Dear All,
With best wishes,
Daisy
Welcome and goodbyes
Welcomes: We are delighted to have welcomed the following new RASASC team members –
Joining the ISVA team, we have welcomed Casey, Alice and Bea (tbc date depending?)
Counselling and Admin: Volunteers Julia, Udval and Joan (whom some of you may know from when she volunteered on reception at the Leatherhead hub some years ago?)
Goodbyes: With thanks to Hazel and Chris following many years’ service on the Helpline and then Support Line.
Chair interview and spotlight
Meet Kevin Young, Chair of our trustee board
Tell us a bit about yourself:
My background is in business and finance with more than 30 years' experience in senior finance roles. Until I retired from full-time work about 15 years ago, I was Group Finance Director of a local civil engineering and business services company. More recently, I have focused exclusively on the charitable sector, and I am currently also the Finance Trustee at The Eikon Charity which delivers emotional wellbeing and mental health support to children and young people in Surrey.
Why did you want to be a trustee for RASASC?
Mainly because I wanted to support another local charity which also provides services to improve the overall health and wellbeing of vulnerable individuals. Also, having helped RASASC with some financial advice a few years ago, I had my arm twisted by the previous Chair and our external accountants to join permanently, initially as Treasurer in July 2023. More recently I also became Chair towards the end of last year and I currently do both jobs!
What's involved with being Chair of the trustee board?
Chairing the trustee board meetings every other month is actually quite a small part of the job. We currently have a board of eight trustees, all of whom are very experienced and dedicated, and bring their own unique skills and experience to RASASC. Being a relatively small organisation, each of us helps support the charity outside the regular board meetings, working with Daisy and other members of the team, and it is my job is to lead and coordinate this. Also, there are legal and statutory responsibilities associated with being a trustee and another part of my role is to make sure we get the right balance between the oversight and scrutiny this requires and supporting the organisation on a day-to-day basis.
What's involved with being Chair of the trustee board?
Chairing the trustee board meetings every other month is actually quite a small part of the job. We currently have a board of eight trustees, all of whom are very experienced and dedicated, and bring their own unique skills and experience to RASASC. Being a relatively small organisation, each of us helps support the charity outside the regular board meetings, working with Daisy and other members of the team, and it is my job is to lead and coordinate this. Also, there are legal and statutory responsibilities associated with being a trustee and another part of my role is to make sure we get the right balance between the oversight and scrutiny this requires and supporting the organisation on a day-to-day basis.
What would you say are the key skills you bring to the role?
Obviously, there are the commercial and financial skills from having spent the whole of my working life in business. Also, I have a pretty good understanding of the charity sector and related requirements after nine years as a trustee at The Eikon Charity. That said, I have a definite preference for working with people rather than numbers and much of my time is spent mentoring and supporting the CEO and other members of staff which also draws on my general management skills and experience from other organisations. It is also important to have the right balance between the internal focus on our systems and procedures and external focus on the environment we operate in and related challenges.
What would you say is the biggest challenge?
Without a doubt, the biggest challenge for us is to balance the ever-increasing demand for our services with the limited funds and resources we have. The chronic delays in the Criminal Justice System have heavily affected all our services and mean that we need to support people for longer. At the same time, the cost-of-living crisis and difficult economic environment have increased the competition for charitable funds and impacted the ability of funders to support our activities. Notwithstanding the pressure on their own finances, we continue to benefit hugely from the financial and other support from The Ministry of Justice and The Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner for Surrey, reflecting the excellent relationships we have developed with both organisations. However, funding from them is not guaranteed beyond this year, so the uncertain financial future means that we still need to manage our own finances very carefully.
What is something you have learned/had your perceptions changed about since being at RASASC?
I probably knew this anyway, but the thing I have been most struck by is the sheer dedication and commitment of our staff and volunteers and their determination to support our service users. Inevitably, the nature of what we do can be stressful and distressing for those providing the support and I never fail to be impressed by the lengths we go to in order to help those individuals who rely on our services and ensure the best possible outcomes for them, regardless of how difficult and challenging this might be sometimes. Even when we were without office accommodation earlier in the year, the hard work of our staff and volunteers meant that our services continued uninterrupted and I am extremely grateful to everyone for that and everything they do more generally to ensure our continued success.
Can you tell us something interesting/fun fact about you?
