“Thanks to hard work and huge commitment we’ve already made a real difference over the years. But it’s the massive potential for doing even greater things that really makes me excited about Keyhouse and its future.”
Graham Mynott, Head of Project
I came to Keyhouse six years ago, fresh from running a Housing Aid Centre in Oldham. I’d first heard of Keyhouse a long time before that, when I was working in Calderdale. My second boss in Calderdale had actually come from Keyhouse, and I think that just shows what a small world we’re operating in.
I wanted to join Keyhouse because it was a bigger and more diverse organisation than where I was working in Oldham, and one with greater potential. Of course, it was a steep learning curve to fully understand the breadth and diversity of what we did even back then, let alone how much it’s grown and diversified since I joined the team.
What I see inside Keyhouse is some incredibly dedicated and skilled staff who put a lot of hard work into supporting all the different users of our services – that goes for those who are homeless before coming to our Hostel, those who need legal advice to protect their rights or those who want to further their education and skills through our training services.
What I see outside Keyhouse, and it’s something I’m really trying to impress on our own staff, is that Keyhouse is a unique organisation with a wide geographical scope and an enormous breadth of services. We have a real opportunity to make an even bigger difference to users of our services by integrating the services we currently provide more effectively, and that’s what we’re striving to achieve.
I also see that, given the scope of our work, we can also be really effective in partnering with other agencies to deliver improved services. We’ve established some extremely innovative and effective partnerships in the last year or so, and I’m really excited about their potential.
I came into post just before Keyhouse had its 20th anniversary, and I remember saying at the AGM that my task was to build on what had already been achieved in 20 years and to make sure the foundations are there for the next 20 years. Five years on we’ve come to our silver jubilee, and I genuinely believe that those foundations are in place: with a new identity, a new website and a new building in Bradford, we’ll really start moving now!
One last thing: when I was preparing for the 20th anniversary AGM I remember thinking of the quote from Newton which goes something like “If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” I didn’t use it then, but it strikes me as a great point, always worth remembering!
Graham Mynott
