KASBAH was founded back in 1966 by a group of parents who wanted support and guidance to get the best possible outcomes for their children with Spina Bifida and/or Hydrocephalus and have grown to offer skills, knowledge, and resources to any disabled person and their Carer and/or family across Kent. KASBAH have been shortlisted for the UK Employer of the Year: Gold award.
Why did you enter the Awards?
KASBAH did not actually enter the awards we were nominated so thought it only fitting with such a prestigious recognition that we completed the process and entered this year’s submission. KASBAH is very fortunate to have been nominated in 2019 in the Silver Category, so we already know how much receiving external recognition means to the team and our charity friends and supporters. KASBAH is a great organisation to work for and to receive services from. Everyone at KASBAH are very proud to be in this position again, it is a fabulous feeling.
What was the key point of your entry?
KASBAH operates as a team in all aspects of service delivery not only with our staff but with our service users too. KASBAH is a Kent-wide charity which supports people with disabilities with a range of person-centred support services; from information, advice and guidance to specialist supported living to our newest addition; a large working farm providing both work-related and life skills training and development.
As a team we agreed the farm is our greatest achievement in the last year and the trust and faith the staff have shown from the existing service to move over to KASBAH with only a few days to get to know us was phenomenal. The farm team took on every aspect of KASBAH’s core values as they value them personally; promoting independence, personal choice, empowerment and positive behaviour support (let’s look at ourselves and the environment and adapt). So this was the basis of our submission, a service in a real state of uncertainty took a leap of faith based on the ethos KASBAH sold during the transition and neither our new staff and team and KASBAH as a whole has looked back. We complement each other wonderfully, the knowledge the farm staff have in the animal management and core service users works in harmony with the new life skills KASBAH brought in and the way we put the decision making in the service users and staff team’s hands is a really effective partnership.
We now encourage every aspect of the organisation from office staff to individual sites to be a part of this great provision, it is very different but in essence the same; we work together to ensure our service users develop their skills in a fun way and Princess Christian’s Farm is an amazing setting to work in.
What would it mean to you to win?
Winning this category would be the cherry on the cake, we have all worked so hard to make the farm our flagship provision and embed our philosophies into every part of the service delivery and development. Wish us the best of luck!!
Our Awards Are Back!
We are so excited to be back hosting The Investors in People Awards 2022 in person. It’s been too long!
Find out about all the other finalists and book your tickets for the evening today!
