The future of Stand-by-me is very bright
After 8 years at the Helm Ian Cotterill is standing down as Chair of Trustees. Here, Ian reflects on how the hard work of our amazing volunteers, Staff and Trustees mean that the charity is in good hands for the future.
In 2014 when Stand-by-me was formed, a meeting was held to explain its objectives and what was needed in terms of volunteers and trustees. The next thing I knew, I received received a phone call asking if I would consider being Chair! Why did I say yes? The main reason was that our daughter, Hannah, had died just before her 4th birthday and I knew how difficult it had been for her brother who was 5 at the time to deal with his loss. My wife and I had also volunteered for 10 years at the Child Death Helpline at Great Ormond Street Hospital and we realised how little help was available to children and young people in coming to terms with the loss of a loved one. What have the main challenges been over the last 8 years? The basic clinical model was in place but we had to get Stand-by-me widely known in the community.
This has taken time but we can all be proud that by 2022 Stand-by-me is well known and highly regarded for the help it provides.
This is very largely due to the tremendous commitment of our staff who always go above and beyond their duties, supported by a team of dedicated volunteers. The dedication of Trustees has also been a critical factor – each one has a specific area of responsibility and, as I hand the baton on, I would like to thank them for their enthusiasm and hard work.
The future of Stand-by-me is very bright. We have wonderful support within the community and from organisations such as Children in Need. This has enabled us to steadily widen the range of our activities so we now have developed Contact-me within schools, our Young Ambassadors programme, Uniting Families as well as our core Group Programme for children and young people. We know that there are more youngsters and families who can benefit from our work and I see Stand-by-me progressively widening its support programme as resources permit.
I feel proud to have been a part of the development of a charity which does so much good within our community.
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