{"id":202,"date":"2021-12-22T10:37:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T10:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=202"},"modified":"2023-04-20T09:53:06","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T08:53:06","slug":"this-christmas-i-want-to-thank-the-whole-sense-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/blog\/this-christmas-i-want-to-thank-the-whole-sense-family\/","title":{"rendered":"This Christmas, I want to thank the whole Sense family"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"is-style-intro\">This Christmas, our chief executive, Richard, reflects on the past year and celebrates the whole Sense family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I look back on 2021 with a sense of awe \u2013 at what the people we support, together with our staff and volunteers, have faced and overcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Richard Kramer Christmas Message 2021\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/El3071Rmyas?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Only a few weeks ago, at the\u00a0Sense Awards, we celebrated the amazing achievements of people with complex disabilities, and the people that support them and their families. It was an important reminder of just how incredible people can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the most challenging circumstances, we have demonstrated what can be achieved when we all work together. We\u2019ve continued to scale up our support, we\u2019ve reimagined what services can look like. We\u2019ve found new ways to connect differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All these different ways of connecting provided \u2013 and continue to provide \u2013 a lifeline for disabled people. From\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/our-services\/meeting-people__trashed\/go-on-a-sense-holiday\/\">Sense Holidays<\/a>, to our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/our-services\/support-for-adults\/residential-care\/\">residential services<\/a>, to our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/our-services\/support-for-children\/support-for-young-carers-and-siblings\/\">services for siblings of people with complex disabilities<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 we\u2019ve been there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve campaigned for change, and seen over 35,000 people sign&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/get-involved\/campaign\/disabled-people-must-be-part-of-the-covid-19-inquiry\/\">our petition<\/a>&nbsp;demanding that disabled people must be a key part of the public inquiry into Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, like everyone across the country, we are faced with another situation that was not unexpected and a rapidly changing environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The current crisis might seem to present endless challenges, but we haven\u2019t lost sight of the core values that make Sense, Sense. We\u2019ve especially kept our focus on putting people at the centre of our support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our collaborative approach means we can do everything we can to keep our staff and the people we work with as safe and well as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we end the year, I want to take a moment to thank everyone at Sense \u2013 the whole Sense family \u2013 for their hard work, commitment and dedication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I want to thank everyone who has supported us. Everything you\u2019ve done has made a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether you\u2019ve signed our Covid-19 petition, or volunteered to be a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/get-involved\/volunteering-with-sense\/volunteer-as-a-sense-virtual-buddy\/\">Sense Virtual Buddy<\/a>, thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether you\u2019ve donated to support what we do, or whether you\u2019ve bought an item in our shops, you\u2019ve helped make what we do possible. Thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are able to fulfil our responsibilities thanks to the skill, dedication and total professionalism of our staff who have stepped up in all sorts of different ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Together, we will continue to steer Sense through to calmer waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wish you health, happiness and peace this Christmas and in the coming New Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This Christmas, our Chief Executive, Richard, reflects on the past year and celebrates the whole Sense family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"display_author":[79],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","display_author-richard-kramer"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}