We caught up with Lucy Evans, one of our trustees, to ask her about becoming a trustee.
Tell us a bit about your work outside Citizens Advice
My professional background has predominantly been within the public sector. My interests in this area are customer service, research, and delivering written content in plain English.
Through my current role within a local authority, I contribute to the creation and improvement of public-facing website content, taking into account relevant legislation and the challenges residents face when accessing information.
My previous experience working for Suffolk Libraries gave me valuable insight into the barriers people encounter due to age, literacy, confidence, or digital skills. This strengthened my commitment to making information clearer, more accessible, and easier for everyone to understand.
Why did you decide to take on a trustee role?
I originally wanted to volunteer for Citizens Advice Ipswich, but this wasn’t viable for me, as I work full time (sadly!). After speaking it through with Nicky, the Chief Officer, I decided to apply to join the trustee board instead as I understood that they were very receptive to recruiting people with different backgrounds and experiences and my professional profile fitted with what the trustee board were looking for.
Within my role at work, I have learned about the barriers that people can face when trying to navigate complex information, and how to best support them. I am very motivated by Citizens Advice’s mission to make essential guidance accessible to all.
What is your role on the Board, and if you could describe the role in a sentence, what would you say?
I lead on Research and Campaigning and take an interest in the communications both internal and external.
Working as part of a trustee board is a great opportunity to understand more about the strategy of an organisation, make a bit of a difference, hopefully, and gain a genuine and more empathetic understanding of the difficulties that people in our local communities currently face.
Do you think this experience helps you in your ‘day job’?
I do. I’ve enjoyed being part of the wider discussions with the Board and I think I have become more articulate at work because of them.
We are all busy people. So how do you fit it in with full time work and how much time does being on the Trustee Board take up?
Not much time at all. There are four board meetings a year (one per quarter), plus a few other meetings dotted around them. These normally take place after the working day has ended. There are documents to read ahead of each board meeting, as well as various other correspondences via email but these provide us with more context about the great work being carried out by Nicky and the team, and help to strengthen my understanding of what our role is.
