Family, community and a desire to give back: Rina’s story
Thursday 5th of June 2025Motivated by her brother who is autistic and a desire to educate, Rina Pandya was inspired to apply for a trustee role at Avenues.
Trustees work in a voluntary capacity for the organisation alongside the Board of directors, making sure Avenues does what its strategy says. Rina Pandya has a busy career in human resources within the NHS. She has an autistic brother who also has a learning disability. Rina wanted to use this lived experience of disability and support services to benefit Avenues as a trustee. For Rina it’s also been a huge learning experience;
“Avenues does some amazing work supporting people, I’ve been really amazed at the level of care and support and the culture within the organisation. My brother has had autism and learning disabilities since birth so we’ve grown up with challenges. It’s been a real eye opener working and supporting Avenues because being a receiver of social care can sometimes feel like a battle. But actually, coming onto the other side and understanding the complexities, the funding flows and how difficult it is to navigate, it’s definitely not as easy as I thought. “
For Rina, her brother has been a huge motivation and driver. However there has also been a desire to educate within her own ethnic background and community;
“For sure it’s the lived experience of my brother but there’s also a community angle in the sense that within the Indian community, there is still a reluctance around accepting care from external providers. I mean things are getting a lot better but usually it’s all done within the family. So there’s an education piece in the community.”
As well as the trustee role opening up Rina’s eyes to the complexities of providing support she also finds the experience has been useful in her own profession;
“I’ve learnt a lot. Avenues has helped me in my day-to-day job. It’s also benefited my career development in the sense that I’m part of a board. To be able to partake in those sorts of discussions at a board level, working with some phenomenally experienced people in terms of the other trustees, their knowledge and their expertise has been great. So you know there has been a huge sort of cross pollination.
Being on a board at a trustee level is just fantastic. We’re giving back. I’m giving my time back and that’s what keeps motivating me.”
The only challenging part of trustee life for Rina has been the time she needs to give to the role, however the end goal keeps her motivated as well as the support of fellow trustees;
“The time commitment is substantial but that is because we want to get involved more in committees and meetings and we take it all really seriously. The one thing that keeps drawing us all back is the fact that we’re supporting an amazing charity business. It gives you a sense of accomplishment.
I’m quite close with some of the trustees. We will sort of discuss and remind each other. We read the board papers and some of the packs can be quite large but when you come off a board call, the realisation sets in and what we’ve just discussed, how we’re supporting the organisation, and you feel incredibly proud”.
There is no doubt in Rina’s mind when it comes to recommending the trustee role and how beneficial the skills exchange can be;
“It’s a fantastic experience to get a seat at the table at the board. To be really involved in key decision making in social care, which we all know has lots of challenges, is so valuable. It’s an area that needs support and expertise to help get better outcomes for people that we support. It’s a great opportunity to meet people, learn and grow”
The staff you meet and the people that we support they are living and breathing the values and bringing to life everything that Avenues does and why we are here and the role that we play.”