What Being Values-led Means to Us

What Our Values Mean To Us and How We Work With You

The whole team at Connection Support have recently been on a journey to review and refresh our mission, vision and values; to remind ourselves why we do what we do, the direction we are taking as an organisation, and who we’re going to be along the way.

Connection Support Mission

Our team of staff members and volunteers work alongside people to overcome life’s challenges. Why? To work towards our ultimate goal of solving homelessness and achieving independence.

We recognise that every human being encounters challenges in life and we’re here to support anyone who finds themselves in a time of difficulty, either through directly offering our support, or helping them to find the right support elsewhere.

Solving Homelessness

We are aware that for people to aim to reach their goals in life the best starting point is from a safe, secure and appropriate base. For each person to have the right type of accommodation for them is key to overcoming the other challenges they experience in life. Homelessness, and potential homelessness, exists in many forms, including rough sleeping; sofa surfing; temporary, insecure or unsafe accommodation and displacement across the globe. Our intention is to work alongside people to find or maintain the right accommodation for them believing that everyone deserves to have a place that they can call home.

To do this more effectively we’re increasing the number of bed spaces we provide for people experiencing homelessness and working with our partners to make sure the right types of accommodation are available for people when they need them.

Achieving Independence

We believe that everyone deserves to live the life they desire to and we’re here to work alongside people to help them to live as independently as possible. For some people, this will be something quick to help them get their life back on track, for others they may never be able to be completely independent but we’ll be there to help them to develop the skills to do as much as they can for themselves.

Our goal is to continue to increase the reach of our support so that anyone who needs help can find it with us or through us, and we’re committed to constantly improving and enhancing our support and advice.

What We Value

Our values are important as they describe who we are on our journey to achieve our mission. Values should not just be static words posted on the noticeboard, but they should inform every interaction we have and align with the very way we live our lives. We recognise that for us to be most effective our personal values as staff members and volunteers should complement the Connection Support values so that we’re all working in the same way toward the same goal.

Our values are not just how we work alongside our clients, but how we work with one another, our partners and our stakeholders.

Our four values are:

1. Empowering – we enable people to find their strengths and develop resilience

We seek to support everyone we meet to live as independently as possible and to gain the tools they need to sustain this independence without our input.

What does this mean to you and us?

With our clients – we listen to their ambitions in life and help them to find the skills and community to live their best lives.

Within our team – we use our lived and learned experience to support one another to perform our roles as well as we possibly can.

With others – we seek to share what we have learned to contribute to improvements across the whole sector.

2. Collaborative – we involve, challenge and advocate

We know that the work we do isn’t in a bubble and there are multitudes of people who are passionate about working alongside people to overcome life’s challenges across our communities. We recognise the skills and strengths that other organisations hold and we seek to work in partnership with anyone who is willing to collaborate with us to more effectively support our clients.

What does this mean to you and us?

With our clients – help them to build a community around themselves, connect them with other relevant support services, help them to receive the best options that are available to them through our professional relationships.

Within our team – we support our colleagues and go out of our way for the benefit of others across the organisation. Share our time, energy and knowledge where it is needed.

With others – be present in the communities we work in, put our hand up to help where there is a need, noticing when things aren’t as great as they could be and inspiring ourselves and others to do the best they possibly can.

3. Compassionate – we connect with people and don’t give up

We do this kind of work because we care passionately about each person we have the privilege to support. We recognise that for some people our work alongside them may be quick and easy, but for others it may be more tricky, take longer, and not work the first time. Regardless of this, we will never give up on anyone, no one will be barred from our services for life, and we’ll keep going for as long as it takes. We are for social justice, see strength in diversity and are committed to tackling inequality and discrimination. We believe every human being is a valuable member of our society and should be treated as such. We’ll go out of our way to find and connect with people who are marginalised and show them the compassion they deserve.

What does this mean to you and us?

With our clients – we’ll work tirelessly to help them achieve the results they desire, if things don’t work the first time we don’t give up on them. We’ll never consider anyone as not deserving of our support.

Within our team – we recognise that everyone is from a different background and there is beauty in our uniqueness, our teams are a place where everyone is equally welcome and valued. We will go above and beyond to make everyone feel part of it.

With others – we’ll do all we can to make sure the communities we support are valued and appreciated. Inspire others to uphold the same high standards we do for valuing and caring for everyone in society.

4. Personalised – we believe in finding creative, individual solutions with everybody

We recognise that every person is unique, their experience and situation is equally unique. We will tailor our work to recognise this, no support will ever be ‘off the shelf’ it will take into account each person and be co-created with them to ensure we take into account every factor affecting them.

What does this mean to you and us?

With our clients – we work passionately and creatively to find the right solution for each of them, our support will always be bespoke and we’ll make sure they’re in control every step of the way. We recognise it’s their life and their opinion matters most. Our clients’ feedback will not only affect the support they receive but also how we work as an organisation.

Within our team – we recognise that each of us is different and brings something special to offer. We value the input each person brings and support each other to become the best version of themselves. It also means being constantly open to doing things differently, finding new solutions and sharing these with one another.

With others – remind everyone we work with of the uniqueness of our clients and it means promoting and exploring new ways of working with our partners, funders and commissioners to achieve even greater results.

We are all excited to be on this journey towards our mission and look forward to you joining us along the way!