Catherine says: "I live in Fortuneswell with my family and care a great deal about Portland and in particular the future chances of our children.

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I believe that we can do a lot now to give them the best chance they can have. I have been involved in our community for a long time and have mainly worked in Education.

"I have been a school governor, and on the committee with a local nursery. I have also been on the committee of the Mulberry Moorings. I have worked in universities, colleges and with children outside of standard education in alternative provision and more recently I work with b-side and Co-op with community projects and causes. As part of my role in the Co-op I heard about funding that was available for Community Fridges. I knew it would work well on Portland. I applied for the funding and am lead volunteer running the Community Fridge and have done so since October 2022. Our family and friends also decided that we would save the Mallams phone box so we held table top sales and coffee mornings to raise money and then were able to refurbish it so that it could be used by the local community.

"For b-side, I am Community Projects Co-ordinator where we have been able to run summer workshops at The Islanders. We have also been able to work with local groups like the Brownies, Badgers, Muntsys, ICA, The Drop-In and local schools. Through the recent project This Land it also gave local people the chance to talk to Portland based and Dorset based organisations, such as The Court Leet, Portland Bird Observatory, Jurassic Coast Trust, Dorset Wildlife Trust, Dorset Coast Forum and ask questions and talk about solutions to problems on managing our landscape.

"I have previously worked as a researcher in Parliament, so I have seen some of the workings of national and local government. As someone who is new to membership of a political party it feels important to me to be part of an active and cohesive group of Green Party Councillors devoted to change, not only for my family's future but to ensure all Portland voices are heard in Dorchester. It would be an honour to represent people on Portland."