Today we celebrate our longest serving Trustee, Steve Pitt. He also happens to be the Chair of the Board with a great sense of humour! It’s passion and dedication from Trustees like Steve that we want to celebrate during Trustees Week. We asked our Chair how he came to be with us.
Steve Pitt
Our Chief Executive, Nicki Youern, sweet-talked me into becoming a trustee with YOU in 2010. It was just after I left my role as Director of Adult Services in Dorset.
In Dorset we had commissioned a range of services from YOU, and I’d always been impressed by the way that it lived its values.
Since Penny Rowlinson left us this Autumn, I’m now the longest service trustee. And I’ve chaired the Group board for almost 3 years. In my time I’ve known a lot of trustees. Everyone brings different skills to the table, and everyone takes away slightly different rewards. But we all share a passion for the work undertaken across the organisation.

Don’t ever question the value of volunteers. Noah’s ark was built by volunteers, the Titanic was built by professionals.
YOU has a proud record of working with its 100 or so volunteers, and our 14 trustees are volunteers who support the governance of the organisation.
As trustees we have a particular role making sure we are delivering on our mission and that we are making enough of a difference for the people and communities we work with.
As someone once said, “Don’t ever question the value of volunteers. Noah’s ark was built by volunteers, the Titanic was built by professionals”. We are always on the lookout for new recruits so please let us know if you are interested in helping us to build future arks!
Steve was recently at the YOU’s 2022 conference where he spoke to support workers, staff and admin teams. It’s important that Trustees know exactly what’s happening on the ground and meet-and-greets are perfect for that!