Hi, I am Julie Thompson and I’m the treasurer of Life Dronfield.

I have lived in Dronfield all of my life.  I am married to Richard and have 2 grown up children and a grandson.  For 20 years I have worked for the NHS as a specialist Biomedical Scientist in pathology and currently work at Chesterfield Royal Hospital.  As a mid career break I worked for 12 years in the charity sector,  working for 3 different charities as a coordinator, accounts assistant and administrator (at a Children’s charity, a church and an online secondary school-some at the same time!)

I have been an active member of The Oaks Community Church since I was 17 and for many years since the year 2000, have worked  on planning and delivering different events  and projects with volunteers  from other churches, especially  churches on the Holmesdale estate and Coal Aston.

In the year 2006 (while walking and praying around the town with folk from other churches),  I felt God impress upon me the need for a drop in Centre, community hub/ café, where all people of the town felt accepted and welcome.   A place that would offer services and facilities that were not readily available or accessed  in the town. I talked to leaders and volunteers at other  local initiatives that served their community, to see how they ran their initiatives,  such as the Terminus Project at Lowedges.   I felt it was very important that our initiative should be run by Churches in Dronfield and district and not by one single church.

I was delighted when I heard about Andy Evers who had a similar vision to me and I joined the Core team from the start.  I’m excited that we have a strong team of committed people,  who  will endeavour, with the help of as many other volunteers as possible, to make this vision a reality.