Looking back, and looking ahead
As we approach the Christmas period, it’s not unusual to reflect on what has taken place over the last twelve months and we at Sycamore Trust are no different. It’s been an eventful year, with some important achievements and some genuine progress for the organisation, but for all of us who work at Sycamore, there was one moment in particular that defined the year for us. Sycamore CEO Cheryl Kearney looked back on her first full year at the helm, and it will come as no surprise to anyone that the defining moment of the year was the loss of our dear friend and colleague, Debbie Gadbury.
“The year has gone really fast – there have been many ups and downs but there was one profound moment which made us all stop and think”, said Cheryl. “We all work hard, and we all want to make a difference but we’re only human and losing Debbie re-inforced that fact. We need to be mindful of ourselves and our colleagues and our service users because life can be cut short quite quickly. Debbie still is a very big part of what the Sycamore Trust stands for and her ethos of caring, supporting and empowering will continue to be a key part of Sycamore moving forward.”
Like many small charities, the funding stream is never far from our collective minds, and although we’ve suffered a couple of disappointments, we’ve also been thrilled to secure some vital funding that has enabled us to continue some very important work.
“We have come an awful long way in twelve months, giving us cause for optimism. The City Bridge Foundation funding which has allowed us to run our youth clubs is so important as we have always offered young people a place to come and feel happy, safe and supported and be authentically themselves”, Cheryl explained.
“Winning the Havering tender to allow us to support all Havering residents has opened a door for us and allowed us to do what we love to do, which is to support a community from birth right through to pension age.”
Apart from the bigger highlights there have also been some slightly less newsworthy moment, although no less important. Cheryl selected her own personal highlight.
She said; “A highlight for me was to see a young man that I first worked with four years ago come in and volunteer, and to watch him develop and grow and feel more confident has been really important to me.”
Cheryl presents Joseph with his Positive Contribution award
Funding is always the key issue and Cheryl expressed her delight that we’d been able to secure some smaller bids that have enabled us to maintain projects like SWAP and the outdoor week but and she’s hoping for good news early in 2025. She said;
“I hope we come back in the new year to some good news from the funding applications that we have in the pipeline, particularly the bid we have outstanding for a new pr-school programme. We know how important early support is in helping children get the best outcomes in life”
Continuing the theme of looking ahead to the new year, Cheryl is hoping that Sycamore Trust can build on the progress we have made this year with various corporate partnerships starting to bear fruit.
“We’ve made great contacts this year, such as c2c, the Elizabeth Line, Career Legal and Havering Works which has enabled us to open a whole new world of being able to deliver some high-quality employment training for adults and get some good work experience opportunities. As well as that I am looking forward to the results of a piece of work we’ve been doing with an economic consultancy firm, Frontier who have been carrying out research and analysis for us so we are able to show a monetary saving to our funders, Local Authority and local NHS trusts. This is important as we want people to start understanding that every £1 they spend with us provides them a greater opportunity to save money in the future and ensure that those individuals living with autism are able to access better services and achieve positive outcomes throughout their lives."
The new year may well see Sycamore’s influence extend to partnerships with other boroughs similar to the one we enjoy with the London Borough of Havering.
She said; “We’ve been invited to do lots of work in other boroughs. I’m part of the Barking & Dagenham Autism and LD partnership board, which is important as we are working on developing an autism and learning disability strategy for the borough. There are also opportunities to work with NHS and NELFT which is key to ensuring that support and care are provided at point of referral for a diagnosis and once diagnosed. We are now more visible across a wider spectrum of organisations and businesses. This has allowed the understanding of who we are and what we do to grow and will allow us to work more collaboratively and in partnership in 2025.2
So, all in all, a challenging twelve months, but we’ve emerged in a relatively strong position. Our team is tighter and more streamlined than before, but a more collaborative approach means we’ve achieved some wonderful outcomes in the last year and we’re working together in a way that we’ve not been able to do in the past. Cheryl certainly believe that the future is bright;
"I think 2025 will be the year that we can start to think about where we’re going, how were going to get there and what we want to achieve. The last 12 months has been about stability, making sure we have everything in place. The new year will be an opportunity to come together and think about who we are, what we do and why it’s important. This is when we really start to look at our long term strategy”
And finally, the traditional Christmas message; “I would like to thank all of the staff, trustees, funders, service users and everyone who has supported the trust over the past 12 months and wish everyone a peaceful Christmas break and a happy 2025”