On Thursday, 26 June, over 130 TLC staff members attended our annual staff conference at Stretford Public Hall in Manchester.

It was a day to celebrate the progress we’ve made over the past year and acknowledge the unique contributions of each TLC department to our collective mission. Our theme was ‘An Inside Look’, and we particularly focused on the behind-the-scenes work that goes into running our charity.

Stories were shared, prizes were won, and new members were welcomed into the TLC family. We revealed earlier this year that Relate Bradford & Leeds would become a subsidiary of TLC. The former Relate centre (Let’s Talk Relationships) now sits under the TLC Group, and we were grateful to hear how excited team members Tamara Hoyton and Kelly Robinson are for the next steps in our collaboration.

Now You’re Talking Managing Director Helen Stuart reflected on a year of our commercial counselling subsidiary and announced some exciting new developments including an innovative approach to employee assistance programmes for businesses. Helen affirmed that Now You’re Talking is onboarding new counsellors each week and continuously ideating new approaches to mental wellbeing support.

We took a look at how our three service departments (Therapeutic Wellbeing, Domestic Abuse, Family Mediation) made a big impact this year via presentations, videos, and audio case studies. We also acknowledged the vital contributions of our business and administration departments and enabled Operations, Development, Marketing & Communications, and our People departments to set up stalls around the room and build connections with staff to assist with strengthening our internal relationships and understanding.

It’s important at events like this to reflect on why we do what we do in the first place. Our organisation is full of compassionate people who really just want to support others and see communities prosper, so it was heart-warming to hear why some of our staff chose to work at TLC.

I, myself, have a deeply personal connection to TLC’s mission. It felt empowering to again share my story of self, our story of us, and the story of now, with a room full of people who are just as passionate about nurturing connections and circles of support.

It brought me joy to witness people from all different parts of our charity come together to chat, laugh, and collectively celebrate TLC’s progress and achievements. We’re all looking forward to what the next year brings.

A special mention to the team of BNY volunteers who facilitated such a successful day for our hand-working staff group. Their contributions kept everything running smoothly and kept set-up and pack-down a breeze. Thank you!

CEO Michelle Hill