We were delighted to welcome so many people to our 2026 Annual General Meeting (AGM) at The Fraser Centre, Tranent, on 28 October.
The AGM provided an opportunity to reflect on the past year, with presentations on our achievements, impact and finances during 2025-2026. You can find our annual summary below:
We were pleased to share a special presentation highlighting the work of our Parent Carer Support Team, providing insight into the experiences and challenges faced by parent carers and showcasing the innovative approaches the team takes to support parent carer wellbeing.
We also had the opportunity to look forwards as we launched our new 2026-2031 Strategy, developed over the past year with input from carers, staff, board members and community partners. The strategy sets out our priorities and ambitions for the next five years. If you would like to read the strategy, you can find this below:
We were also delighted to welcome and elect two new board members to the Carers of East Lothian board of directors. If you’d like to read more about our new board members please follow this link to the governance page on our website.
As 2026 marks our 30th anniversary, the AGM was also an opportunity to celebrate three decades of supporting carers in East Lothian. Throughout the year we have marked this milestone with a range of activities including afternoon teas, day trips, art workshops, archery sessions and wellbeing events.
Highlights shared at the AGM included:
Patchwork Poetry
Carers worked with local poet Philippa Ramsden to create a collaborative poem inspired by the symbolism of pearls, the traditional symbol of a 30th anniversary. If you would like to read more about this session, including the wonderful poem that the group created, please follow the link below:
30 Years of Carers of East Lothian
A special timeline celebrating three decades of Carers of East Lothian was researched by Parent Carer Support Worker Suzie and transformed into a short film by volunteer Ed.
Caring Spaces Artwork
Our art group that runs in collaboration with Art in Healthcare created a collaborative artwork exploring how layers form around the challenges of caring, inspired by the way a pearl develops around a grain of grit. If you would like to view the artwork and readd more about the process and the group, you can click the link below.
Caring Spaces: Art in Healthcare Project
Pearls of Wisdom
Attendees of the AGM also enjoyed viewing a large pearl sculpture created by a member of staff and artist, containing “pearls of wisdom” collected from carers throughout our anniversary year. Please click on the link below to read a short article about the “pearls of wisdom” project and see some photos of the amazing sculpture.
Thank you to everyone who attended and helped make this year’s AGM such a special celebration of our achievements, carers in East Lothian and our 30-year history.