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At CharityJob, giving back to the sector has always been at the heart of our values. So in 2023, as part of our annual charitable giving, we donated a total of £90,000 to several small charities. We caught up with the charities who received a donation from CharityJob to find out the impact, one year on…
Safe and Sound
Safe and Sound supports children, young people and families affected by exploitation in Derby and Derbyshire.
The £10,000 donation from CharityJob enabled us to meet the increased demand for our services that we’ve been experiencing year on year. Through one-to-one case work, last year we supported 385 children and young people to be able to move on with their lives. We also supported 50 families.
Our outcomes for young people supported through the donation include:
- 100% had a reduced risk of exploitation
- 97% said they had reduced contact with risky peers, and had improved friendships
- 95% were more able to recognise online dangers and the signs of grooming and exploitation
- 94% now feel they have positive, healthy relationships with clear, safe boundaries.
One young person said, “You showed me so much and helped me get down to low risk in my meetings and now I can get on with my life!”
The funding also supported our hope boxes that each young person receives when they finish their work with us. This is a box with treats and positive messages written by young people for other young people.
Acacia Family Support
Acacia Family Support seeks to improve the lives of mums, dads and families affected by pre- and postnatal depression and anxiety in Birmingham.
“We were thrilled to receive a £20,000 donation from CharityJob. The funds have been invaluable in supporting our work with more than 550 families annually. This has included telephone support, providing a warm welcome at our centres, a free creche, one-to-one listening support, CBT groupwork, practical support in the home and specialist services for dads, young parents and members of our BAME community.
This support has had a profound effect on families, including on mums’ mental health:
- 86% had reduced depression
- 85% had reduced anxiety
- 99% felt better able to cope
- 96% felt more optimistic and hopeful
“I owe Acacia my life, as without them I don’t think I would have coped. I had weekly sessions where I could freely talk and have someone understand me,” said one mum. “Acacia was the best thing that happened to me and I truly thank them from the bottom of my heart. They gave me my life back.”
“Acacia saved me, my life, and my relationship,” said another.
Let Me Know
Let Me Know (LMK) is an education charity working with young people to prevent relationship abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault.
CharityJob’s generous gift of £10,000 to LMK supported us to deliver preventative-education workshops to over 6000 participants in 2023/2024. Support of this kind allowed us to grow our reach by 22%.
The donation has helped us to address urgent social problems and make positive changes to young lives. A 2024 report found that violence against women and girls has increased by 37% since 2018. Our workshops help tackle this issue by providing young people with an accessible ‘10 Signs’ framework, through which to explore healthy and unhealthy relationship behaviours.
We’ve heard incredible stories about the positive steps participants have taken after our workshops, such as leaving toxic relationships and recognising negative behaviours in themselves and others.
“Thank you for taking the time to spread awareness and positivity. It means a lot to know that there are people like you.” – 10 Signs workshop participant
“The leaders of the session were brilliant at challenging people’s views” – 10 Signs workshop participant
Richmond AID
Richmond AID is a charity run by and for disabled people in the London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames and surrounding areas.
We were thrilled to receive a £10,000 donation from CharityJob towards the running and coordination of our Surplus.2.U food stall for our clients and the local community. We know food poverty is a huge issue for disabled people who often have to make a choice between heating or eating.
We welcome clients to our weekly food stall where they can choose surplus food provided by our partners. We also provide recipes for people to cook simple healthy meals. The food stall not only helps reduce food poverty but also waste and landfill due to the majority of donations being surplus produce.
A huge thanks to CharityJob for this generous donation. Our food stall has benefitted 200 households with disabled adults or children throughout the year!
One mum said, “I like to feel I didn’t just receive help and support at a time when I desperately needed it, but I also gained some friends along the way. I’ve since become a volunteer at the food stall.”
The Refugee Buddy Project
The Refugee Buddy Project is a community group that provides welcome for people arriving in Hastings seeking refuge and safety.
We were extremely grateful to receive the £10,000 donation from CharityJob. It came at a time when, on top of what we normally do, we were supporting more than 70 men who had been placed in a local hotel by the home office. We used the funds to buy them winter clothes, shoes, phones, travel cards and food.
Many of the men are now living, working and studying in Hastings, after receiving their Leave to Remain. Some, dispersed to other towns, told us that in six months, not one person had spoken to them. The donation meant we were able to surround these men seeking refuge with love, and our local community could welcome them into our town.
Funds like this will help us continue to support people who are in the asylum system with no recourse to public funds. We can buy families winter clothes, school uniforms, personal hygiene products and continue to connect communities and work towards creating a culture of welcome.
“I am from Afghanistan – I was introduced to the Buddy project who supported me through a very difficult time. They gave me a solicitor, clothes, English classes – everything we needed at the time,” said one beneficiary. “Now I have a local buddy who I see regularly, once or twice a week.”
Include.org
Include.org is a charity that provides speech and language therapy-based community activities and training.
The £10,000 donation from CharityJob was the best Christmas gift we could imagine! Empowering people with understanding and speaking difficulties to help design, deliver and feedback on our services is one of our core principles. The donation has allowed us to increase co-production and move to a model where more than 75% of our trustees are people with disabilities.
The funds have also helped to promote co-production to other organisations. Speech and Language Therapist Claudia says, “We’ve covered important topics from human rights to financial decision-making, so the support from CharityJob is benefiting lots of other people who need information in accessible formats.”
Beth, Include Supported Trustee, Choir Member and Champion:
“Being a Trustee is nice. To be given a chance to join in at the higher up level and help is quite rewarding – it helps me to help others and helps my self-esteem. It keeps me busy as well – it keeps my mind off things I might be worried about.”
Hannah Include Choir Rep, Choir member and Champion:
“I enjoy being part of the Include Champions Group, it helps with my anxiety and helps me to speak more clearly…and that helps my life.”
MammaKind
MammaKind is a baby bank that aims to prevent and relieve poverty amongst socially and financially disadvantaged families with young children.
Poverty has devastating consequences for children. Young children from low-income families are eight months behind in reading skills by the time they are five, when they miss out on high quality childcare during their early years.
The £20,000 donation from CharityJob helped us to support 2,677 people in 2023, including 1,519 children and 917 families, and supported us to provide clothes, nappies, prams, toiletries and other essentials. This helped to remove some of the barriers that prevent parents from taking their children to activities that help to level the playing field in early education.
We were able to provide all families with age-appropriate toys and books for their children. These seemingly inconsequential items contribute to cognitive, motor, psychosocial, emotional, and linguistic abilities. Ultimately, they play a vital role in fostering self-confident, creative, and happy children.
One beneficiary said: “I was really worried as I couldn’t afford new clothes and shoes and adequate toys/books, and the kind, amazing people at MammaKind helped take all of those worries away.”
Tags: charity job, charity sector
