To mark Reserves Day 2023, staff at East Anglia RFCA HQ gathered for a fun and informative fundraiser on 21st June.
Colleague Jo Horn has been a reservist for 18 years. Jo recently joined East Anglia RFCA as our Regional Employer Engagment Director in the Employer Engagement team and she is a Lieutenant Colonel, commanding A Squadron 306 Hospital Support Regiment. Jo initially served 6 years in the Royal Air Force, where she trained as a radiographer, which she continues to practice in her civilian career.
Jo explained that employers will often ask what the benefits are to employing a reservist, and she challenged us to some command tasks illustrating the practical applications of teamwork and communication skills. Everyone took part in the challenges; the first involved remembering lots of information and taught us it’s more effective to have each team member remember a part of the infromation rather than having everyone try to recall all the information. The second task saw us relaying information between team members to practice effective communication and seeing how much of the original information was retained after it had been passed along multiple times.
Debbie Skeels is one of our Finance team colleagues. She took over leading Southend and Rochford SSAFA division, incorporating Castle Point, in August last year. “SSAFA helped my parents when I was a child and I was a reservist for 6 years in the Royal Signals, so if there was ever a time in my life when I was able to volunteer, it was always going to be in support of SSAFA,” explained Debbie.
Hugh Toler is our member the Essex RFCA Forum representing SSAFA Essex and he came with David Spalding to support our Reserves Day 2023 fundraiser. He shared a moving story of one of the people he’s been able to help through SSAFA. In advance of Reserves Day, we also spoke with reservists Cheryl Martin and Edward Lewis at our Warley Army Reserve Centre to hear how their reservist experience has helped them progress in their career and develop their skills.
From all of us at East Anglia RFCA, we say thank you today especially to the 76,750 reservists who have completed at least phase 1 training in the UK. Every day our teams work really hard to maintain and manage the 14 Army Reserve Centres in our region, and nurture a positive sentiment towards the Reserve Forces in our local communities and industries.
