Our values
Our core principle at Together is Service User Leadership.
This means people who use our services are empowered to make choices that affect their lives, lead their journey to wellbeing on their own terms and to collectively influence and improve services, organisations and society.
In order to support us to work in a way that demonstrates our commitment to service user leadership, we have five core organisational values and a value statement that underpin all that we do at Together.
Our values
We have 5 core values at Together: collaboration, choice, integrity, resilience and continuous improvement.
Collaboration: achieving together
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We work with communities, advocating and increasing awareness of the interests that matter most to service users.
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We utilise the knowledge, skills and experience of everybody to achieve the best outcomes.
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We create meaningful internal and external connections to ensure everyone can access the support they require.
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We actively raise awareness of mental wellbeing and the benefits of service user leadership, supporting people to participate in local society.
If you have any concerns, they are quick to listen and will act accordingly. On a more personal note, they have helped me in my recovery by getting me connected with local services.
Choice: through involvement
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We champion knowledge gained through lived experience and embrace the positive impact this brings on creating options and supporting choice.
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We work with compassion, respect and creativity to encourage people to solve problems and find solutions.
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We listen and empathise to understand the issues that matter to people, in order to support their choices and aspirations.
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We are responsive and empowering, focusing on what can be achieved.
I am very grateful to all at Together’s Elva Court Accommodation Service for investing in me, and seeing my strengths and skills over and above my diagnosis and my history.
Integrity: doing what we say
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We create trusting relationships and environments by considering the whole person, individual situations and not over-promising.
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We are fair, reliable, open-minded, punctual and agree realistic expectations, which we are trusted to deliver.
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We ensure that we always say what we mean.
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We communicate with consistency and clarity.
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We are committed to making decisions transparently.
What is more, she treats me as a person. Not a basket case, not a problem, not a diagnosis. I don’t want pity, I want guidance and respect. She offers that in spades, and always does it smiling. She is the only person who feels on my side, and she gives me hope and confidence. Furthermore she is dedicated and reliable.
Resilience: never giving up on people
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We care passionately about empowering people to use their knowledge and experiences to lead their journeys to better wellbeing.
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We use flexible and innovative approaches to achieve goals.
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We are brave and resolute when facing challenges.
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We don’t let people’s future be defined by their past.
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We are passionate about everyone’s access to better wellbeing and hold the hope for a better future.
I would like to thank you for the effort you've put in over the last 18 months. I'm very grateful for how you've pushed me to be better and I've been nicely surprised at how much I've engaged with your help. I feel like a very different person now and it's because of Together.
Continuous improvement: Learning and evolving
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We are curious and deeply inquisitive about people and our work.
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We consider the whole-person and recognise that genuine interest in each person enables us to support people with their aspirations.
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We create a safe environment for people to be who they want to be.
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We are conscious of our actions, decisions, and their impact.
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We actively seek and learn from feedback and make changes to deliver the best we can.
They are very patient and caring and the management is excellent, full of ideas. From shopping markets or jewellers, to going out for drives and walks in the woods, from computer literacy and Russian lessons, to learning the guitar and violin. Cooking, gardening, DIY and making the garden look beautiful.
In addition, Together have developed a set of service user leadership principles that complement our core organisational values. The principles were developed by those with lived experience of mental distress and represent what individuals feel is most important when working alongside people accessing services. To find out more about service user leadership at Together and the principles visit our Find out more about Service User Leadership page
