CSASS AGM 2019: A round-up

On June 11, 2019, CSASS members, volunteers, trustees, staff, and supporters all gathered in the fantastic venue; The Church, Chester, to take a look at the progress we’ve had in the last year.

Before kicking off the official AGM, we were entertained by Manchester-based, American comedian Kate McCabe, who had us all in hysterics with jokes about using the toilets at festivals, Donald Trump, and British guys called Gary (the irony being that the one male in the audience is actually called Gary).

As Kate had very kindly squeezed us in between gigs, she rushed off to the next one (in Leeds!) while we got down to business…

• We have offered 1137 face to face sessions to 98 people– 10% of whom were men.
• The offered sessions are an increase of 22% on the previous year.
• We have answered 310 calls to the support line, up from 250 in the previous year

This has been a year of growth and change for CSASS. In the autumn of 2018, we restructured the staff group in order to meet the needs of the organisation. We appointed 2 new members of staff, Kaety as Outreach Manager and Rhiannon as Office manager, and Suzanne, as Core services manager has continued her sterling work of recruiting training and organising volunteers to deliver counselling and run the support line.

We have had also changes on the Board; we said goodbye to Kate and Clare, but we welcomed Teresa, Cathy and Rachel. We also extended a warm welcome to Liz, Jenny and Kaisu who are all new to the Board.

We appreciate all the support and hard work that has been offered this past year from volunteers, staff and trustees, both past and present. Without your dedication to the cause, we would not have been able to expand and reach more survivors.

And, last but not least, as our wonderful Chair, Di, stepped down from her role, she left us with these wonderful words of encouragement…

“As I step down as Chair I have reflected on the progress CSASS has made. When I joined 8 years ago, CSASS had no premises and relied wholly on volunteers, and were able to provide a small service. There have been many challenges on the way but we have grown in size, reputation, and professionalism. I am very proud of the achievements we have made and the dedication and effort that so many of you- and others before you, have contributed to enable to report today on a really effective organisation able to provide services to so many more people.”

If you would like to see the full presentation from the meeting you can download it here…

If you are interested in becoming a member of CSASS and supporting events and activities for survivors, or would like to have your say at the next AGM, please email info@csass.org.uk for information.