Today we celebrate a significant milestone in our history with the official opening of our location, Mitchell House on Town Road in Hanley.
The building was formally opened today with a ribbon-cutting ceremony by our Lord Mayor, Councillor Steve Watkins. Which was attended by staff, volunteers, our board of trustees, and other guests and partners who had made the move possible.
The move to Mitchell House has been to bring all the CASNS teams, previously operating from separate locations, under one roof. This move is designed to ensure an increased level of collaboration, streamline our services, and most importantly, deliver an easier and more complete experience for all clients.
The official opening ceremony featured a traditional ribbon-cutting, followed by speeches from the Lord Mayor and Craig Browne, CEO. Concluding then with a lunch, and tours of the new space for the guests.
The following statement taken from Craig Browne’s speech perfectly encapsulates both the importance and necessity of the move.
“Three years ago, we supported 21,000 unique clients, many of them residents of North Staffordshire. Two years ago, we helped 27,000 people; last year that number went up to 33,000 which represents an increase of almost 60% over just three years. So, demand for what we do and the service we provide is growing and it is likely to continue
to do so.
To meet this growing challenge, we are going to need to be flexible, to be responsive, and to be innovative in how we work together and how we respond to those we seek to serve. We also need space to grow and space to develop as an organisation, which is something we now have.
So, in many ways our new home is a statement, not just about who we are, what we do and who we want to help, but also who we are going to be, what we are going to do and how we are going to help people in future. Yes, we are a charity, but we are also professional in outlook and an organisation that members of the public as well as our
partners can continue to have trust and confidence in.”
As a final note we wanted to thank all our staff, partners, volunteers and our board of trustees who all have come together and worked incredibly hard to ensure that this move is a great success.
We can’t wait to welcome you all to our new building.