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In 2016 Different Strokes were delighted to be one of only 265 charities nationally to receive a grant from the Cabinet Office’s Local Sustainability Fund. We are using the funding to improve the way we work and to forward plan, making us stronger and more resilient.

We have been meeting with our support & exercise groups at Regional Meetings, to talk about exciting developments and changes for Different Strokes and the Sustainability Fund Project. Feedback from groups following on from the meetings we have held in Sheffield, Birmingham, Southampton and Glasgow has been they have valued the opportunity to meet with other groups and with head office for sharing information, and how other groups operate. There are also lots of ideas as to how we can improve things for the future not only through holding regional meetings, but also with the development of information that we provide to groups too. This is something we will be taking forward for the future.

At the end of last year we sent out a survey to all of our beneficiaries and we had 376 responses ; thank you to those of you who participated on this. The feedback we received is that people really value the information we provide, as well as the peer and emotional support either through groups, facebook, social media, or the website. The information and support Different Strokes offers means that working age and younger stroke survivors feel more connected, and informed about what is available to them. What people seem to want is more of what we are already doing which is great – we now need to find a way to make that happen and look forward to sharing with you how we plan to do this for the future.