NEWS: Groundwork appoints Oona Muirhead as new UK Chair
Groundwork deepens its commitment to support communities across the UK tackle the cost of living and climate crises through the appointment of Oona Muirhead as its next Federation Chair.
With her experience in building partnerships to drive action on green infrastructure and jobs, energy efficiency and access to nature, Oona is a perfect fit for the next phase of Groundwork’s work with communities.
At Groundwork Oona will chair the Federation Board, which oversees the work of Groundwork’s national body Groundwork UK and drives delivery of Groundwork’s collective strategy. She will take over the role in September when current Chair Graham Hartley steps down after nine years in the role.
Speaking of her new role, Oona said:
I’ve followed the work of Groundwork for many years and have been hugely impressed by the practical ways in which the charity supports communities to improve their own environment, homes and job prospects. The cost of living crisis, coupled with the impact of climate change that communities are really feeling right now, puts Groundwork’s twin track approach to tackling disadvantage and promoting sustainability in the vanguard of green community work. I’m really looking forward to playing my part in growing the scale and impact of all that Groundwork does.
I couldn’t be more pleased to have Oona joining us on our mission to create a fair and green future in which people, places and nature thrive. We know that as the climate and nature crises deepen and our public finances remain stretched we will need ever more creative solutions to address hardship and advance our environmental goals in tandem. There’s a lot to learn from Groundwork’s experience of doing this for more than 40 years and I know Oona will be a powerful advocate of this approach
Graham Duxbury, Groundwork’s UK Chief Executive
Groundwork is a federation of 14 charities working across the UK. Collectively the network generated more than £90m last year to support 7,000 community organisations to take local action, 35,000 households to reduce their bills and 14,000 young people to improve their prospects. Groundwork UK supports this local action with national programmes, distributing funds on behalf of government, businesses and other charitable funders.
Notes to Editors
For more information please contact: media@groundwork.org.uk
About Groundwork
Groundwork is a federation of charities with a collective mission to take practical action to create a fair and green future in which people, places, and nature thrive. We support communities and businesses to build capacity and resilience in order to tackle hardship, achieve a just transition to net-zero and help nature recover in a way that reduces inequality and leads to healthier, happier lives for all: www.groundwork.org.uk
About Groundwork’s Strategy
Groundwork’s strategy defines the Federation’s high-level purpose and commits the whole of Groundwork to delivering this in three ways:
- helping people improve their prospects – increasing confidence, skills, wellbeing and employability and helping those out of work find jobs in the green economy
- helping people create better places – making communities greener, healthier and better prepared for the future and enabling people to work together to bring about change in their local area
- helping people protect the planet – supporting people and businesses to reduce their carbon footprint, cut waste and take practical action to combat the climate and nature emergencies.
Groundwork 23-28 sets out how we will support practical action to create a fair and green future in which people, places and nature thrive over the next five years: https://www.groundwork.org.uk/about-groundwork/ourstrategy/
About Oona Muirhead CBE
Oona’s background includes: within Defra designing Natural England to merge previously dispersed functions and create a more powerful voice for nature; in the Local Government Association supporting local councils to better deliver the key environmental, social and economic services demanded by citizens; in the South East England Development Agency bringing together environmental and economic growth action across businesses and communities; in Policy Connect developing policy recommendations and campaigns including to drive the transition to net zero. Oona currently chairs/serves on Boards in the private and not-for-profit sectors.