Growing up in Belfast during the troubles, Catrina was always conscious of the effects of inequality and how it negatively impacted on individuals and how it devastated communities. Even though it was a tough place to live she loved growing up in Belfast and her life experiences there definitely shaped her strong “fiery” character. She comes from a large close family who all still live in and around Belfast.
She left home and moved to England aged 16 to seek other opportunities due to the multi layered challenges she faced at home. Life in England wasn’t easy for her either and she continued to experience challenging times.
Catrina cites education was the key component to opening doors of opportunity, even when she became a young mum of two children she continued to gain qualifications. The time invested in education enabled her to build a career in sport development. She continued to progress and had the privilege of managing community focused teams delivering projects that concentrated on reducing inequalities to physical health & wellbeing within Luton where she has lived for the last 30 yrs.
Catrina’s underlying belief is that everyone should have the opportunity to reach their full potential. She has always recognised particular groups of people are marginalised, face injustice and experience exponential challenges which inhibits their progression. This should not be the case but it is!”
Through her employment at Active Luton and voluntary work she has been able to follow her passion to support, assist, mentor and develop people from all communities, regardless of their circumstances and background. Catrina’s work has provided her with the opportunity to drive forward projects, make continuous improvements and most importantly challenge systems and processes.
One of Catrina’s favourite projects was the setting up and management of the National Award Winning ME TIME community based project funded by Sport England. This project was set up to address the high levels of inactivity amongst women from Luton’s diverse communities.
