Martin Hogg set up the counselling service, Citizen Coaching, in Birmingham in 2005, inspired by his own experiences as a troubled teen.

Citizen Coaching delivers high quality, jargon free counselling.

Martin says: “There’s been a 10% increase on the number of people we see, and the annual income has grown from £800k to £1.2m. We’ve grown to deliver a service to the diverse community of Birmingham, working in 12 different languages.”
In the last year, it has delivered 20,000 counselling sessions, supporting 4,000 people. Staffing has increased to a team of 14 counsellors directly employed with a total team, including contractors, of 73.

Operating in the top 10% most deprived areas, it has strong social impact: 80-87% of its clients report better relationships, increased well-being, and feel more able to work or study.

Key Fund has supported a number of steps of its growth with several different investments since 2015.

In 2018, Key Fund helped develop its online services, which stood it in good stead in the pandemic.

In 2022, it supported the new role of a ‘Citizen Navigator’ in response to post-pandemic needs – helping clients with issues such as housing, benefits, and advocacy.

As statutory and public sector organisations struggle with budget cuts, Key Fund recently awarded £100k from its Flexible Finance Fund to support cashflow due to delayed payments.

Martin says: “We’re in a perfect storm where demand is rising constantly, the complexity of cases is rising, and yet everyone is struggling with cash flow. Like many other third sector organisations, we rely on being paid quickly, so we’re able to pay our providers and staff. As a small business, it’s difficult to get overdrafts and access to short term finance when you need it in order to cash flow the business. Key Fund finance reduces the headaches around that, so we can concentrate fully on delivering the work for the people who need it most, that we know creates impact.”
Demand has also come from the growing number of young people seeking support.

Martin explains: “A lot of this is in the aftermath of the pandemic; people feeling isolated. And I’m seeing an increase in the number of cases of anxiety, often leading to self-harm.”

He says: “The cost-of-living crisis means when people are coming for counselling, they’re also having to deal with issues as simple as being able to afford to get the bus to get here, to keeping a roof over their head.”

Martin says they’ve helped remove barriers by offering more hybrid (online) services to remove transport costs, as well as increase their resources around signposting to support, and expanding their network of local charities and foodbanks.

They’ve also started support around employment.
“A lot of people are telling us that their issues around their mental health are making it hard for them to stay in their current job, and also for the younger ones, hard to stick at school.”

Neurodiversity is also on the rise, with autism and ADHD cases awaiting a diagnosis.

“We’re always upskilling our counsellors to meet the need of very diverse and complex clients.”

Key Fund, Martin says, has been instrumental in their growth to address this need: “They’re a trusted partner who really understand the social enterprise sector and the challenges that growing social enterprises have.”

He says: “We’re also giving the next generation of counsellors in Birmingham a platform; many have grown with us from being volunteers to paid members of staff. We would not be able to reach as many people as we do, and deliver all the added value that we give, without that support.”
Lizzie Kincaid, 55, is a volunteer trainee counsellor at Citizen Coaching.

Lizzie grew up in a well-to-do family.

“My parents gave me alcohol from a very young age, when I was eight.”

Her parents’ rationale she says, was to teach her and her sister ‘how to drink like ladies’: “My stepfather I know now was alcoholic, and I think it was easier to give his children alcohol to placate them.” 

“I remember feeling like I’d found the solution to a problem. I was highly anxious all the time, and the alcohol alleviated my anxiety.”

As well as alcoholism, Lizzie progressed into drug addiction, using cocaine and amphetamines. She ‘manipulated’ doctors to get medication.

After losing her job, she knew she couldn’t keep her home. She sold it and put herself into rehab, thinking it would be a quick fix.

“I started getting consequences to my behaviour, but everything that I lost, I told myself I didn’t want anyway: I lost my children, my marriage, my job, my home, my dignity, my sanity, and self-respect.”

She ended up sofa surfing and using hostels for two years, before being street homeless in Cardiff for six months.

Lizzie tried to commit suicide, taking a massive opioid overdose.

“It put me in intensive care in a hospital in Birmingham.” A charity, Changes, which Lizzie says sadly went into administration and closed this year, stepped in.

“Changes assessed me in hospital. The doctor told them, she’s been in intensive care, she’s detoxed, if we send her back on the streets it will happen again. So, they referred me – it was a miracle to be honest – to an organisation who took me straight from hospital.”

She says: “At the alcohol and drug treatment centre, my journey into the counselling profession started; I had some time with a therapist, then went on to have two years intensive psychotherapy.”

Lizzie also joined the AA and NA 12-step fellowship and began a college course: “I gradually got passion back for life.”

She says: “I started connecting with other human beings who had similar issues to me. And then they helped me get funding to do my Level 4 in counselling, which led to doing a Masters.”

Lizzie says she wanted to be a counsellor to, “save everyone else from what I’d been through.”

She found it hard to get a placement though, guarded about her experiences and the stigma others have around addiction.
“When I started my placement at Citizen Coaching, I’ve never felt more accepted. I’ve been open and transparent about how I got here, and I’m still here.”

After being made redundant from her job, which also came with accommodation, she was at risk of becoming homeless again. Citizen Coaching also offered her a part-time office role, which she does for 16 hours a week, alongside her studies.

“Citizen Coaching gave me a chance when lots of other people wouldn’t. Martin has never been judgemental, and supports me to develop and grow. I’ve been given opportunities, and in-house training – they really invest in the volunteers. It has a family-feel to it as opposed to an organisation, and I needed that. They allowed me to thrive again.”

She says: “When I qualify as a therapist, they’re encouraging me to help set up a programme for people who have drug and alcohol problems, who are abstinent and want support, but aren’t ready or can’t access counselling. So, it will help them look at things like access to college courses, getting into voluntary work or apprenticeships, to start rebuilding. It’s about rebuilding a whole life, giving people purpose, and meaning. If you’ve been an addict, your self-esteem is very low, you think nobody is going to want you, and how will your CV look being out of work, how am I going to explain it? This course will help with that. There’s a massive gap. There are treatment services with the NHS that look at the medical side, and a few rehab services, but who helps people move on?”

The need for this support, Lizzie says, is shocking. As well as the numbers seeking out AA or NA meetings growing, the services that exist are just ‘fire-fighting,’ leaving people bouncing in and out of A&E.

Lizzie has healed her relationship with her grown-up children, who have both had therapy too, and is going on holiday with her mum.

“I’ve stopped the blame game. My mum did the best with what she had. She comes from a long line of generational trauma. I think it was passed to me, perhaps for a reason so I can break it.”

Addiction she says has a mushroom effect on loved ones. “They need therapy too, there’s lots of blame, they don’t understand, then feel guilty. It’s a family disease until somebody is able to break the cycle. Which has to be the addict. When I think how much time, worry, and concern caused – never knowing if the phone was going to ring and wondering if I was dead or alive – it robs families of so much, it’s heart-breaking.”

Lizzie says: “The problem is huge. You can’t save the world. But if I can just help one person – you pay it forward, what I’ve been given, I’ll freely give away.”