Partridge Green Area Response Team, known as ‘PART’, had its beginnings in March 2007 when 5 local people held a meeting at the Fire Station and pledged to set up a local Community Response Team for Partridge Green and the surrounding areas. Initially we had some valuable help from our neighbouring team at Henfield which was already successfully established and we started with just 4 responders.
We have grown steadily over the years, at one point having up to 10 responders and, just as importantly, have formed a great team of support volunteers. We became a registered charity in 2009 and we currently have 5 Trustees, including our Chairman and Secretary. We also have a Treasurer, a Responder Team Leader with 5 active responders and 3 winding their way through the recruitment process. We are completely self-funding so fundraising is a big commitment and members of the 20 strong group give their valuable time to do this in all manner of ways.
We have always received tremendous financial and practical support from the local community for which we are very grateful. We hope that this will be sustained as we continue to incur costs for the replacement and updating of equipment, in particular the essential Defibrillators which continually improve and evolve. Your generosity has also enabled us to provide a number of Public Access Defibrillators within the community which can be used by anyone in an emergency.
Prior training is not necessary as the units give voice commands to guide you through the process. However, we do run local familiarisation sessions to which everyone is welcome to show just how easily they can be used to potentially save a life. We openly encourage everyone to attend at least one. Please contact us to express your interest. We would also be happy to run bespoke sessions for local clubs, organisations or businesses.
We have humbly received a number of thank you cards and messages over the years from local people to whom a PART responder has attended. These are truly touching and the team is very grateful for your feedback. It is good to know we really are making a positive impact on our community.
We are now in our 11th year and hope we will continue for many years to come to offer our voluntary service to those in need, helping to make serious medical events, at the very least a little less stressful, and at best, dramatically improving the outcomes.
Thank you for your continuing support.
Chairman