Clive Benfield - December Winner
Since 2014 Clive has been a pro-bono Trustee and Director of the Albany Theatre Trust, founded in 2013 to save the Albany Theatre which had historically been the focus of community arts in the City. He has worked tirelessly to put the venture onto a sound footing by negotiating robust tenure arrangements from which the Trust’s Vision ‘To promote well-being through Arts for Life’ is being delivered. Arts for Life involves extensive community involvement, regardless of social background and access, to achieve wellbeing, community cohesion and active citizenship. The Albany is an important contributor to Coventry UK City of Culture 2021, of which his company is a business sponsor. Despite his own extensive business commitments, his overall contribution to the development of the Trust is invaluable, and his wise counsel has helped the Board on numerous occasions when faced with challenge.
As a prime-mover in the Chartered Institute of Building, he has been a passionate force for good and for continuous improvement in the service given by the construction industry to society. He founded FORCE, the Coventry & Warwickshire Forum for Constructing Excellence and best-practice club, and is a great advocate for the Chartered Builder Scheme and led the development of a construction industry visualization training centre in Coventry, the first in the UK.
Clive is also the President of the Enterprise Club for Disabled People who have recently celebrated their 80th Anniversary and honoured with a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. The club provides a range of social, handicraft and sporting activities for its 150 members with the assistance of a large number of dedicated volunteers each galvanised by his enthusiasm. He has been the driving force behind the club which has enabled disabled people within the city to improve their quality of life by providing a range of leisure activities. He has also launched fundraising appeals as part of their 80th anniversary as the charity needs £100,000 a year to operate as it receives no public funding. He has a deep-rooted ethos of service to the community which shows through everything he has achieved, he is a worthy recipient of this Good Citizen Award.