Fellowship of the retiring

Civil Service Retirement Fellowship members at their April meeting at St Andrews Church Hall, Enfield

The boss of the Civil Service Retirement Fellowship, David Tickner, introduces the charity’s long-running Enfield group

For more than 50 years the Civil Service Retirement Fellowship (CSRF) has provided a forum for friendship and companionship within local communities around the country.

As we celebrate the contribution of our local groups, I paid a visit to Enfield’s. Here there is a busy programme of activities, open to any local retired person. Established initially as a charity to support former civil servants and their dependants, Enfield CSRF has evolved in recent years to offer services to those in later life. These currently include a local community group network, two national befriending schemes (Phone Buddy and National Visitors Network) and information and advice.

The Enfield group’s network provides a valuable service to retired and older people within the community, offering an important forum for friendship and companionship, educational speakers, and leisure activities. It has been running for more than 35 years and is keen to attract new interest from any retired people within the local area.

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I visited the Enfield group for its monthly meeting in April to show our support of the incredible dedication and commitment of group volunteers. All groups are run by volunteers, many of

whom spent their whole careers in public service. The Enfield group is run by Sue Simms and Susan Bentley who between them worked for 60 years in the civil service; the Department of Employment (then the Department of Social Security) and Inland Revenue (now HM Revenue and Customs) respectively. Both ladies are good examples of the many group leaders we have across the country and have been instrumental in maintaining our group in Enfield.

As a charity, CSRF receives no government funding. We rely on fundraising activities and donations to support our work. Our ‘Connecting Our Communities’ initiative recognises and celebrates our group networks and their contribution to community life, with the intention of raising awareness of their activities to hopefully attract new people along to their meetings.

Enfield CSRF meets on the first Monday of the month at 10.30am (other than bank holidays) at St Andrew’s Church Hall, Silver Street, Enfield EN1 3EG. All local retired people are welcome to attend.
Email [email protected]
Visit csrf.org.uk/enfield

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