Social Enterprise

Social Impact 2021

January 11, 2022

1001

Citizen Coaching Social Impact Report 2021

2022 is our seventeenth year of delivering timely, no-cost and jargon free counselling and coaching in Birmingham. In 2021 we responded to the challenges of the COVID pandemic by giving clients the flexibility to attend sessions by telephone, via Zoom or face to face.

This brief summary gives you the headline details of just some of the things we achieved in 2021.

“I want to thank all our clients, team and volunteers for the extra effort, commitment and tenacity during these challenging times. In 2022 we will continue to adapt, be flexible and respond to the challenges in these ever changing times.”

Martin Hogg, CEO

In 2020-21 our core staff of five team members, fifty-two sessional counsellors and ten volunteers will deliver 21,260 counselling sessions to 4532 adults and young people in Birmingham. This work enabled people to get the valuable support they needed to help them through difficult times. Our service came under increasing demand following the COVID-19 situation.

Our counsellors moved to online working, enabling clients to continue with their sessions.

We were able to resume face to face sessions from Summer.

After the first lockdown we saw a 40% increase in referrals. Many clients cited isolation, loneliness and COVID fear/ health anxieties as the presenting issues. We have worked with more complex cases and provided a greater number of sessions per client (an average of 2 sessions more)

Our customer relationship management system allows us to track client engagement, progress and impact;

82% of clients reported better relationships with friends, family and work colleagues

87% reported increased well-being and felt life was better and more satisfying

78% of clients moved to recovery, as defined by NHS measures.

85% of clients felt more able to attend work, training or study leading to a brighter future

87% of anger management clients reported a noticeable or significant positive change even six months after the intervention.

Just some of the feedback we received.

“My experience with Vanessa was positive. She was friendly, patient and accommodating to my meeds each week. She enabled me the time to work through my worries within our session which assisted me in resolving and moving forward. Vanessa gave me many resources to use which allowed me the opportunity to work through my anxieties”

Ellie- Birmingham

“I am really happy with the service and therapy offered to me. I have been taught lots of invaluable skills that I have enabled me to get on top of my mental health and feel hopeful again. My therapist has been calm and comforting, never pushing me to do anything I didn’t want to and always explaining why something could be helpful.”

Omar- Birmingham

And when we don’t get it right first time, we look to quickly resolve the issues and learn from our mistakes

“I guess I just didn’t hit it off with my counsellor. I thought about just giving up but decided to call up and give my feedback. Ed at the office listened to me and without any interrogation or drama he saw that I was moved to another counsellor and I started to see her the same week”

Jerry- Birmingham

We continue to share our experiences with our fellow social entrepreneurs

“Thank you for joining us to lead the training today, your contribution is always so inspiring – so much so that we had a number of questions after you left and lots of feedback at the end as to how useful your input and experience was, so thanks again. And I’m amazed (although not surprised) at the size Citizen Coaching has scaled to!

Lizzie- I-SE

And Independent Evaluation of our Professional Development Training for the BACP

In 2021 we became partner sponsors of Birmingham Pride, providing information and support over the three days of this major LGBT!+ event in September 2021