SBT Charity

HAVE SOME REINDEER FUN THIS DECEMBER!

WITH LOCAL CHILDREN’S HOSPICE, CHESTNUT TREE HOUSE

WHO CARES FOR OUR DISABLED VETERANS?

WITH CARE FOR VETERANS, CARING FOR DISABLED EX-SERVICE PERSONNEL

WE TALK TO SUSSEX NIGHTSTOP

WITH ALISON MARINO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

CHOSEN CHARITY PARTNER:

Have some Reindeer Fun this December!

Throughout these challenging times,

Charity you have been an amazing support to your local children’s hospice, Chestnut Tree House. We know how difficult it has been for everyone, particularly for businesses. So, let us look forward and celebrate Christmas together!

This December, why don’t you grab your antlers and have some Reindeer Fun? Whether you want to Run, Cycle, Row, Ramble, or come up with your own challenge, Chestnut Tree House will provide everything you need for your Reindeer Fun event, including free reindeer antlers and red noses for everyone taking part, online materials and helpful hints and tips.

Taking part in Reindeer Fun is a fantastic way to boost staff morale, attract positive PR, fulfil your corporate and social responsibility and much more! Whilst spreading the festive cheer at your workplace, your fantastic fundraising will be making the world of difference to local children with life-shortening conditions, like Jack, and their families. Helping them live life to the full and, when the time comes, say goodbye in the way they want.

Jack’s story

Meet Jack. “Jack is just the happiest little dude, he wakes up and goes to bed with a smile on his face”, says Mum, Emma. Jack lives in Portsmouth with his Mum, Emma, and Dad, Kevin. Like many eightyear olds, he loves spending time outdoors, jumping on his trampoline and playing in the garden.

“Jack is our beautiful miracle baby. At three weeks old, we thought we would have to say goodbye to him. They told us he would never talk, never sit up and never speak.” Jack was born with Lowes Syndrome, a genetic disease that primarily affects his eyes, brain, and

Jack

kidneys, resulting in Jack having severe complex medical needs and requiring 24-hour care.

When Jack was four years old, his school nurse recommended that the family seek support from Chestnut Tree House. “I remember the first time we visited the hospice building near Arundel. Jack got treated like absolute royalty; anything he wanted, he got. He loved it. I expected it to be grey and dull and quiet, but it was not. It was loud, bright, and lovely. Within an hour of being in the house Jack disappeared and was doing his own thing, he just loved it.”

Three years on, the family have regular visits from the community care team

who visit them in their own home in Portsmouth and take Jack out to explore the local community.

“We don’t know what we would do without Chestnut, we wouldn’t even want to think about it – it would be a nightmare. I’d have no hair for starters! But seriously, they are there for everything. They are always on the other end of the phone, they are so friendly, knowledgeable, and all-round amazing. They let Jack live his best life.”

Are you ready to get your colleagues together and spread some festive cheer? What Reindeer activity will you take on this year? To sign up, visit

www.chestnut-tree-house.org.uk/ reindeer-fun

Who cares for our disabled veterans?

For 101 years, Care for Veterans has been caring for disabled ex-Service personnel from the RAF, Army, Royal Navy and auxiliary services from across the UK.

Current residents in the charity’s 60-bed

Charity facility are aged between 34 and 96 years old. The majority have Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) or a degenerative neurological condition, such as Multiple Sclerosis, Motor Neurone Disease and Parkinson’s.

Care for Veterans receives no regular Government funding, and each year needs to raise over £1.9 million to continue delivering its first-class and award-winning care.

The charity is proud of the high level of professional nursing care, rehabilitation, respite and awardwinning end of life care it provides to residents. Its multi-disciplinary approach includes physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, and neuropsychology, as well as social and recreational activities and a chaplaincy service – all delivered from its facility in Worthing, West Sussex.

“Not only is each type of illness different, but each individual is different too”, explains Matthew Li, Registered Manager at Care for Veterans.

Matthew continues: “Through our tailored and comprehensive approach, residents can make good progress towards their goals, to give our veterans the very best quality of life in spite of their disability.

“We provide many different types of nursing care and services to meet the needs of each resident. As an independent provider, we can fill the gaps often found between healthcare and social services. We provide our residents with access to a complete range of services for people with physical disabilities and complex needs.

“Our facility has a ‘home-fromhome’ environment which helps prevent residents from becoming institutionalised and keep them focused on the future. Our emphasis is on rehabilitation, and, where possible,

getting residents to a point where they are able to cope living in the wider community and on their own.”

Over 100 years caring for veterans

Care for Veterans (formerly the Queen Alexandra Hospital Home) was established in 1919 to care for those soldiers returning from World War I with life-changing disabilities. The charity was initially based in Roehampton, London, and moved to its current home in Worthing in 1933.

Today, anyone who has served in HM Forces at any time or in any capacity, and their immediate family members, are eligible for admission to Care for Veterans. An individual’s injury or condition does not need to have happened during service to be eligible.

Steve’s story

Ex-Army Warrant Officer, Steve, was just 39 when a motorbike accident left him with a severe brain injury which seriously affected his speech and left

him paralysed on one side of his body.

Before his accident, Steve had served with the Royal Engineers in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone. He was a Joint Service Mountain Expedition Leader, loved canoeing, mountain biking and snowboarding.

Steve came to Care for Veterans in December 2018, after spending three years in various hospitals and rehabilitation centres where he was not making progress and had become depressed. Since his arrival, he has made improvements in his speech and movements.

Steve’s life and dreams are forever changed, but Care for Veterans is already having a positive impact on his life. Steve says: “Care for Veterans has given me a new mindset and the determination to succeed with my recovery”.

