Happy New Year!
‘New year, new you’ is something we hear a lot at this time of year. This year for us The Door it’s particularly apt as we enter our 30th anniversary year and kick off a new 5-year strategy that sets out some ambitious plans. These plans include both new priority areas of delivery and a new structure to give us the capacity to deliver them.
This past year, with all it has brought, has been a steep learning curve on so many fronts, and much of this learning we plan to take forward into our ‘normal’ day-to-day delivery. So we’ve introduced two new roles – a Pioneer Community Youthworker to enable us to continue to explore and broaden our online engagement, and an overall manager for our intensive support services. We’ve also chosen to take this time to review the leadership of The Door. For us personally, this means that we will be taking joint accountability for leading our charity, with our roles changing to Chief Executive Officer for Victoria and Chief Operating Officer for Graham. Barrie is still very much a key part of our delivery efforts. He’s shifting his focus away from fundraising and marketing and using his extensive experience to support our service delivery and develop illuminate further.
We are both hugely excited to lead The Door into our next chapter together and are already making strides towards the future. A key focus has been, and always will be, on serving those in need. As part of this, we will be actively seeking out alliances with other organisations in our sector in Gloucestershire, so that we, along with others, can contribute to the overall effort consistently and together. The opportunity that COVID has presented for us to work in different ways has also prompted us to reconsider our working practices, and in the coming 18 months, we will also be reconsidering where we base ourselves – trying to find the best working arrangements and work locations to meet the needs of our team and our service users. We’ll be sharing more about that as things develop.
In the meantime, the team are pressing on continuing to develop and deliver our services in safe ways, as they try to ensure that no one is left in need without support, and support the local communities in which we are called to serve.
Blessings for 2021, whatever it holds
Victoria and Graham
