I just love being part of things!

In the first of our new profiles on Berkhamsted folk, we talk to Anna Foster, a founding trustee of Berkhamsted Together.

Becoming a founding trustee of Berkhamsted Together was an obvious step for Anna Foster, as she describes herself as being fully embedded in community life.

Berkhamsted Together is filling the gap left by the closure of the popular community organisation Open Door. Anna had worked freelance for and supported Open Door for years. She explains, ‘With my involvement with so many areas of the town, I’m honoured to have been asked to help build on what Open Door started and develop even more of a community ‘hub’ and offering.’

Berkhamsted was seen as an affluent town, but many people were living in crisis, with lots more living beyond their means – asset rich, cash poor, she says. ‘Some, even with no ‘need’ as such, just want to be a part of something wonderful, that warms the heart and means something. It’s a big job, with which we need support – but one we’re relishing being able to begin.’

Anna, who has lived in Northchurch for 20 years, has been involved in a range of volunteering for causes she is passionate about.

She’s treasurer of local children’s group Books in the Woods, and also helped establish the town’s Repair Café a few years ago with Open Door, restarting it with fellow volunteers at Northchurch Social Centre.

‘It brings me so much joy to save things from going to landfill and making people happy.

‘My 10-year-old loves helping out too. I’m on the PTA of my children’s school, and after 10 years recently retired as trustee of Dacorum Citizens Advice.’

Anna was born and raised in Bradford, West Yorkshire. She met her now husband when working down south. ‘We eventually settled in this lovely town, which gave us the countryside we yearned for, as well as access to jobs in London and the South East. We hadn’t really intended to stay for so long, but, we settled in, made friends, had kids… I do miss the North, but equally appreciate the Chilterns right on our doorstep.’

After completing a corporate degree and a year’s work placement, she realised she didn’t want to be ‘anywhere near the money-making world’.

‘I grew up in a community-minded family and I’d spent an incredible year solo aged 18 volunteering in the Ivory Coast, West Africa. All of this meant I started my career as an administrator in a financial education charity straight out of university and learned everything about how a successful charity should run. After 10 years in various roles there, a merger, and finding out I was pregnant the day after I was made redundant, led me to decide it was a good time to try freelancing.’

Alongside her volunteer roles, Anna has been running her small consultancy business (www.adfconsultancy.co.uk) for over 10 years, where she offers freelance support to a wide range of good causes – some charities, some public bodies, and occasionally micro businesses that she feels passionate about.

‘Often clients and friends describe me as a freelance useful person. My Chiltern Biz Collective fellow self-employed ‘colleagues’ fill any lonely gaps and I also help my husband out with his business Ashridge Karate Academy.’

It’s no surprise that Anna is fully embedded in community life – ‘whether that’s running with JogOn, singing with Choir-on-the-Green, or walking with friends, I just love being part of things!’

What I love about…

…the area

‘I love the small town vibe – wandering along the canal into Berkhamsted, the views over Ashridge from our house, and having the beautiful Chilterns on our doorstep – but it’s also great to be able to take my children to explore London so easily.’

…best local places

‘It’s great to have the George & Dragon in Northchurch for a quick drink or a catch-up with friends. I frequent a lot of the cafés in town so it’s hard to choose a fave, but I love the ethos and food at Faire, and Church Farm in Aldbury. I’ve enjoyed some of Maggie’s brilliant tribute nights recently at the Civic Centre – a brilliant idea! There’s no bad place to walk around here in my book, but favourites are any woodland, up at Coombe Hill, or cycling on the Phoenix Trail with my husband and kids.’