Julie celebrates her trustee role with homelessness charity Roundabout

Julie MacDonald has a very good reason to be celebrating national Trustees Week.

For she has been giving her time as a trustee for South Yorkshire youth homelessness charity Roundabout for the past seven years.

And she says she is proud to be supporting the work Roundabout is doing with some of the region’s most vulnerable young people.

Trustees’ Week is the national celebration of the achievements of nearly one million trustees across the UK, thanking them for the time, commitment and effort they bring to charities to help them thrive.

For Julie, the opportunity to become a trustee for Roundabout was not a difficult choice to make.

“When I was asked if would consider joining the board, it didn’t take me long to say yes because I believe that, whenever we can, we should do whatever we can to help others,” she said.

“And it was also because I think that young adults are amazing - they have so much more to deal with than when I was young.

“They can be infuriating, stubborn, argumentative, sometimes even frightening, but no other group in our society can match them for their enthusiasm and passion for causes that they believe in, they never do anything by halves and they want to change the world.

“They are our future and I believe that we owe it, not only to them, but to the generations that come after them and to ourselves, to help our young people to fulfil their potential and become the best versions of themselves.

“But we all know that not everyone is born equal; that life can be very unfair and even cruel and that some will need more help than others if they are to be given the chance to succeed - and that is where organisations like Roundabout step in.”

Roundabout has been helping young people in South Yorkshire who are homeless, or who are at risk of becoming homeless, since 1977.

Today, the charity supports 380 young people every day in Sheffield and Rotherham - that is almost 400 young people who are homeless or in danger of becoming homeless.

“That is a figure of which I, a proud Sheffielder, am ashamed and my fervent hope is that one day – hopefully in my lifetime – there will be no need for organisations like Roundabout; that we will have found a way to end youth homelessness,” Julie said.

“In the meantime, I am proud to say that I am a Trustee of Roundabout and I am privileged to have the opportunity to meet some of the young people who are being supported by Roundabout.

“Some of those have been supported in the past and who are now working as Peer Educators, sharing their experiences with other young people– their stories are both humbling and inspiring.

“It’s also a great privilege to meet the amazing and dedicated members of staff.

“I feel and hope that by being a trustee, I am doing what I can to support the young people in our community who need our help because they are homeless or in danger of becoming homeless.”

In addition to her support for Roundabout, Julie is also a Trustee of Sheffield Town Trust, has served as a Trustee of The Children’s Hospital Charity and South Yorkshire’s Community Foundation, where she was Deputy-Chair from 2017-24 and she is also a Patron of Sheffield Young Careers.

She was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant in 2014 and, in 2024, was appointed as the Lead Deputy-Lieutenant for Sheffield and served as the High Sheriff of South Yorkshire for 2016-17.

Julie has been involved with the Girl Guide movement since she was a child and has Rainbow, Brownie and Guide companies.

She was Girlguiding Sheffield’s County Commissioner from 2009 to 2014 and has been the Lead Volunteer for Girlguiding U.K.’s National Archive Project since 2018.