A very warm, cosy welcome to the WISH 2025 Winter newsletter!

It honestly feels like the blink of an eye since I sat down to write my welcoming words for our last Newsletter at the start of the Summer. 

It's been such a busy, productive period for everyone to say the least. Events and celebrations galore across our WISH regions, an abundance of training and development opportunities, conference season, strategy days and exciting new partnerships in the making. So much to be proud of and to be grateful for. And the perfect inlet...

Gratitude... the chosen theme for our Winter Newsletter.

I'd like to take the opportunity to express mine as part of this welcome to you all. 

In September, we were thrilled to attend as an exhibitor at the joint NHF/CIH Housing Community Summit in Liverpool. What a location, what a team effort and what an incredible two days of learning and meaningful networking. And the opportunity to meet colleagues in person, which still feels like a rarity in many respects.

We genuinely hadn't expected to meet and greet so many of you and we are thrilled to say we had a queue at our stand that was pretty constant throughout! For those of you who dropped by to say hello, share your positive experiences of WISH, and sign up for membership and sponsorship, THANK YOU. 

And special appreciation to all our WISH Board Members and Friends of WISH who gave up their precious time to lend a helping hand at the stand. We genuinely couldn't have done it without you. Your energy and passion for the sector as a whole was palpable, and it was a perfect opportunity for me to see our WISH values brought to life - you were welcoming, inspiring, supportive and happy. The smiles on the photos captured it perfectly. Early conversations are already in train around how WISH can best support HCS 2026!

Talking of support - our purpose as a network is to support you, our members, and we can't do this without your continued feedback - so please do take a few moments to complete our WISH Annual Survey, so that we can continue to support you all in the most effective and valuable ways.

We're also delighted to be extending our offers from our training partners through 2026, including the exciting launch of Manager School Online! This unique leadership course is already proving to be extremely popular - even better, WISH members get an exclusive discount as individuals and organisations for this course, which is not available anywhere else.

Looking ahead to next year, we have a plethora of events from across every region shaping up for the New Year. We'll be relaunching our ever-popular Mentoring Scheme in the Spring, as well as our continued support and commitment of International Women's Day in March, through our events and activities, so watch this space!

Before we sign off for the festive period, I'd like to take a final opportunity to share a heartfelt note of thanks to everyone who had helped WISH deliver every single day through 2025 - too many to mention individually. Your unwavering support and dedication are what makes WISH what is it, as we enter our 28^th year. Genuinely remarkable for a network powered by professional volunteers. A huge milestone is rapidly approaching...and the best is yet to come.

And to finish with a little quote which seems befitting at this time of year...

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it"

Have a wonderful break over the festive holidays, stay safe, and we look forward to serving you throughout the coming year.