Spring and Summer 2026 roundup
Welcome to our first news roundup as MY Trust, following the coming together of Sir Josiah Mason Trust (SJMT) and Yardley Great Trust (YGT).
Shine scoops a Solihull Civic Honours award
April saw Shine crowned winner of the Solihull Civic Honours Community Parenting Award. Barnaby Norris, Young People's Services Manager, and Helen Broughton, Young People's Supporter, attended the awards ceremony with two young people supported by the scheme.
They truly enjoyed the evening, and it reminded us of the importance of giving young people opportunities to step into new environments, explore different roles, and engage in experiences they might not otherwise access.
The MY Trust team would like to thank our community partners for kindly nominating us. We’re proud to receive the award in recognition of our work supporting young care leavers.
Shine celebrates at Aston Villa
In May, the Shine team wrapped up our partnership with Aston Villa Foundation with a celebratory visit to Villa Park for a behind-the-scenes stadium tour. One lucky young person, a lifelong Aston Villa supporter, also watched Villa’s Europa League quarter-final.
As part of our wider work, Helen and a colleague from St Basils led weekly sessions focused on proactively preventing homelessness for young people at Solihull Academy.
Shine will continue to work with Solihull Academy, so we’ll bring you more news on that soon.
Meeson Apartments opens
May saw the first residents welcomed to Meeson Apartments, our first purpose-built almshouses for young people in more than 170 years.
Young people with care experience face significant challenges, including rising housing costs, unstable living conditions, and a lack of family support.
These issues put many of them at risk of homelessness during a critical period in their lives.
Motivated by these challenges and a desire to continue Sir Josiah Mason's vital work for young people, we developed the four high-quality apartments designed specifically to provide independence, security, and access to support.
World Cup frenzy across the Trust
The World Cup was a great excuse to get the decorations out and gather around the TV to cheer on the Three Lions.
Marking Pride Month by celebrating acceptance and inclusion
At MY Trust, we create a welcoming community where everyone is treated with kindness, respect, and dignity.
As the UK’s older LGBTQ+ population continues to grow, it’s increasingly important to raise awareness and improve understanding in care settings.
Our CEO, David Healey, joined a panel discussion on the subject following a special performance at the Midlands Art Centre (MAC) of ‘At the Rainbow’s End,’ a play that highlighted real-life experiences of older LGBTQ+ people navigating care in later life.
David and other panellists joined the play’s writer for the discussion, which offered an important space for reflection, conversation, and change.
MY Trust makes the news
We were thrilled to welcome reporter Kevin Ashford from ITV News, who spoke to our resident, Andy, about her experiences of living in an almshouse.
Kevin's piece celebrated 80 years of The Almshouse Association, highlighting its vital role in representing 1,600 charities providing affordable housing for around 37,000 people.
The report then went on to talk about how changes in planning rules and investment from central government could provide more much-needed homes.
At a university courtyard in London, my cousin was waiting for a friend after class and started scrolling through community updates on her phone. One of the pages she opened was MY Trust’s Spring/Summer 2026 roundup. What caught her attention was the sense of momentum behind it — the kind of update that brings together different activities, projects, and moments from several months rather than focusing on just one event. Even without turning it into a formal report, pieces like that give a good feel for how much can happen across a season when an organisation stays active and connected to the people around it.
A couple of days later, while she was killing time in the queue at a…
It is great to see such a positive roundup from the team. Reading this reminds me of a bizarre technical issue at our office yesterday. Due to a weird glitch in the legacy software auto-correct, the system randomly generated a xxx live string inside a routine database column. It took our IT support two hours to figure out why that specific peculiar phrase was typed out by the server. This unexpected digital mess completely distracted me from work.