Investors!
by Tim Parkinson

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In the last 3 years it has been a great privilege to be part of Caring For Life. We have seen many encouragements, including new buildings, many more new people coming into our care many of which have shown interest in our Lord and Saviour, new staff and the fruition of a long talked of dream in the opening of a café on site at Crag House Farm.

With all these exciting things happening, time has soon come and gone and our Investors in People accreditation needed to be renewed by the end of March.

So on 30th and 31st March Grant, the assessor assigned to us by Yorkshire & Humberside Assessment Ltd. who also undertook our last review, came to speak to a total of 24+ people, including staff, volunteers and recipients of our care.

It might at this point be worth explaining why we originally looked into getting the Investors accreditation.

As a Christian organisation we believe it is paramount that we seek to honour Christ in all ways that we can. This does not just mean that we look to Share Jesus love with the recipients of our care, and also any who come into contact with CFL, whether it be through the Granary café, or even a delivery man. We believe this also means God should be honoured in the way in which we conduct our managing staff and volunteers also.

Whilst every effort was made, prior to our first review, to ensure that support, opportunities to receive training were made to our staff and that our Christian goals and objectives were understood and being worked towards, it was felt that an independent body coming and looking at our working practices would only build and benefit us greatly.

The process of receiving the accreditation is fairly straightforward, however you are not guaranteed to achieve it. An independent person, Grant in our case, will come and speak with a cross section of people involved in the organisation, providing the assessor to ask appropriate questions to see how the things work. In order to receive the accreditation a total of about 120 indicators, that the assessor is aware of, need to be met. After speaking with all the relevant people, a decision is made and the organisation will either receive the accreditation or not.

We are so pleased to say that following Grants findings, even with the growth, and the changes that have taken place over the last 3 years, we passed with flying colours.

Some suggestions have been made which we will look at, and this will only strengthen and build on an already good working practice at Caring For Life.

As already mentioned we believe it is key that we seek to honour Christ in all ways through the work of Caring For Life. Our ultimate goal is not to receive awards, accreditations and praise, but that through all that we do we see God glorified.

So as we celebrate in receiving the Investors accreditation, we must remember that God is the one who is our role model. That we are seeking to find the mind of Christ in how he loves, cares, has compassion and protects. That is exactly how we as an organisation aim to care for those entrusted to our care, but also those who seek to serve Christ here as a staff member or volunteer.