At CASBA we believe an annual Away Day is essential for all staff to come together away from the office. It is an important opportunity for us to reflect on our work, strengthen relationships, and focus on how we can provide the very best advocacy and support for people with learning disabilities.

Our day-to-day work is often busy and demanding, with teams concentrating on meeting the immediate needs of citizens. An Away Day provides dedicated time to step back from operational pressures and think strategically about the future of the organisation. It allows us to celebrate successes, learn from challenges, and identify new ways of improving the quality, accessibility, and impact of our services.

An Away Day also creates space to review our values, priorities, and goals, ensuring that everyone remains focused on CASBA’s mission of promoting rights, choice, independence, and inclusion for people with learning disabilities. By encouraging innovation and open discussion, we can develop new ideas that help us respond to changing needs and strengthen our services.

Ultimately, the purpose of the Away Day is to make CASBA stronger, more connected, and more effective. The greatest beneficiaries of this investment are the citizens we support, who rely on us to be at our best as advocates, partners, and champions for their rights and aspirations.

CASBA Operations Manager Halema Khan reports on a very special day.

Sunshine, sunflowers, wreath making and plenty of good food! ☀️🌻🥙 Our CASBA Away Day returned to Birmingham Settlement for the second year running, and we had another brilliant day together in one of their Bongo Tents.

Our theme was “Growing Together”, so we got our hands dirty planting sunflowers to represent how we all play a part in helping CASBA grow. We also put our creative skills to the test with a lovely wreath-making session hosted by Eamon from the Wellbeing Centre. Some hidden talents definitely emerged! 🎨

It wasn’t all flowers and falafel though! We also looked at our Culture Survey results, programmes, funding and CASBA’s future. A real highlight was our Staff Appreciation session, where everyone received a special message from a colleague about why they are valued. 💜

Staff said they loved “being all together and outside”, with the appreciation session described as “heartfelt and touching.”

Great food, great weather, lots of laughs and some important conversations too. A lovely day of growing together at CASBA! 🌻💜