My name is Craig Sweaton and I live and work in Middleton. I decided that I’d like to be more involved in community activities and their promotion via the internet so, here I am!
I have lived in the Ls10 area all my life and have always felt a strong sense of community here, and my job as the local barber keeps me in touch with many local people from all walks of life. It is because of this that I decided to become more involved in the activities, concerns, trials and jubilations that my neighbours experience all the time, but that we rarely hear about. The biggest factor though is what I percieve to be a lack of involvement from Leeds City Council in the problems that our area face and in particular, the youth.
I have started to become more involved with local community organisations of late and the most recent charity that I hope to help is Middleton Elderly Aid, where I have been asked to sit as a trustee. This will involve me bringing my knowledge of the community and combining it with my business experience to help drive the charity to new success (not a tall order then!).
I already sit on the governing body at St. Philip’s catholic primary school as a parent governor, and have held this position for four years. I find it greatly rewarding to know that I can help to direct where the education of my children is heading, and plan for the future of the school.
Hopefully as the course progresses and my confidence grows (that’s a joke by the way), I will be able to contribute more successfully to our community and raise awareness of the good things that happen around us. I suppose the overall aim I have is to eventually enthuse others to have the same pride and care for the area that I do.
This article was written by Craig Sweaton using our Community Reporters website
