With 2024 marking our 15th Anniversary, this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) had a real celebratory atmosphere. The event took place on Sunday 13th October at Stonehouse Court Community Centre. We welcomed new and long-standing families to reflect on the last 15 years and to talk about what the future holds. The children were entertained with a silent disco, craft table and a sensory room. Thank you to the 16 families, trustees, volunteers and staff members who joined us for the afternoon.
One member, Jo Bell, kindly shared some memories of when she first came to Allsorts, when her son was a baby.
I had John in a pushchair, and I nervously wheeled him round the corner of the hall. Clare said: ‘Of course you’re supposed to be here!’ and I immediately felt at home
We chatted to Jo Bell recently in our podcast series, Allsorts of Conversations, where Jo joined us to talk about her journey with Allsorts. Click here to hear more about Jo’s story.
During the meeting our Head of Development talked about the remarkable progress we’ve made since we were founded in 2009. Allsorts has expanded services and staff team, hit record numbers of families and people attending activities, launched a trading arm and offered countless projects for a wide range of children, young people and parent carers.
Rosa said “We’ve learnt so much as a team and will continue to learn and develop alongside members but there is still so much more to be done.
“Hundreds, if not thousands of families in Gloucestershire are looking for a place where they belong, where they are celebrated for who they are and can have their needs met. Our new strategy aims to help close the gap and provide even more for more families in a strategic and sustainable way.
“6 months into our new strategy we have already progressed things well – and equally found some elements challenging. With many charities struggling financially there’s increased demand for private and public funding. For us, this means closely monitoring income and balancing our provision accordingly.”
New Home Initiative
- We’ve been gathering information, consulting with professionals, and preparing a comprehensive business case along with budget projections to support this initiative. Although we don’t plan to go public with details anytime soon, we will keep members updated on our progress.
- Our primary challenge is balancing the demands of our existing fundraising efforts and core programs alongside this new project.
Expanding Opportunities to Connect
- We recently welcomed Kate Rodman as our Head of Families. She has introduced a new initiative called ‘Caring Calls,’ aimed at connecting with new members and helping them overcome potential barriers.
- We’ve also launched a new outreach project, ‘Allsorts Pop-Ups,’ to reach members outside of Stroud. The long-term goal is to embed support groups into communities that can continue independently once funding for Pop-Ups ends.
- Our Parent Carer Workshops are now underway and have been received positively.
- If funding permits, we would love to establish a befriending service to help newer members connect with more experienced ones.
- Staffing and logistical challenges, such as transporting items across the county, are some of the hurdles we face.
Breaking Down Barriers
- This is a major focus of our member survey, which aims to identify the key challenges so we can allocate resources and expertise to address them.
- We’re working on providing more tailored activities for small groups of members.
- To increase accessibility, we are creating short video clips of each activity for our website.
- We have scheduled team training on Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), and a review of our communication resources is also underway.
- We’re exploring ways to improve the booking process for high-demand activities.
- Challenges include addressing the evolving needs of our members and collecting feedback – our member survey has seen a decline in engagement. Many barriers relate to accessible venues, which we are unable to address unless we have our own venue.
Staying Flexible to Meet Changing Needs
- We have added new members to our fundraising and digital teams, which is helping to drive progress in both areas.
- We’re focusing on increasing YuGo business to generate additional income.
- Challenges include the increasing difficulty of fundraising and a growing membership base. It’s hard to attract funding without a major new vision or announcement to share with potential funders.
Our Fundraising Manager, Rachael also gave an update on fundraising challenges and appealed to members to support in any way they can.
“We rely on grants, trusts, and donations to fund our programme of activities and support groups. This year our target is £583,000 and with only a small fundraising team, we need lots of support to reach it. There’s lots of ways to get involved from promoting events to donating unwanted Christmas gifts. Every little action helps make a big difference!”
Ways to get involved :
- Volunteer your time with us – direct to website for details
- Promote our events, or put up a poster – e-news, website, social media for details
- Share and comment our appeals and fundraising events on social media
- Host a donation barrel at your workplace or ask a local pub, shop you regular visit if they would like to support us.
- Spread the word—talk about Allsorts with friends, family, and colleagues
- Google review -help improve out rating but giving us a great google review.
- Christmas approaching -any unwanted gifts, please send them to us for raffle/tombola prizes.
- And if you can, ask your employer about:
- A give-as-you-earn scheme
- Partnering with Allsorts as their “charity of the year”
- Or, whether they offer a funded “make-a-difference” volunteer day
- Team building day – take part in a local event inflatable 5km Cheltenham, Stroud Half Marathon, Tough Mudder
If you would like to chat to the team about any of the suggestions above or anything else, then please do get in touch.
Here’s to many more years of fun and accessible experiences for everyone!