Karen felt the need to refocus her energies into something different. Grateful to have had opportunities to work with local charities and organisations through volunteer days given by her previous employer, Karen became a volunteer driver for Health Connections in 2021, having seen an advert on social media.
Karen thoroughly enjoys meeting new people and being able to help them by simply giving them ‘a lift’. When Karen heard that a position was available to work for Health Connections in the Transport Team, it was any easy decision to apply for the role as Transport Coordinator. Karen joined the team in January 2022 and has been able to put her prior work experience to immediate use as well as training as a Community Connector. Karen continues to be a volunteer driver when time permits.
Away from the office, Karen loves nothing more than a day in her kitchen baking for family and friends but also enjoys outdoor life. If not out walking, usually with her husband and dog Monty, around all parts of the island, Karen also enjoys time in her garden reading a good book.
Our Volunteers
Shop Assistants
We currently have over 28 creative and friendly volunteers who help us run our charity shops.
Car Drivers
We currently have 34 committed and caring car drivers who use their own cars (milage paid by HSC) to drive people who have genuine transport difficulties to their appointments and activities. We also have 4 office volunteers who support the transport co ordinators.
Talking Cafe Host Volunteers
We currently have 3 volunteer Health Connectors who support our lead Health Connector, 8 Talking Cafe Host Volunteers who work in pairs in our Talking Cafe’s connecting local people to support on the directory and signposting them to our 1:1 Health Connector and Transport Service.
At Health Connections we rely on the support our Volunteers give us. Follow this link to join our network of volunteers.
Our Structure
Why our Volunteers work with us
Pierre Herve – off island support volunteer
My purpose in becoming a charity volunteer was to make some sort of meaningful contribution to people experiencing physical and/or emotional difficulties. I retired as a registered nurse in 2017, but still felt a need to offer support to a worthwhile charity.
Being part of an existing local charity that was undergoing transformation I became quite excited by the underlying principles set out in the charities vision plan and felt that I could help by becoming a volunteer with newly the re-branded ‘Health Connections’.
Under new operational leadership came the idea of providing a change of direction in the offering of community support. A concept that enabled the delivery of health related information using a partnership approach. I felt this was a wonderful opportunity in which voluntary and statutory services could offer health related support to people in our local community and felt drawn to offer my services.
