ValuesJammer in the Spotlight

 Who are you?

I am Katie Antill and I am the Chief Executive of a specialist dementia charity in Kent, UK. We are ADSS (Alzheimer’s & Dementia Support Services) and we provide a range of services for people affected by dementia to live the best life they can. It is our vision that everyone affected by dementia in Kent and Medway gets the support they need to live the life they want.

What are your core values?  

My core values are;

Positive Impact 

Leadership

Gratitude 

Excellence 

Collaboration  

Why did you join the ValuesJam community? 

Understanding my own values and the collective organisational values have had such a big impact on my life. I remember when I first started at ADSS I felt like I had come home, I think that is because I had found a collective of people who shared the same or similar values to me. We now use values for everything from recruitment to strategy design. People tend to find it a safe way to talk about themselves. So, when I found out about the ValuesJam cards and the community, I was really keen to find out more.

How are you using/planning to use your ValuesJam card decks? 

Currently we are using them to start the process of getting to know each other better. In team meetings when we talk about the organisational values, we also relate back to personal values using the cards and the questions. We want to get to the point where we can use them to inform our support planning with people affected by dementia. I can envisage using them in a storytelling way to really understand what matters to the person we are trying to support.

Fave rock n roll moment of magic from a ValuesJam session? 

My favourite moment using the values cards is when we used them in our Senior leadership Team meeting as we had some new members. It was so great, almost like speed dating, for really getting to know each other at a much deeper level. Everyone spoke about what their favourite values (from the pack) were and what they meant in their own context; I loved getting to know my team at that level.

How could more WELL-BEING improve the world?

I think for all of us more wellbeing is something that can change our own worlds. Having more regard for well being is one good thing that has come about since the Covid pandemic and lock downs. We are much more aware of how important it is to look after our own and other’s wellbeing. I know I have personally made sure I do things that make me think about my own wellbeing a lot more and I think I am all the better for it. I love walking in my local woods, going for a session at the gym and a swim and my guilty pleasure is going for a walk and listening to Desert Island Discs.

At ADSS we are thinking about the wellbeing of the people we support almost every minute of every day. We are passionate about the things that will help people improve their well-being and for most people that tends to be; understanding of dementia (knowledge is power after all), access to peer support (knowing you are not the only one is life changing), having purpose and interest (too often people with dementia are written off and we come in and say “give it a go”) and lastly and a big dose of fun!

We see people who feel written off and so adrift with the world and our support means they feel they have friends again, can laugh again and start planning for their future. If you don’t look after someone’s well being nothing else really matters.

Contact details

LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/katie-antill-550b84120

Website https://www.alz-dem.org/

email info@alz-dem.org 

ValuesJammer Top Tips

Force rank the ValuesJam cards to help identify your core values.

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