Meet our New Directors – Jaye Martin

Meet our new Directors is a short profile series our five brilliant new Directors , elected to our Board at our June AGM.

Here we meet Jaye Martin.

CCF: Hi Jaye! Thanks for talking to us today. Could you start us off by tell us what your day job is?

JM: I’m currently taking a career break while my children are very young; however, until recently I was a specialist adviser in the Co-operative Development Scotland team within Scottish Enterprise (Scotland’s main economic development agency).

CCF: Fantastic – so you are familiar with the coops world then. What interested you about joining CCF as a director?

JM: I was aware of CCF’s great work and impressively long track record. Having worked with co-ops and employee owned businesses, and having previously had an equity investment role, I hoped that I had some useful experience and skills which could fit well with the CCF Board.  More generally, I think co-ops and community businesses can be transformational and as much as possible should be done to help their start-up and growth, including access to finance.  I’m also sure I’ll learn lots from the other Board members and staff team as this is my first experience of holding a Board position.

CCF: Lovely of you to say such kind things there! Can you tell us a little more about your previous experience in the social investment field?

JM: Yes – In previous roles I’ve worked with various partners in the field of social investment, such as Big Issue Invest Scotland, Community Shares Scotland and Social Investment Scotland.

CCF: Some great organisations there- and we just love Community Shares! It’s clear that you see the importance of social investment matters – can you go into a bit more detail as to why?

JM: As I said above, I think co-ops and community businesses can be transformational and as much as possible should be done to help their start-up and growth, including access to finance.  The role these types of businesses can play in communities and in facilitating socio-economic change shouldn’t be underestimated – the past 18 months has only served to highlight this.  Having a social investor like CCF, who really understands these organisations, is crucial to their sustainability.

CCF: Thanks so much for your time – for our last question, can you tell us – if you could make one change to civil society what would it be?

JM: Interesting question!  Probably increased, democratic, access to sports/exercise facilities for everyone and more education about the link between exercise and improved mental health.  For example, a couple of years ago I was inspired to hear about Projekt 42 in Edinburgh, the UK’s first wellness centre to combine exercise classes, personal training and mental health services all in one membership subscription, using a circular revenue system to deliver free and low-cost classes and funded counselling sessions to members of the community.