As you might expect, a great deal has changed during the last two decades and the Society is in some ways unrecognisable from the organisation I joined in 2001. Over the last few years, we have been building on the core relief of poverty work we have been carrying out since our beginnings in 1850.
Earlier this year I was lucky enough to celebrate 20 years working at ABS and it has been a genuine honour and privilege to spend so long working alongside such a wonderful team of staff, trustees and volunteers.
As you might expect, a great deal has changed during the last two decades and the Society is in some ways unrecognisable from the organisation I joined in 2001. Over the last few years, we have been building on the core relief of poverty work we have been carrying out since our beginnings in 1850. We introduced our partnership with Anxiety UK back in 2017 and this relationship has gone from strength to strength, it is now hard to imagine a time when we were not working alongside this amazing charity which enables us to offer mental health and wellbeing support to many of our beneficiaries.
Since that time we have also partnered with Shelter, who need no introduction and allow us to offer specialist, high quality housing advice to those who need it. We have been working alongside the RIBA to run wellbeing workshops all over the UK and continue to collaborate closely with the other architectural membership bodies, including our friends at CIAT and the Landscape Institute.
The increasing ways in which we can help was never more timely than during the last 18 months, with people turning to us for support with all sorts of difficulties, including mental health and wellbeing, redundancy and a whole range of other financial challenges that all too frequently left them staring over the precipice. The ABS welfare team, as well as rest of the team, all of whom have been working at home throughout this time in continuing to support individuals and families in need, deserve a huge thanks and I hope you will read on to see what they have been up to.
Yours Sincerely
Rob Ball (Chief Executive)