Founder and CEO of Active Communities to step down

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The founding chief executive of Johnstone-based charity Active Communities has announced she is stepping down.Susan McDonald took Active Communities from a Paisley jogging group to a large charity serving communities across Renfrewshire.And with the opening of the charity’s new £ 1 million community hub, Station Seven, Susan said she felt now was a good time to step down and let someone else take the helm.Don't miss the latest headlines from around Renfrewshire.

Sign up to our newsletters here.Susan, mum to Jennifer and Craig, will officially step down in early October and hand over to an interim chief executive for six months before her permanent replacement is appointed.She said: “I’m taking a bit of time out and then I’ll have a look at what I want to do next.“With Station Seven complete and up and running, it’s the right time for a change.

I’ve taken Active Communities all the way into Station Seven, it’s in a really good place.“We’re working on our business plan for the next three to five years so it’s a good time to hand over to someone else.“I love delivering and being involved in groups so maybe I’ll look into doing that again.

I haven’t been able to do that for the last year and a half.”Before she set up Active Communities, Susan, from Paisley, set up the Glasgow Women’s Running Network, helped organise the Glasgow Women’s 10k and also worked with Jog Scotland.It was while she was at a toddler group in Ralston back in 2003 she realised there were no running groups in Renfrewshire and some of the other mums were keen to get started.From that, Jogging Buddies was born and it soon had classes across the district as well as things like Buggy Buddies for new parents to bring their babies along to; Active Ageing which