Email: Sandra.Emms@southglos.gov.uk
Facebook: Focus on Sodbury, Yate and Dodington
Sandra Emms grew up in Belize - where she met her husband when he was stationed there in the RAF. Sandra and her family made their home in Yate over 20 years ago, when her husband left the RAF. She works with elderly people, providing primary care nursing at Bristol Royal Infirmary, and before that worked with elderly people in Yate. She is best known for her volunteering with older and more vulnerable members of society, working with her church preparing meals for Bristol homeless, and formed a community cafe and memory cafe.
Using her training in dementia care, Sandra approached the Town Council offering to help as a volunteer to make Yate more dementia friendly. Sandra was elected to Yate Town Council four years ago - just in time to play a crucial role in our response to COVID, despite her work commitments at the BRI. She has been leading our work on dementia, getting the Shopping Centre Owners, Town Council and lots of other groups together all working towards making Yate a really dementia friendly town.
Sandra played a central role in bringing volunteers together to campaign to make Yate an ‘Age Friendly’ Community - a better place for everyone as they get older. Her work here led to international recognition by the World Health Organisation - with Yate becoming one of the first small towns in the world to get that recognition. She wants to get South Gloucestershire Council to adopt these ideas, and make crucial changes, whether thats better bus services, pavements and roads without ankle breaking potholes - or changes to how older people are thought of and tackling social isolation. But she is also a keen environmental campaigner and with her husband always keen to help in our local work on climate change, recycling and wildlife/ the environment.
On Wednesday 24th May, Councillor Claire Young was formally confirmed as the new Leader of South Glos Council, following the Local Council Election results earlier this month which saw the Liberal Democrats increase its number of Councillors to 20.
Lib Dem Cllrs Sandra Emms and Jane Price of Yate Town Council have worked in partnership with Yate Shopping Centre to make the area more dementia friendly.
