WOW, 28 years have flown by, over that time we have tried very hard to make people’s lives somewhat better than they used to be. We have a great team of workers and Trustees who really care about helping and supporting people.
Shropshire PCAS was set up in 1995 for disabled people, by disabled people, who recognised a need for individuals to be supported so that their voices could be heard.
Our longest-serving employee, Simon Arthur, the manager of PCAS, has been with PCAS for over 28 years now. Simon started out as a volunteer, then moved into the manager role. Simon’s job is to ensure PCAS runs smoothly, he supports the staff, works with clients, completes reports for our funders, arranges staff training, keeps all the policies up to date, pays invoices and raises the funds to keep PCAS open – in fact, he does pretty well anything the charity needs doing!
Simon is supported by a great team of advocates, trustees, and volunteers from a wide range of professional backgrounds with an amazing wealth of experience.
Our advocates are the ones that go out into the community day in and day out to support vulnerable, elderly and disabled clients in Telford and Shropshire, we are the only independent advocacy service in the county. Following the pandemic, we have seen an increase in mental health issues with our clients and the way that accessing services has changed from less face-to-face to more digital services, so we are continually supporting our clients to get the support they need to improve their quality of life
In the last 28 years, we have grown from a very small team supporting just 30 people in the first year to nearly 400 in the last year. Although this does not tell the whole story, each client often has multiple issues or needs ongoing long-term support, so we are looking at maybe 500 interventions in a year. We always have a waiting list for our support.
Grant funding is usually time-limited so it is a constant challenge to raise income to maintain our service and the team of workers and we are entirely grateful to a wide range of funders. Starting our 29th year in business we are just grateful for all the ongoing support, especially from the National Lottery Community Fund which has given us a 4-year grant for over £450,000, and The Henry Smith Charity for awarding us a 3-year grant totalling £161,400. These are our biggest funders at present alongside these we have a Nationwide Community Grant that was awarded in April 2022 for £25,000 a year for 2 years, alongside smaller grants and donations that help to make up our yearly need of over £220,000. We still have to raise further funding so we continue to promote what we do, think creatively and look at ways in which we can become more sustainable in the future.
Here’s to the next 28 years!