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Happy 40th Choice Support
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As Choice Support celebrates our 40th anniversary, CEO Sarah Maguire looks back on our pursuit of happiness and independence for all.
I don’t usually struggle with words and things to say, but how do I talk about 40 years of Choice Support? I have been with the organisation for 31 of its 40 years. We have literally grown up together. Those years have been filled with change, growth, challenge, friendships and lots of love.
We have achieved some amazing things and come so far from those days when people arrived from Darenth Park, Leybourne Grange, Goldie Leigh and Grove Park Hospitals. Often with all their possessions in a black bin liner. For those people leaving communities behind to start a new life must now seem like a lifetime ago. We didn’t have the experience, resources or technology back then that we have today, but we did have many dedicated staff (and those that have joined us over the past 40 years).
Our staff are what makes Choice Support what it is today – an organisation that cares deeply about the people it supports and wants to make sure they have a voice. Back in 1984 we were not sure how people would be able to influence support, but by 2008 we began to work this out with the advent of Quality Checkers and the Our Rights Group. I remember being on a train, pulling into Shrewsbury (where I live) late one evening, and getting a call to say that we had won the Experts by Experience contract with Care Quality Commission (CQC). We knew that this was our opportunity to make sure that the voices of people with lived experience would be heard.
Choice Support is a wonderful and unique organisation that is not afraid to try new things (even when they don’t always work). Our pursuit of happiness for all is something to be commended and not taken for granted. Happy birthday Choice Support – you have been an important part of my life and will hold a special place in my heart forever.