Bye Bye 2023…

Jennifer Bird • Feb 9, 2024 • 2 min read

Might be a bit late to do a round up of 2023 but there is a lot going on so bear with… and we’ll follow with that is in store for 2024

A much-appreciated grant to work on our community tech via Power to Change. So far we have worked on reducing our technical debt, our CRM and improving our guidance and documents. We also received a grant from the Co-op Bank to support our strategy events (more news to come).

We also received a donation from The Interpreting Collective. They had closed down their co-op, showing how it is not easy to bring together people to work together collectively for the greater good. We gratefully received donations from the family of a much-loved and respected Deaf user after they had passed away. These funds will go to vital work with the Deaf community and ensuring Deaf members’ voices are integral.

We also had support from Co-ops UK to look at our governance and how to strengthen our Board (necessary) and Catalyst on Web 3 technologies (exciting!).

We took part in the Co-ops UK Hackathon in October 2023 to start work on building community tools. We had a lot of fun! And we have much to do but watch this space as work happens behind the scenes.

We said hello to Hope (January 2023) who started as a Bookings Coordinator and Romy was promoted to Senior Bookings Coordinator (April 2023).

At the AGM, we had Samantha Riddle and Mariella Reina join the Board. Their skills and experience are a welcome addition to take us into the next few years.

In December 2023, we sadly said goodbye to Tina Little from the Board of Directors. She did a huge amount of work for the co-op in being a local voice who is committed to quality of service delivery.

We gained a further 5 NHS contracts in 2023 from the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Framework.

We finished off by doing a round of surveys on fees, a customer service review and gathering case studies. Our social impact is high. We are driven not by a bums-on-seats style of interpreting service but providing quality which ensures Deaf people get the access they deserve and staff and customers get the access they need to safely deliver their services.

We were overwhelmed by the positive feedback from all user groups and you’ll be able to see quotes on our social media channels soon.

To follow… what is in store for 2024!