Meet the Team

MEET THE TRANSOM TRUST TEAM – WHO WE ARE

Let’s introduce you to the Transom Trust Team who represent four different churches across Hastings, St Leonard’s and Bexhill.

To find out more about our team members, please click on their picture for their personal profiles.

OUR TRUSTEES

Transom Trust currently has no paid staff and is run by the following volunteers, who represent 6 different churches in Hastings, St Leonards and Bexhill:

Sue Worthing

(Chair of Trustees)

Sue Worthing

Having worked for a number of years as a legal aid solicitor Sue developed a passion for social action and has experience in project start-up roles in Brighton, where she lived prior to moving to Hastings a few years ago. She is married to Rob, with 4 children and 2 badly behaved dogs. She lives in the countryside outside Hastings and enjoys walking, cooking and seizes any opportunity to get out on the water, be it on a canoe or a sailing dinghy. She has a passion to see Jesus’ name raised in our communities.

Steve Young

(Trustee/Support Team)

Steve Young

Steve spent most of his working life as a civil engineer both in the UK and abroad. Latterly this involved working for the UK government on the international aid programme.Steve retired around 6 years ago to take up a role in church administration and leadership with King’s Church Hastings and Bexhill.

Steve has been involved with Transom Trust as a trustee for 3 years and has had pastoral responsibilities for the last couple of years. He has been encouraged to see new residents coming into our properties directly from the streets and gradually adjusting to a more settled lifestyle. The opportunity to work alongside, and to learn from, other colleagues with wide experience in helping the homeless has been something that Steve has particularly valued.

Mike Scarlett

(Treasurer/Trustee)

Mike Scarlett

is a retired Chartered Accountant who lives with his wife Angy in Bexhill but has worked in Hastings and St Leonards since 1985. He is very active in church life in Hastings being part of the leadership teams of Wellington Square Baptist Church and Hastings CAP as well as being a Street Pastor in the town. This latter activity has brought him into direct contact with problems associated with homelessness.

OUR PASTORAL SUPPORT TEAM

Our Pastoral Support Team provide one-to-one support to our adult male residents in our supported housing in St Leonard’s and Bexhill.

They are Christians who are:

encouraged and motivated to make a real difference in the lives of vulnerable people
available for 2 hours a week
ready to play your part in addressing homelessness
patient and able to befriend and mentor one of our residents (to help them progress to independent living within 2 to 3 years)
available to share their faith with our residents through their actions (and words when prompted by Residents)
ready to signpost our residents to other sources of support (as needed).

We support our team by providing:

a supportive and experienced team for you to join
the required DBS check
a full induction and relevant training
a range of “tools” (guidance and links to resources)
“on call” personal support from our project team.

Rob Worthing

(Housing Manager)

Rob Worthing

Rob was a solicitor specialising in civil litigation for 30 years and he had planned to retire to have a rest. Although the local church and Transom Trust have conspired against this plan, he still manages to play some sport and join his wife Sue on the water from time to time, be it on a canoe or a sailing dinghy.

His encouragement would be for our residents to find work and hold down a job, as this is an important support goal for them to achieve. Rob is also the Trust’s Housing Manager, responsible for ensuring our supported accommodation is maintained to a high standard.

Andy Garlick

(Project Manager)

Andy Garlick

Andy was a Civil Servant for 22 years (mainly with the Department of Work and Pensions), followed by 15 years employed with Battle Baptist Church (13 years as a church leader). He joined Transom Trust in November’20 as their part-time project manager responsible for providing close and full support for the vital Pastoral Support Team, as well as across all areas of the charity’s operations.

His experience with Transom Trust is very enjoyable, learning so much about all the issues relating to rough sleeping while ensuring our excellent pastoral support team are equipped with everything they need to carry out their vital and challenging role of supporting our residents.

The biggest encouragement has been to see how residents have developed as people and taken positive and tangible steps towards independent living, and to see the encouragement that gives to our hard-working pastoral support team. Andy works in a very supportive environment, and have learnt lots from those around me with so much experience, knowledge, passion and skills with caring for vulnerable people.

Guy Pollard

(Support team)

Guy Pollard

Guy spent 10 years as a professional performer in the Regions, in the West End and also on TV.