This year, he challenged himself to use the static bike in his physiotherapy sessions, to cycle the 874-mile distance from Land’s End to John O Groats, due to finish on his 45th birthday on 21st November. He has already raised over £1,000 in sponsorship. There is still time to sponsor Steve, go to www.

justgiving.com/fundraising/davidcurry4steve-boylan.

Your support

Here are three ways you can help Care for Veterans to continue to provide these services for our nation’s veterans.

• Sign up for a lottery ticket! Sign up for just £4 a month you can be in with a chance of winning the top prize of £200.

• Sign up for an event – put a team in or sponsor the Clay Pigeon Shoot happening next March or the next Golf

Day in April.

• Become a partner – A charity partnership can be of great benefit to your company and employees.

“Draper Tools chose to support Care for Veterans in 2019 as both organisations celebrated their centenary year. If we’d have put together a template for how we wanted the charity partnership to go, it could not have gone any better, and Draper Tools are so pleased with how the relationship progressed throughout the year. Care for Veterans were receptive to what we wanted to undertake and achieve and were with us every step of the way”, says Clive at Draper Tools.

Care for Veterans is a place of support, comfort and hope for veterans who are now facing the toughest battle of their lives.

To find out more, visit www. careforveterans.org.uk, email

fundraising@careforveterans.org.uk

or call the fundraising team on

01903 218444.

We talk to Sussex

Nightstop

Alison Marino is Executive Director of Brighton based charity Sussex Nightstop. Sussex Nightstop co-ordinate volunteer hosts who provide a safe place to stay for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

Who does Sussex Nightstop help?

Charity Sussex Nightstop provides a safety-net for young people and adults aged 16 upwards in the Brighton & Hove area who may otherwise be forced to sleep rough. The risks of rough-sleeping, including the threat to physical and mental wellbeing, are well known and every night of rough-sleeping worsens the outlook for that person. Somewhere safe to sleep is essential in people having the means, energy and confidence with which to access the resources and support necessary in securing a safe, longer-term home. Our volunteer hosts provide just that. By opening up their spare room, individuals can sleep well, have a hot meal, access crucial amenities including somewhere private to wash and above all experience kindness in an otherwise bleak situation. The majority of Nightstop guests have either suffered a family or relationship breakdown or breakdown of their tenancy often brought about by a number of combining pressures such as a strain on finances due to income loss or austerity measures, the challenge of living with poor mental health and a local private rental market increasingly beyond affordability. Regardless of reason, Nightstop guests are individuals –

Tim & Loretta

both interesting and interested in life, often working or studying, who have aspirations and plans and who just need a secure place from which to navigate this phase in their life.

What difference has Covid-19 made?

Covid-19 has brought even more anxiety for those facing or experiencing homelessness. Many families and individuals have faced challenging lockdown circumstances and the end of the furlough scheme and the prospect of a recession on the horizon will only precipitate the issues that place people at risk of homelessness.

Never has a community response been so needed and ensuring we have a pool of Volunteer Hosts ready and waiting is a top priority.

Tim Williamson, along with his partner Loretta, is a Volunteer Host at Sussex Nightstop using his spare room as a safe place for Nightstop guests to stay and Tim has recently become a Trustee.

Why did you join Sussex Nightstop?

I can’t quite remember how we heard about Nightstop but I’m glad we did. We have wanted to help with rough sleeping and homelessness for a while and hadn’t found the right way. Nightstop seemed perfect – the idea is so simple: use your spare room to help someone avoid ending up on the streets. We had a spare room so got in contact. Every part of our journey to becoming a host was smooth and well organised and any fears were eased by the extensive and thorough training. The hardest people to convince were our sons but the training really helped here as they were involved. Meeting an actual Nightstop guest was the game changer that got them on side.

So impressed have we been with Nightstop that when I saw they were looking for trustees to join the board I applied immediately and was lucky enough to have been selected. It has been very enlightening seeing it from a Trustee perspective, recognising what we need to do over these coming months to respond to the homelessness crisis which still exists.

What kind of people come to stay with you?

The Nightstop guests we have hosted have all felt strangely familiar. They look and sound just like our teenage sons or their friends. Most are quite happy to keep themselves to themselves after we have shown them their room, taken their clothes to be washed, shown them where the bathroom is and shared our allimportant WiFi code! Some want to chat over food or TV and when we talk you realise they are often very articulate, intelligent and driven. Something has happened to them which means they are staying with us but we are trained not to ask, just to listen if they want to share.

Have there been any challenges?

Mostly for us it can be the practical challenge of trying to clear space in our lives to offer a few consecutive nights to offer Nightstop guests. Otherwise the Nightstop team make sure that things run smoothly. The 24 hour on call support is such a reassuring service, even if rarely used, as is the call the following morning with the co-ordinator. Sometimes we just need a reminder from our training about what to do in a particular situation and it is so helpful to be able to chat through a guest we are worried about.

As a trustee CV-19 is certainly presenting us with challenges but it has been so good to re-open this valuable service. We have a clear plan for the coming months and have adapted the service well I think to reassure us as hosts. The adapted training for CV-19 for hosts was excellent.

What do you enjoy about being a host?

Just being able to help someone even if it’s only a little bit.

Here’s how you can help: • Volunteer Hosts: get trained and supported to offer your spare room to a young person or adult • Fundraisers: organise activities to raise funds for Sussex Nightstop • Businesses: talk to us about getting involved • Spread the word: tell your friends about what we do

For more information on volunteering or to donate visit:

Volunteer enquiries:

www.sussexnightstop.org.uk/ contact-us/

or call 07788 318 905 Website: www.sussexnightstop.org.uk Twitter: @SussexNighstop Facebook: Sussex Nightstop Donations:

https://localgiving.org/charity/ sussexnightstop/