Is it too late to say “Happy New Year”? I think it probably is, so instead I will just say “Hi! And welcome to our first newsletter of 2023”.
I tend not to make New Year Resolutions, choosing to believe that if something needs doing, it probably needs doing no matter what the calendar date. To be honest, most of my previous resolutions have not exactly been stellar successes. I’ve probably left it a bit late to become a pirate astronaut (me, aged 10) or a blacksmith (me, aged 40-something). However, I do have some professional aspirations for 2023 you might be interested in. One of these is for us at Surrey Community Action to do our part to alleviate at least some of the cost-of-living pressures facing so many people and organisations at the moment. Fortunately, there are two things we can do – but only with your help.
The first is to take a few minutes out of your day to fill in our cost-of-living survey below. Our last report, all the way back in August of last year, was used by colleagues across Surrey to help plan how statutory bodies and others could respond to pressures facing charities and community groups. I’m confident that refreshing the research will give us new insights into the crisis and its longer-term impact and will again help formulate a response. I’d also be quite curious as to whether the small number of optimistic respondents who expected it all to blow over by Christmas are feeling quite so glass-half-full in the new year. I kinda hope they are – we need a little optimism in the world right now.
The second way you can help is by pointing people who might be interested in working on our Warmth Matters project in our direction. For the last four years, we have supported hundreds of people will energy advice, financial advice, access to emergency funding and a whole host more. Thanks to some amazing support from Surrey County Council we are now looking for two people to help us deliver the Warmth Matter project for another year (hopefully more!). These roles are helping at a very grass roots level and making a significant difference to people’s lives and how they weather the current crisis.
I suspect 2023 is going to be just as challenging in its own way as 2020, 2021 and 2022 were, but I wish you every success for the year ahead and will choose to be a bit optimistic myself: It is going to get better! Probably. Maybe.