He subsequently completed a plant sciences degree and trained as a horticulturist. Guy now runs a landscape design business in East Sussex. He is a keen plantsman and enjoys theatre, sport (especially kayak fishing) and music.

Rob joined Transom Trust in November 2018 as part of the growing Pastoral Support Team. He was initially drawn by the team’s enthusiasm and commitment to the homeless in Hastings and St. Leonards.

He has found his experience with Transom hugely rewarding. Seeing a transformation in the lives of the residents and gaining new hope for their future has been particularly encouraging.

Lynnette Golnaraghi

(Support team)

Lynnette Golnaraghi

Lynnette has 30 years of experience working with homeless people and with youth. She worked as a discipleship pastoral worker with Unlock in Birmingham and Sheffield. Lynnette was a tutor with the St Nicholas Fellowship. She also started and managed the community café project with St Barnabas.

Faith wise, Lynnette was baptised 30 years ago at Battle Baptist Church. Along her journey of faith, she joined the Jesus Fellowship and was very involved in all aspects of community life, including outreach to rough sleepers and helping to deliver soup runs, and leading small midweek groups. Lynnette then joined Chapel Park Baptist Church & helped pioneer Robsack Church, which originally met in her home in Hollington before becoming a church plant.

Lynnette loves her community and wants to encourage people of all backgrounds, race and faith (or none).

Paula Morrison

(Support team)

Paula Morrison

Paula is a relative newbie to East Sussex, having taken early retirement in 2018 and moved from my hometown in Bedfordshire to Bexhill-on-Sea. Paula and her husband are members of Kings Church, Bexhill. They have 2 adult sons and a beautiful grand-daughter.

Paula has been fortunate to have worked in several diverse areas, starting out in a scientific role as a medical microbiologist in a large hospital. After 25 years, Paula decided to change career and worked for her local authority as a Community Safety officer (multi-agency working around anti-social behaviour and supporting communities). During this time, Paula worked on projects to bring Street Pastors, SOS Bus and Town Centre Chaplains to the town. She was also a Street Pastor for 8 years, as well as being a Trustee for all three charities.

Paula’s motivation has been about intervention rather than enforcement. So Paula became a support worker with drug and alcohol support charities, supporting clients on a one-to-one and group setting.

After a few years, and until retirement, Paula then worked with local authority Children’s Services, as an early help worker in the Troubled Families programme (working with families with multiple and complex issues, and advising the multi-agency safeguarding hub).

Paula enjoys multi-agency co-ordinated working. This was a challenge for Paula when she first started volunteering with Transom Trust as she did not know this area, and had to learn about local support and statutory agencies.

Paula has been a Pastoral Support Volunteer with Transom Trust since March 2019. She decided to apply as she loved the ethos of the charity. Paula finds it exciting and humbling to see a person – who has been sleeping rough – start living in safe and warm accommodation and to be able to support them on their journey forward.

The pastoral support team have 6-weekly de-brief meetings where we discuss all things encouraging and challenging, whilst also spending time in prayer for each other and our residents. Paula says: “If you have a heart for the disadvantaged I would recommend volunteering with Transom Trust where you will be offered training and support.”

Rob Williams

(Support team)

Rob Williams

Rob retired about 3 years ago after working for 7 years within the fraud department of an insurance company. Prior to that worked in various roles within Sussex Police for 38 years.

Rob joined Transom Trust in November’20 as a pastoral support worker. His role has proved quite challenging due to some of the issues that have arisen. However, he has been well supported by the Transom Trust team, who have always been available and willing to help with advice and practical support.

Rob is encouraged by the regular team meetings where there is time to discuss and pray about the support issues that arise and need resolving.

Phil Edwards

(Support team)

Phil Edwards

Civil Engineer for 9 years with The London Borough of Brent followed by 6 years as a Secondary School teacher, then 37 years a Pastor and Church Planter. During those pastoral years, I spent 10 years with my wife leading a Church and Project for the homeless and vulnerable.

I have been with Transom Trust for 2 years as a member of the Pastoral Support team. For 12 months I have led the pastoral support meetings.

I am enjoying supporting rough sleepers back into a more regular way of living, taking increased responsibility for their day to day chores of keeping home, cooking and ordering their day.

The biggest encouragement has been seeing clients move into independent living and some of those who dropped out of the Project returning to try again.