On Saturday 5th December, our Head of Petrus Sonia Denham celebrates 15 years working at our charity. Read below as she reflects upon her time:
"Looking back over the past 15 years, it’s hard to believe the vast change, and I’d say that we’re virtually unrecognisable as the same organisation… other than our remaining huge beating, driven and passionate heart.
I started working at Petrus on 5th December 2005, shadowing Edmund Clout, who is currently the Service Manager at our Hub. The room smelled awful; for those who have been around long enough, it was the old musty smoky hostel smell, which over the years I grew to love but which thankfully doesn’t exist in our projects today.
Edmund was serving up the biggest pan of offal I’ve ever seen to a room of men I couldn’t see for smoke. My shift patterns, I was informed were that I would arrive at 9am on Friday morning and leave the building at 5pm on Sunday, and there, every third weekend, I lived. Within two minutes, I had decided I’d be looking for another job.
But as I write this 15 years later, I’m really glad I didn’t.
There are some astounding differences as I look back over the years: funding was plentiful, support was its own version of bespoke but in comparison was quite restricted, pathways were limited and our customer profile was nowhere near as diverse, or at least not recognised as.
Some have been subtle changes as we’ve moved with the times, some have been colossal mountains of change… I, along with many others have remained committed to Petrus through the decommissioning of services, the design and recommissioning of services, through the previous Head of Petrus, Denis, moving on to pastures new after 40 years and more recently through us becoming a subsidiary of the Regenda Group.
We’ve won awards over the years - Investors in People Gold awards, awards for Diversity and Inclusion, The People’s Choice award at Tatton Flower Show. Each of these are significant and to be celebrated, but the real achievements for our teams are when a person we work with gets their keys for a place they’re going to call home, when somebody receives a letter from the child they no longer see, when somebody has abstained from that one extra drink, when somebody who comes for breakfast and doesn’t usually speak finally opens up a conversation, indicating growing trust.
The word “Petrus” means rock and ultimately despite the vast changes we’ve experienced, we know that we don’t know better because of our employment status, our past experiences or the funding we have, but we do know that we are able to provide that rock to lean on, that place of safety and harness each person we work with to realise their full potential, whatever that might be.
Petrus – I just want to say thank you for having me, it's an absolute honour to lead such a wonderful organisation and to be able to challenge social stigma and empower positive change."