A Huge Thank You for another terrific year in 2019!

As 2019 draws to a close, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support throughout a year that has been very difficult for the construction industry and a very exciting but challenging one for our Charity.

Mental health has featured heavily, and our charity has been at the forefront of driving momentum to ensure that our industry adopts a positive mental health culture.

Our helpline cards have now been distributed to over 500,000 of our workforce, our Construction Industry Helpline App has been downloaded over 20,000 times and the education project we are managing on behalf of the CITB to train 300 Mental health First Aid Instructors is delivering on time and to budget. We have now trained just over 170 instructors, who in turn have trained over 3,000 Mental Health First Aiders in construction.

As a result of this augmented communication, we have seen an unprecedented number of cases presented to our Helpline for our charitable services. Six years ago, we were supporting around 350 families a year, we are now supporting over 250 families a month!

It goes without saying that this increased level of requests for support requires our charity to work even harder at fundraising. We already know that 2019 will be another record-breaking year for fundraising but we still need predictable income to ensure we can be there for everyone that calls on us in a crisis. This means we need more company supporters who can pledge an annual donation to give us predictable and sustainable income, so if you’d like more information please get in touch.

One of the big developments in our helpline process has been the introduction of professional caseworkers. They work with the applicants to ensure that they receive all the possible support available including working with other organisations. This means that we can continue to support even more cases, but by working smarter we can spend less per case whilst delivering a more holistic and higher quality service. This is a truly exciting time for our charity. We have considerable momentum and now have a portfolio of much needed charitable services that we can deliver to those in crisis in our industry.

Next year we are also launching two new fantastic physical challenges: a 210-mile bike ride in Ireland and a 48-hour Four Peaks Challenge starting in Scotland and ending in Ireland. This is teambuilding and lifetime bonding at its best, so if you’re up for the challenge whilst raising much-needed funds for our charity then now is the time to get involved!

As always, your invaluable support will ensure that we achieve our mission of ensuring that no worker feels alone in a crisis.

Wishing you all a very safe and Happy Christmas and New Year.

Best wishes on behalf of the Trustees and Staff.

Bill Hill

CEO