New chairman appointed at charity

Friday 30th March 2012

A young people's charity that supports community engagement has appointed a new chairman.

Current chairman of Poundland Group Holdings, Colin Smith OBE, will take over at the helm of The Challenge Network (TCN) at the start of April.

TCN was founded with the mission to connect and inspire people to strengthen their communities. The organisation delivers The Challenge, a programme which brings young people together from all walks of life within a local area and supports them to strengthen their communities.

The charity is the largest provider of the Government's flagship scheme, National Citizen Service.

In 2012, 10,000 young people will take part in The Challenge across all London boroughs, Surrey, the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and Lancashire.

In October 2011, TCN launched The Challenge Society, a new year-round programme which supports all graduates of The Challenge and their friends in on-going opportunities to continue to develop valuable life skills and impact their communities.

Colin, who has previous experience in the not-for-profit sector as a trustee of Save The Children and as chairman of the food industry sponsored Red Tractor assurance scheme, said he is looking forward to his new role.

He said: "I fully support TCN's mission to connect and inspire people to strengthen their communities. I am looking forward to working with the board of trustees and the talented staff team to ensure TCN continues to increase the scope and quality of its programmes."

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