Well, what a year we’ve had here at Family First. We have settled in to our new home at The Hope Centre – it’s hard to believe we’ve been here a year already! We’ve said sad goodbyes to: Karen McNeil, Family Coordinator ( but hope to see her back as a volunteer soon!) and two of our longest serving volunteers Ian Crane and Joyce Jarret who have moved on to focus on other volunteering roles and spending time with family. We have welcomed a new Family Coordinator Katie Anderton to the team.
To help keep up with rising demand for our service at a time where finding volunteers is becoming more of a challenge, we have created a new role of Family Worker. We are delighted to welcome Gill Ellis (who was a volunteer with us) into this role and hope to expand to take on further Family Workers in the new year. We have also taken on Annemarie Goode as our Fundraising and Events Coordinator alongside her existing role as a family volunteer. We are looking forward to the many exciting plans she has in place including: a pamper night, family fun event and maybe even a dog show – watch this space for more details.
I would like to send a huge thank you to all the team, especially our volunteers. We’ve seen Family First grow and grow and, this year, we’ve seen the number of families we’ve supported rise to over 250 as well as seeing a whole host of new referrers into our service. We look forward to continuing to grow and support the needs of families in Ipswich.
Happy New Year to all.
Sarah Stapleton – Service Lead.