Emerging Stronger Than Before
Chief Executive's Statement
Towards the end of this year, I sat in a team meeting listening to Support Workers seek advice from one another on how to best provide support to clients with increasingly complex needs.
I couldn't help but feel bowled over by the intensity and complexity of each case and how well-equipped each team member was to meet their clients' significant needs. Reflecting on what I'd heard, it struck me that every day, we stand by our mission to work alongside people to overcome life’s challenges. Our interventions truly are changing each of our clients’ lives for the better. For that, I have nothing but gratitude for our staff and volunteers - and our clients too - for putting their trust in us as we help them pave the way to a brighter future.
At one point, however, this brighter future felt like a distant hope. With the country stifled by austerity and the third sector severely impacted, it would have been easy to believe that growth was impossible. But instead, we sought to be a voice of hope and change. With many of our clients at a crisis point with their mental health, we recognised that people needed our support now more than ever - so we pushed forward. We began to deliver more services, we secured additional bed spaces, and we continued to expand our reach. This growth helped us to receive recognition for our vital work, with our Step Down Housing Service nominated for a Homeless Link Excellence Award. I'm also incredibly grateful that we, alongside our partners Oxfordshire Homeless Movement (OHM), Aspire, Edge Housing and Asylum Welcome, received enough philanthropic support to continue our service that helps those with no recourse to public funds – resulting in far higher numbers having their asylum claims granted.
"This year, our ongoing pursuit of safely and sustainably housing those in our community saw us provide crucial support to over 5,000 people."
This year, our ongoing pursuit of safely and sustainably housing those in our community saw us provide crucial support for over 5,000 people, and it's this perseverance that will help us to continue to evolve in the coming years. I'm incredibly passionate about giving our clients a voice by directly involving them in shaping our work, and one way we were able to do that was by launching our Peer Mentoring Initiative - where former clients use their lived experience to support people going through issues they’ve recently overcome. It's a fantastic initiative, and I'm looking forward to seeing how we can develop it further by broadening it out across the other communities we work in.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, we recognised that the increasing complexity of our clients' needs placed additional strain on our teams, so we made an overt commitment to developing a staff well-being policy. We created additional opportunities to listen to their needs, including collaborating with Best Companies to deliver our first staff engagement survey. The results from this have been instrumental in identifying core areas of focus for us to develop. Based on the responses, Best Companies also named Connection Support as one of the top 25 charities to work for in the UK – a fantastic achievement that I'm thrilled to share.
I'm grateful to the Board for their ongoing commitment and support, and I feel truly privileged to lead this organisation into next year. I have no doubt that there will be challenges, but if this year is anything to go by, we'll emerge stronger than before.
Emerging Stronger Than Before
Chair of the Trustee Board’s Statement
As a charity, we are committed to working diligently to alleviate the crises our clients face.
Throughout the year, we continued our work across homelessness and housing support, mental health, family support, young people, and refugee resettlement.
Since joining the Board of Trustees in 2018, I have seen how austerity measures and times of economic uncertainty can exacerbate the inequalities our clients face, and this past financial year has been no different. The impact of both the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis had a profound effect on our clients, but the time spent last financial year revisiting our strategic priorities and developing new service models meant we were well-equipped to handle the increase in complexities. This year, we significantly invested in our infrastructure and people development, which enabled us to persevere through the economic difficulties and continue to provide quality support to those in need. We recruited an Estates team to manage our supported accommodation, invested in our IT systems to help reduce inefficiencies, and developed our fundraising to enable us to generate greater levels of welfare funding. We also provided a one-off payment to all staff members to assist them during the cost-of-living crisis.
Despite the challenging economic landscape, we continued to deliver our 32 primary services across the three localities we serve, and we saw our income grow by 14%. We continued to foster effective partnerships by collaborating with government agencies, local authorities, trusts, and other charities, and we continued to diversify our income sources allowing us to meet the growing needs of our communities.
"Despite the challenging economic landscape, we continued to deliver our 32 primary services across the three localities we serve, and we saw our income grow by 14%."
Over the past 12 months, we have seen demand for our services increase and I am humbled by the perseverance of those involved in ensuring support was available when people needed it. I want to take this opportunity to thank James Arnold for his time as Chair of the Trustee Board, and to my colleagues on the Board for entrusting me to take over the mantle since James’ retirement as Chair in September 2023. I would also like to thank Chris Keating, Chief Executive Officer, for his continued commitment to leading Connection Support through this challenging time, as well as all the staff and volunteers for their dedication to supporting our clients.
Finally, I want to thank our supporters and donors. Their generosity is nothing short of incredible and it has allowed us to continue changing the lives of the people we support.