Danny Champion Of The World

Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it

Magic is something we are never short of at C-Change, every single day brings small and large dollops of it: some of them look beautifully ordinary from the outside and some quite literally take your breath away. The magic, of course, is the people: people we work for, people we work alongside, friends, family members, colleagues and connections made within our communities.    

Keeping people at the centre of everything we do is our abiding aim. Person-centred planning is an easy phrase to trip out, however, how do we really ensure that we take it to the heart of everything we do?  

Taking time and space to recognise and hold a person’s life at the centre is a marvellous, humbling and necessary thing.  

It’s a great honour to be invited to sit in a room and celebrate everything that makes a person who they are and our colleagues at C-Change live this sentiment through their work every day. Everyone we work for is offered a person-centred planning meeting, conducted in a way, at a time, in a format that works for them: the venue, the soundtrack, the time of day, who will be in the room are all considered by the person we work for.       

There’s an acknowledgement of what’s gone before, a recognition of what (or who) is part of the story and – importantly – that blue sky thinking. What’s the dream? How can you achieve it and who has a role to play in making it a reality? Better is always possible. Accountability is key, everyone in the room knows they will be expected to make good on any actions and deliver what they say they will – each person commits to their piece of the action plan/ planning process.   

We continue to have high aspirations for each other. We worked with Mike, a skilled film director, to use our social media reach to help recruit actors for a film project he wanted to complete. Graham enjoyed a fantastic trip to Spain with some specific planning around access and the things he wanted to be able to do as a wheelchair user. Emma has a rewarding and satisfying job in a local charity shop, and the list goes on.    

We all ask the question: what does living your best life look like for you and how do we make that happen? The answer will be different for every person.  

Our colleagues not only strive for the best for the people they work for, they fight hard to ensure that their work is recognised and valued externally by feeding into local and national campaigns such as Rethinkto13 and Four Steps to Fair Work. Our colleague Zoe spoke eloquently about the meaningful work she’s involved in and the value the social care sector brings. She helped launch the CCPS campaign for fair wages.  

We continue to use Viva Engage and Office Vibe to share good news, recognise our colleagues and highlight areas for improvement always through the prism: of Is it true? Is it helpful? Is it Kind? Continuous improvement and growing better – not bigger – are the values that drive our work.   

The strength of C-Change will always be its people. We encourage everyone to bring their ‘whole self’ to work, the diversities of opinions, skills and experience remains our biggest asset in this rich and beautiful tapestry. That, and always believing in the power of that extra little bit of magic.