Mavis Best This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. The Experience Corps - About Us - Volunteering in England

   www.experiencecorps.co.uk/xq/A - [Cached]

   Published on: 8/31/2005   Last Visited: 9/9/2005

   Mavis Best Mavis Best came to the UK from Jamaica in 1961. She trained as a Community Development Youth Worker at the University of London, Goldsmith College, in 1974. Mavis Best is married with six children and grand- children. She believes that having a large family should not mean that women cannot achieve their potential and play an effective role in society. She has worked for North Lewisham Project where she set up a supplementary school for African-Caribbean children who were under-achieving in schools in the Deptford area.
   
   She embarked upon a campaign to repeal the 1824 Vagrancy Act, used to pick up black under-age males in the seventies. The campaign lasted three years and the Act was repealed. She also worked as a Community Development Worker for Camden Social Services where she developed her skills as a trainer, and went on to become a national Co-ordinator for Health and Race Project over a period of three years. She became a member of a team charged with the responsibility of developing issues on health matters for Neil Kinnock.
   
   Mavis Best was the Chair of the Maternity Alliance, concerned with issues of childbirth and women's rights.
   
   Her family means a lot to her, as well as her faith and belief in God. She believes profoundly in helping to challenge injustice in our society, this belief underpinning all of her undertakings. Mavis Best has lived in the borough for nineteen years. She is a an Executive Member for Equalities, Social Inclusion and Justice.