Since 2016, Ripon Together has been working to bring people and groups together from across the community in joint working to enhance Ripon for the benefit of residents, businesses, and visitors. With a body of members which has grown to over 170, one of our aspirations has been to inspire and invite people to offer time and skills for the benefit of others through our joint projects and partnership working. Tim Tribe and Romily Abbott are brilliant examples of people who have great skills and who have given their support in a generous and effective ways. Both have done a huge amount to transform our communications and public engagement.
Tim first came into contact with Ripon Together through our first Green Fair, in October 2023. He attended some of our environmental group meetings and soon saw that we could benefit from some of his skill in the areas of IT and comms. We readily accepted his kind offer to volunteer. He helped with the leaflets, promotion and bookings for the Summer FunFest 2024 and has been part of the group organising the Green Fairs for 2024 and 2025, plus our green energy business event at Ripon Racecourse this June. His contribution to our website and social media output has been transformational. One of his great contributions to the whole community, in partnership with the BID especially, has been to research the comms output from a wide variety of organisations to create an effective What’s On Listing for everyone. This is posted on the Ripon Together website.
Tim soon realised that more voluntary support would be vital to make the most of the great potential that was clearly there. So it was that Romily Abbott contacted us and offered her time, skills and youthful perspective – a great bonus. Romilly’s input into our social media and newsletter resulted in us very quickly reaching a much wider audience. She has volunteered with us as part of her university course and has benefited from Tim’s support and coaching. This in itself has proved to be an inspirational example of intergenerational joint working. And it is noticeable how many favourable comments we have received, expressing appreciation of how Romily has worked creatively with some of our partners to enhance social media posts. These posts, in turn, have had a very positive impact on the attendance at our events and promoted successfully both Ripon Together and, through it, the Uredale Community Partnership.
Now has come the time for both Tim and Romily to step back from their volunteering with us. We cannot say how much we appreciate all that they have done.