We’re Celebrating Our Trustees and Introducing Our Chair, Catriona Morris

Introducing Our Chair Of Trustees Catriona Morris

As we head into 2023 we’re highlighting the work of our amazing trustees who support our charity the Safety Centre, the world’s first and the region’s leading safety education charity. Catriona Morris is our Chair of Trustees. In her role Catriona leads the Board of Trustees and supports the running of the Safety Centre Charity. Catriona joined the board in 2017 after being introduced to our organisation through her role as a Milton Keynes councillor for Linford South and latterly Broughton Ward, when she was a member of the Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Fire Authority. She was also the Mayor of Milton Keynes in 2012. When she’s not at the Safety Centre Catriona is a magistrate and sits on the Buckinghamshire bench. She lives in Milton Keynes with her family.

Catriona shared:

When I was on the Fire Authority I learnt all about the Safety Centre and saw the value of early intervention education and I was enthused by that. I’m a parent to two children and wanted to do everything possible to give young people the tools to keep themselves safe. It’s vital that every child has the opportunity to learn lifesaving safety education and I wanted to be part of the organisation delivering it.

I love coming into the centre and hearing the excited voices in the building with children clearly learning by osmosis. Knowing that we’re teaching such valuable information that’s in depth and varied that supports the school curriculum and the ever-changing environments our young people live in is wonderful. For example, the recently developed knife crime choices and consequences education initiative. It’s great to be part of an organisation that’s ready and has the expertise to create education programmes and support children, young people and adults when new and emerging safety issues come up. Such as when the building site scenario was closed as safety around building sites improved across the country. We’re now moving onto the upcoming new scenario which will be launched next year around road safety when there are roadworks taking place, which we’re seeing a lot as our towns and cities grow.  When we hear tragic news stories about children and young people having accidents on our roads it highlights how important our work is to teach children how to cross the road safely. This education is fundamental to society and everyone has something to learn when they visit the Safety Centre or use our outreach programmes, whatever their age we can help. We are the solution here. When the community has a problem they come to the Safety Centre for support. That’s why our amazing education teams, volunteers and partnerships are key, as they enable us to keep on top of pressing safety issues our wider communities face.

It’s important that we keep spreading the word about our work and role within the local community and wider region. Everyone who has been to the Safety Centre talks about it and it is now our role to reach out to people who haven’t heard about our work to see how we can support their needs. From school teachers, to Scout leaders, businesses and organisations we have safety education for everyone. Unfortunately, our work arises from tragedy as we develop scenarios to meet the needs of society. We continue to adapt and develop our offering as situations develop and will always be here for our communities.

Find Out More About The Safety Centre

If you’d like to find out more about our work call us on 01908 263009 or email info@safetycentre.co.uk.

Catriona pictured here (on the right) at our recent event with Dr Stuart Lawrence talking about the importance of early intervention knife crime education.