A chance to focus on the future at Age Concern Bristol’s Annual Awayday

Responding to change is important for every organisation and this year it was the chosen theme for the Age Concern Bristol Awayday. This annual event is organised so opinions are gathered from a wide range of people involved with the organisation. It was a forum for the exploration and exchange of ideas.

“ The great thing is we get a chance to network and get connected for the day. Normally we are just working in our own team.” says Graham Bloy, Housing Support Worker. “I have had the opportunity to meet new people and hear different points of view.” says Peter Taplin, Trustee of Age Concern Bristol as well as Chair of the Bristol Older Peoples Forum. “It is a very important day which enables us to get our views across.” says Eileen Brice, Roundhouse Volunteer and Service User.

A review of the changes introduced in the past year which all came out of last year’s Awayday underlined to everyone just how significant this one day in the year is to the direction of the organisation.

Many changes external to the organisation are in the pipeline in areas such as local council provision, funding and grants available, the economic environment and Government policy. These all need to be taken into account when planning for the future.

Workshops contained people from the four different groups which make up the organisation, including staff, volunteers, service users and trustees. These workshops looked at issues as diverse as income generation, involving older people and extending outreach work. By working in this way the organisation hopes to become more flexible and effective, improving it’s ability to deal with change.

Increasingly, the focus of Age Concern Bristol is on taking pro-active and deliberate steps to find out what older people in Bristol want from the services provided by this organisation. By the same token, finding new ways to get the message out about what services are currently provided by Age Concern Bristol was a big part of the day. Denise Martin, a Senior Housing Support Worker, summed it up when she said “Lives are often transformed when people are able to access help they may not even have been aware was available”.

Katherine Munglani