Having spent much of my working life indoors, I still try to get outside as often as possible and have been walking the South West Coast Path 'in instalments' with my wife. We started in Minehead, Somerset in July 2022 and hope to complete the journey in Poole, Dorset later this year. By then we will have walked a total of 630 miles, over more than seven weeks, up and down the coastal paths through Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and Dorset, enjoying spectacular views, interesting company and a variety of places to stay on the way! The challenge now is to agree on and find the time for the next walking adventure!
Support Line
In February of this year, our new RASASC Support Line was launched. Over recent years, there has been a steep decline in callers to our traditional Helpline resulting in an underused service and Helpline Volunteer workforce. For these reasons, we announced the closure of our Helpline in October 2024, carefully managing the closure process over the next few months and running the final Helpline call in December.
The Support Line operates from 6:30pm – 8:30pm Monday to Thursday, and provides a check in, listening and support service for clients on the waiting list for one-to-one counselling. The service is intended to reassure clients they are not forgotten and provide a safe space to talk about anything they wish. Clients opt in if they wish to take this up and calls lasting 20/30 minutes are scheduled at 6 weekly intervals.
Although our waiting list and waiting times have improved, we still have large numbers waiting far too long for their one to one and this new service has been designed specifically to provide a ‘holding’ and wrap around support. In addition to the offer of the Online Introductory Group while on the waiting list for one to one, this is part of an expanding ‘wrap around’ support for clients. To date, xxxx number of clients waiting have opted in and are receiving calls from the Support Line Volunteers (please can you get latest figures from Liz B?)
All Support Line Volunteers have migrated from the Helpline following a period of training in Jan 2025. We are delighted to have retained their valuable skills experience and this is a more consistent use of their time. With a scheduled number of calls to make on shift, Volunteers are no longer waiting for the phone to ring, they are speaking to a wider range of people, offering a range of support including signposting and grounding techniques and many have reported that they are finding the calls very rewarding.
Feedback from clients receiving the calls has been very positive with people saying how reassuring it is to know they have not been forgotten and how much they appreciate the check ins and opportunity to speak.
We are currently recruiting for additional Support Line Volunteers. If this is something you or someone you know may be interested in, please do get in touch.
Events
LLHM, Swim Serpentine, Felicity's hair shave
Shout Outs
Team leaders have been contacted
RASASC Christmas drinks
Don't forget about our Christmas drinks from 4pm on Friday 13 December at Chancery House. Please RSVP to admin@rasasc-guildford.org by 6 December if you'd like to come, just so we know numbers to cater for.
And for those that want to, do feel free to carry on the celebrations at The Drummond afterwards!
Everyone is welcome.
Recruitment
We were delighted to welcome new ISVA Alice, and new Counselling Coordinator, Davina recently. We are also extremely fortunate to have been joined by superstar Volunteer Administrator, Julia, who has been making a huge contribution to the day to day operations at Chancery House.
We have a second Volunteer Administrator, Udval, starting with us on 3 December, and welcome several new Volunteer Counsellors; Julia, Naomi, Nidhish, Emily, Pauline, Liz and Julia.
We're also looking for an Engagement and Fundraising volunteer, there is more information and a job description on our website, please do share with anyone who may be suitable!
Wellbeing
We have arranged a staff and volunteer yoga session for Tuesday 3 December. You can sign up via the google doc but please note, there are only 6 spaces for this session. If it proves popular, we can look into offering more.
There’s also a massage session on Thursday 12 December from 10am-2pm offering chair massage, Thai foot massage and reflexology. To sign up, add your name next to an available space on the massage sign up document.
Helpline closure
I’m sure you are aware that our helpline service will be closing on Thursday 12 December. While this marks a departure for RASASC, calls to the helpline had greatly reduced over the past few years and we were very aware that we weren’t making the most of the skills and expertise of our brilliant helpline volunteers.
To address this, we will be launching a Support Line in February, that will offer wellbeing support to those on our waiting list for counselling. This means we can retain the knowledge and expertise of many of our existing volunteers, while also offering support to those on our waiting list for counselling.
You can find out more around the changes to our helpline through our news story.
Christmas Opening/Closing
Please note that the RASASC offices will be closed from Wednesday 25 December, reopening on Thursday 2 January 2025.
I hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing break.
