2023 – a new year and new beginnings as the first shoots of Spring begin to show. Although for AMAT, it’s not new beginnings in the conventional sense, because the core of what we do remains the same: Providing Homes, Rebuilding Lives.
However, what is brilliant about this Charity, and always has been is change.
Change gives us the opportunity to create something new or improve something we do. Things can change very fast at AMAT and the fact that we’re able to move quickly in response as an organisation is one of our biggest strengths. We’re constantly evolving and continuously improving.
Staff moving on is always a big change, and with the Senior Manager of Support Services, Laura, leaving us in December, we’ve recently experienced a change in our senior management team sadly. She will be missed and we’re grateful for her hard work and effort, and we’re happy to welcome Cat Smithurst to the team.
Cat worked with us previously as Support Manager and lead of our first joint working Hub at 423 High Street, Medway. She left nearly 10 years ago, but maintained a close relationship with AMAT throughout that time in a variety of roles; including working as a consultant fundraiser, as a Hive sessional worker and running AMAT’s Alive & Singing Choir. Cat is very passionate about Homelessness as an issue and for her this role is vocational.
The fluctuating circumstances of funding and contracts can also be a big change. We were recently and unexpectedly told that AMAT wouldn’t retain Medway’s Floating Support contract, as the local authority has decided to facilitate the support in-house. However we were pleased with the great feedback we had from Medway local authority regarding our management of the contract and the support we delivered to the clients. We look forward to any upcoming opportunities to work with the Medway Council again.
A silver lining to this change, is that we are thrilled our AMAT staff member of the year Hattie, will be staying with us and that a new role has been created for her. In other good news, we also have a new partnership with The Forward Trust. We look forward to welcoming them into the 411 Hive In April.
Change is a fact of life – whilst it can be unexpected and at times scary. I believe that embracing change and finding the opportunities and learning points is the way forward.
