Joanne Vandermerwe-Mahon is standing for Deputy in St Clement because she believes the parish and Jersey as a whole need a new way of thinking about the challenges facing Islanders today.

St Clement is a wonderful parish with a strong community spirit, but like many Islanders, parishioners are feeling increasing pressure from the rising cost of living, stretched services, housing pressures, and concerns about the future.

At the heart of Joanne’s campaign is a simple belief: Jersey has incredible people, talent, compassion, and expertise but too often our systems fail to bring those strengths together effectively.

With more than 20 years of professional experience training, coaching, mentoring, and developing people, teams, and organisations, Joanne has built her career around helping people work together to achieve meaningful results. She understands that the key to success is recognising people’s strengths, connecting talent, and creating joined-up systems that allow communities and organisations to thrive.

That philosophy now shapes her vision for St Clement and Jersey.

Joanne believes many parishioners feel frustrated by decision-making that happens to them rather than with them. St Clement has experienced growing pressure on housing, roads, infrastructure, and local services, yet many residents feel their concerns are not always properly heard.

Rather than offering political slogans or short-term fixes, Joanne is campaigning for a more collaborative, practical, and long-term approach to government.

She believes Jersey cannot continue approaching today’s challenges with yesterday’s thinking.

A key focus of Joanne’s campaign is ensuring St Clement and Jersey are properly prepared for the future, particularly the growing pressures created by an ageing population and increasing demand on healthcare and social care services.

She believes Jersey must invest far more in home-grown talent by actively encouraging careers in:

  • nursing
  • rehabilitation care
  • physiotherapy
  • occupational therapy
  • and community support services

Joanne wants to see housing, healthcare, education, and workforce planning connected properly for the first time, creating thriving communities where essential workers can afford to live, work, and build their future in Jersey.

She is also passionate about mental health and wellbeing. Joanne believes mental health should become a priority not only within healthcare, but across education, planning, infrastructure, sport, and community policy.

For St Clement, that means protecting green spaces, improving opportunities for physical activity, supporting safer walking and cycling routes, and creating stronger community connections that improve wellbeing for all ages.

Joanne is also calling for a more joined-up approach across government and public services.

She believes too many organisations currently operate in silos, creating duplication, fragmentation, and inefficiency. Public bodies and arm’s-length organisations such as Digital Jersey, Jersey Development Company and Jersey Business should be more focused on solving Jersey’s biggest long-term challenges and delivering measurable value for Islanders.

She also wants to see charities and third-sector organisations properly integrated into long-term healthcare and community planning so that Jersey benefits fully from their expertise, compassion, and frontline experience.

For Joanne, politics should be:

  • honest about challenges
  • practical about solutions
  • and focused on improving everyday life for parishioners and Islanders

Her campaign is built around collaboration rather than division, long-term planning rather than short-term politics, and bringing people together to create practical solutions that genuinely improve lives.

Because, as Joanne says: “Nothing will change unless we change. I believe St Clement and Jersey can do better, together.”