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Change , grow , live ’ s executive director of health and social care , Mark Moody , tells DDN about the organisation ’ s change of name and what it signifies
‘ it ’ s much more representative of who we are ,’ says Mark Moody of the name ‘ change , grow , live ’ ( CGL ).
It ’ s coming up to a year since the organisation , which had developed through working with people who accessed it via offender housing or arrest referral schemes , decided to stop calling itself Crime Reduction Initiatives ( CRI ). ‘ The scope of what we do had grown massively beyond that and the old name wasn ’ t representative ,’ he says . ‘ With alcohol services and young people ’ s services particularly , it ’ s quite a low number of people who come to us via a criminal justice route .’
Perhaps surprisingly , the people who most felt a name change was in order were the staff . ‘ Service users would sometimes say they didn ’ t much like it , but if their experience was good they got over it quickly . But we did identify that for some it was a barrier – just one more thing to make them wonder “ do I really want to go to this place ?”’ Everyone refers to it as a rebranding , but for me the name should be what you do . It ’ s just calling it something that makes it more attractive to people who might need us .’
As well as moving away from the original criminal justice focus , ‘ change , grow , live ’ reflects a belief that change is something anyone is capable of . Was this more positive slant in any way a response to the ongoing challenges facing the sector ? ‘ It ’ s more about the way we choose to deliver the services ,’ he says . ‘ All providers have gone through the journey of much more recovery-focused services , with an emphasis on doing things with people rather than to them . I strongly believe that the way we deliver services now is just better than it was ten years ago , even if there was more money in the system then . I think we would be doing things this way regardless of the challenges , financial or otherwise . So it ’ s more about the opportunities .’
Adjusting the
The new identity could be defined as a ‘ pragmatic and realistic positivity ’ for both service users and staff , he says , and it ’ s been well received . ‘ There ’ s been a bit of joshing on social media – I ’ ve heard us called ‘ Eat Pray Love ’ and someone told me we sounded like a charity for disenfranchised horticulturists , but I haven ’ t spoken to anyone who thinks we should have hung on to the old name . We consulted staff , service users , external commissioners , and people really do think it articulates what we do and how we do it .’
So has it led to a renewed sense of focus or energy ? ‘ It ’ s already a very focused and energetic organisation , but I think there was a relief to get past something that had become an unwanted distraction – occasionally we ’ d find ourselves having the whole “ this is why we ’ re called that ” conversation – and it does provide an opportunity to get the message out there to the people who need us . When you do something like this you ’ re kind of forced to put your head over the parapet a bit , so it ’ s probably encouraged us to be more outward looking . Despite the size of the organisation , historically we ’ ve probably been less visible on a national scale than some other organisations . All the emphasis has been on local services , and even now a lot of people accessing our local services won ’ t have a clue who ’ s running them , because they have branding that ’ s relevant to their community .’
So how would he define the organisation ’ s vision and strategy for the coming years ? ‘ I think the most important thing is that we continue to focus on delivering services of the quality that people really require . It ’ s no secret to anyone that there are cuts to funding , but I think if you continue to do things the way you always have , but with less funding , then simple arithmetic tells you that you ’ re going to have a worse service . So it ’ s the importance of really looking at what works and at innovation – investment in technology to allow us to work
‘ Even if someone ’ s presenting problem is substance misuse , living the life they want is about a whole lot of things beyond that .’
more out in communities and so on . Just getting a lot smarter about the way we use resources and stealing some business practices from the private sector but retaining the charitable ethos . It ’ s about being prudent , innovative , looking at different ways to do things .’
Part of this comes from ‘ truly embracing the recovery ethos ’, he states . ‘ For me , running a recovery-oriented organisation is not about being an organisation that just deals with a narrow set of problems , but one that exists to help people get past their immediate challenges and move on to have the kind of life they wanted . We ’ ve never been solely a substance misuse organisation – we ’ ve always done other things , like domestic violence , family services , homelessness . Even if someone ’ s presenting problem is substance misuse , living the life they want is about a whole lot of things beyond that – housing , social connections , jobs , the stuff that makes it possible to be a happy person . Mostly the substance misuse part is a symptom .
‘ So the way we do things would have changed whether there was a change in the funding scenario or not . You learn as you do this work that the way you ’ ve always done it might be OK , but there ’ s always a way to be better .’
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