Dame Elisabeth Anne Marian Hoodless, (née Frost; born 11 February 1941) is a former Executive Director (1975–2011) of
Community Service Volunteers
Volunteering Matters is a UK charity focused on "''the advancement of citizenship and community development for the public benefit through the promotion of volunteering''". It was founded in 1962 as Community Service Volunteers (CSV) by Mora and ...
(CSV, which was re-named
Volunteering Matters in 2015.
She is also a former Labour councillor in North London, and a long-term Labour party member. She was a volunteer Youth court magistrate.
Hoodless is married and has two sons and two granddaughters. She lives in North London.
She is the author of ''Getting Money from Central Government''.
History
Hoodless attended
Redland High School for Girls in Bristol and then studied at
King's College, Durham (
Durham University
Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...
).
In 1962, Hoodless lived in Israel and taught Hebrew as a volunteer to French-speaking immigrants to prepare them for University.
She returned to study social work at the London School of Economics and qualified as a medical social worker.
She was appointed Assistant Director of CSV in 1963, becoming the only paid staff member, since the founding director Dr
Alec Dickson
Dr Alexander Graeme Dickson CBE (23 May 1914 – 23 September 1994) was the founder of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).
Dickson graduated from Oxford University in 1935 and worked as a foreign correspondent in Central Europe during the rise of H ...
(1914–1994), and his wife, Maura, were volunteers.
She became CSV's Deputy Director in 1972 and was their Executive Director from 1975 to 2011
Hoodless chaired the Network of National Volunteer Involving Agencies (NNVIA)
which included 46 UK agencies, including the
National Trust
The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...
,
Age UK and the
Refugee Council until 2001. She was president, Volonteurope; and the Deputy Chair, Speaker's Commission on Citizenship from 1987 to 1990; and was a member of a
UK Department of Health
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for government policy on health and adult social care matters in England, along with a few elements of the sa ...
working group on Strengthening Volunteering in the National Health Service between 1993 and 1996.
Awards and honours
In 1966 she was awarded a
Churchill Fellowship and in 1974 was awarded a Commonwealth Youth Fellowship.
In 2004, Hoodless was named
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
for her services to volunteering.
She received an Honorary Doctorate Sheffield Hallam University in 2004
She was awarded the Commemorative award for England at the CSV (Community Service Volunteer) Year of the Volunteer awards on 22 January 2006
Dame Elisabeth Hoodless received the Alec Dickson Award at the National Service-Learning Conference in 2009. The award is named for Dame Elisabeth's predecessor, Dr. Alec Dickson.
References
External links
CSV condemns healthcare conditions revealed by ''BBC Panorama''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoodless, Elisabeth
1941 births
Living people
Alumni of the London School of Economics
British social welfare officials
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Place of birth missing (living people)
People educated at Redland High School for Girls
Alumni of King's College, Newcastle