Cheryl and her family moved on to Pan when Garden Way was newly built in 1975. She moved to live in Ryde at the age of 21 and was married at 22. Cheryl and her new family moved back to Pan 14 years ago. She is now divorced and continues to live on Pan with her 2 sons now aged 17 and 14.

Leaving school at age 16 with 1 “O” Level and 4 CSEs, Cheryl went on to work in a variety of jobs which included the café at Newport Bus Station, the Garlic Farm, her mother’s business at the Boat Museum café, Reliance Security and the Tomato factory at Merstone. Throughout this time Cheryl brought up 2 children and looked after her husband who had long-term medical needs and a disability.

Cheryl’s eldest son has extra learning needs which took up a lot of her time so when Family Learning came to Barton Primary she was invited to meet the team and find out about the range of services they offered. She saw it as an opportunity to spend more time working with her younger son and started to work towards a range of qualifications. These included City and Guilds Literacy and Numeracy, NVQ Level 2 equivalent for Maths and English Language, CLAIT Level 2, and Community Development. Cheryl also took her (Further Adult Education Training Certificate) FAETC where she taught sessions at the Isle of Wight College on Dyslexia. When her son moved to Middle School, there were no opportunities to remain involved in her Children’s learning so Cheryl sought out her own learning. She has completed several Open University courses both on a full-time and part-time basis (in tandem with doing a full-time job). The combined scores for each stage will eventually result in a Degree. She has done courses in Health and Social Care, Mental Health Practice and Perspectives, Sociology and Inclusive Education all of which have a direct bearing on the job she now does. Cheryl has also completed several in-house training courses as a part of her continuing personal development at work including Age Discrimination, Project Management, Health and Safety, Managing Wardens, Leadership and Supervision. “Learning has become a part of my life”. Throughout all of this, Cheryl has been fully supported by management and staff at Pan Neighbourhood Partnership(PNP).

In 2000, Pan’s application for Round 1 of the Neighbourhood Management Scheme, administered through the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, was rejected as the panel considered that Pan residents were not ready to become involved in a scheme of this type. They felt there was no structure to administer the scheme and no means of achieving the outcomes required.

Cheryl had been feeling that a lot of opportunities were being missed and people’s voices were not being heard. It was at this time that the Isle of Wight Council’s Agenda 21 Officer held a meeting to discuss council proposals for dealing with issues around health inequalities and community development with local Pan residents. Volunteers were asked for and Cheryl and 2 other residents signed up to get involved. The community group PanCan was established and Cheryl was elected as Chair. The first thing PanCan did was to organise a lantern parade entitled “The Heart of Pan”. There was a Big Fun Day in 2002 which several different agencies attended such as the Crime and Disorder Partnership (as it was called then), Church on the Roundabout and the local schools.

They conducted surveys with young people at Barton Primary, Downside Middle and Medina High schools to ascertain what they wanted to see happen on Pan. There was a full consultation with young people and adults on Play Facilities for the area. A Health Impact Assessment was carried out and the parking area outside the shop was re-developed to assuage residents’ fears. PanCan also represented resident views at meetings of the Isle of Wight Council’s Cabinet and was invited to the first Stakeholder meeting for the new housing development. PanCan’s John Pope was very successful in applying for various funding with the European Social Fund (ESF), Comic Relief and Awards for All. This enabled Pan Can to bring the Isobel Centre onto Pan and have it fitted out to a certain extent. PNP then provided £14K to get the Isobel Centre up to Building Regulations and Disability Discrimination Act standards.

PanCan’s work was recognised across the South East and, hearing about all that was done, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister invited the local authority to apply for Round 2 of the Neighbourhood Management Scheme. This time it was successful and Pan was awarded £2.65 million over a period of 7 years. A Shadow Board was established to administer the set-up year and PanCan ran a competition for the PNP logo.

Cheryl was successful in getting the first job at PNP as part-time Community Advocate in 2004. Over the next few months she went through a huge amount of personal difficulties including a divorce and serious family illness. Despite this, with a lot of support from PNP and her family and a lot of personal determination, Cheryl managed to move into a full-time position, change of responsibilities and embark on staff management – something she had never done before. Cheryl has moved on again as she is now the deputy manager with full responsibility for 4 staff (including Community Wardens and Community Activities Worker), the Community Safety agenda (involving regular discussions and contact with the Police), more responsibility for PNP team day-to-day running and development. The biggest change for Cheryl is that she is now more involved with strategic issues affecting the wider aspects of Neighbourhood Management.

Cheryl has learned to deal with different characters in Pan and within the council requiring her to exercise her skills at dealing with all levels across a range of people and service agencies. Her language skills have developed as she is more involved with report-writing. Since working for PNP Cheryl has received regular 1-1 supervision sessions, more formal Personal Development Reviews twice a year as well as advice and support whenever she has needed it on work and other issues.

It is extremely important to Cheryl that the project retains it’s focus and does not lose sight of the objectives it was set up to achieve. The benefits now enjoyed by Pan could be rolled out across the Island and other communities could have similar opportunities.

“Never in a million years did I think I’d be doing this. If you want to see change you have to change it from the inside”

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