SIS is celebrating 30 years! Our AGM was a fantastic opportunity for staff, Linguists, Trustees, Service Users and partners to come together.
Over 160 people attended to mark this important milestone as a charity and social enterprise. 18 Interpreters worked in 12 languages so that our beneficiaries were fully involved.
Our fantastic Linguists were at the heart of everything. We were delighted to have Bella Sankey the Leader of Brighton & Hove City Council presenting awards. Before inviting each Linguist to the stage of the Ralli Hall to accept their award Bella shared some powerful observations:
“SIS Linguists help to improve health, connectedness and quality of life. SIS does this every hour of every day and is vital to the wellbeing of our city. It addresses health inequality and supports social inclusion, fairness and dignity.
SIS celebrates inclusivity and multi-culturalism – we can see and hear that today with all the live interpreting in the hall! It has been described by a previous Mayor of Brighton & Hove as The People`s United Nations.
SIS has great Linguists. They are person-centred and work with skill, sensitivity, empathy and professionalism. This helps people feel safe, heard and understood.
I am honoured to be here today to present these awards to SIS Linguists. It is a small token of thanks for all their humanity, professionalism and resilience. They are a source of great inspiration in our city!”
Shahreen & Arran (SIS Directors) spoke about their 30 year collaboration, laying the foundations of SIS, managing its development, navigating the pandemic and arriving at today, where SIS is Investing to Grow
We are a community of compassion. An organisation that changes hearts as well as minds and feels like family to many. A Human Rights organisation that sees every person as a person – their needs, obstacles and resilience – that works with a campaigning spirit.
SIS Chair Aidan Pettitt echoed these thoughts. He quoted Enver Solomon (CEO of the Refugee Council): “Existing government policies will not work. We need a fair and orderly asylum system to support refugee integration.” He added that the latter would echo SIS’s values and be one to which SIS would make a very important contribution.
We heard from Marianna Robinson about her journey as a SIS Linguist. About how she felt SIS had invested in her. Marianna then interpreted for Tamires – a Portuguese speaking Service User – who spoke eloquently about the importance of working with an Interpreter and the real perils when Interpreters are not booked. Her full story will be published soon: https://sussexinterpreting.org.uk/sis-stories/
Jane Lodge our former NHS Lead Commissioner spoke movingly about the importance of our work. We thank her enormously for all her support over many years and wish her luck in her new role.
We played short video messages of support on the amazing screen at Ralli Hall. These included long-standing Interpreters, people who helped SIS in the early days, former Trustees and people who used their experience with us to go onto work in other roles in the community. We will be posting these soon.
We would love to hear from YOU! If you would like to record a short video message wishing SIS a Happy Birthday! in your chosen language, please send it to us here: https://sussexinterpreting.org.uk/videos/
We then used electronic voting handsets to see how people were feeling:
99% people agreed or strongly agreed the AGM was a good opportunity to celebrate SIS success`s
98% agreed / strongly agreed it was a good opportunity to connect with people.
99% of people said they would leave the AGM feeling at least one of; knowledgeable, connected, confident, optimistic.
63% said they felt all of these.
When asked about recommending SIS our Net Promoter Score was 79 which is 5 points higher than 2019 when we were `world class`! https://sussexinterpreting.org.uk/news/sis-net-promoter-score-is-world-class/
We will not rest on our reputation. There is still a lot to be done. Many of our Service Users do not have access to preventative health services, to trauma services, to community services. The lack of legal advice leaves people in limbo and undocumented. Unable to access housing, refuges, family reunion and work. Digital exclusion is increasing health inequality.
If you would like to support us in being even more effective, please consider becoming a SIS Trustee. We are keen to recruit new volunteer trustees. You can find out more here: https://sussexinterpreting.org.uk/recruitment-trustees/
Thank our Chair Aidan Pettitt who is stepping down after 2 years. As Chair and before that Deputy Chair, Aidan has played a pivotal role in steering SIS through the pandemic and to a path of growth. He has patiently worked to ensure Trustee involvement. He has always acted in a very democratic manner that engages all those responsible for governance. We owe him a big debt of gratitude. I am so pleased that he has decided to remain a Trustee.
Thank you to all our brilliant Staff Team, Community Interpreters, Community Translators, Bilingual Advocates, Bilingual Link Workers, Volunteer Linguists, Community Researchers, Bilingual Befrienders and Trustees – you are all amazing!
A very special thank you to John (Office Administrator) and Matt (Digital Manager) for all their tremendous preparation and support on the day – truly exceptional!
Thank you to John and Mathew from Ralli Hall for all the great support
Thank you to Howard Davies for all our photographs www.eye-camera.com
Thank you to https://lunchpositive.org/ for the delicious food
Thank you to https://www.bestfootmusic.net/ and Bashir Al Gamar (with Jamal) and Dina and Polina for the music
Arran – Director
Presentations are available by emailing arran@sussexinterpreting.org.uk
