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The Best Gift You Can Give This Year
The best gift you can you can buy this Christmas is a
future for a child.
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The pandemic has exacerbated the challenges families were already facing. Isolation, anxiety, mental health struggles & an increase in domestic abuse have had a detrimental effect on children. Babies & young children have missed out developmentally through lack of interaction & socialisation during lockdown; a need has also become apparent for parenting support for Dads. In general, parent’s confi dence in providing a positive environment for their children has signifi cantly declined. Last year, you helped us raise £21,443 through our Big Give Christmas campaign. Following the success of this campaign, we have our pledgers and champion offering a helping hand to launch another massive double packed fundraiser. Every donation we receive between 30th November7th December will be DOUBLED! This fund will help us provide more support to families Hertfordshire who are fragile and vulnerable. It will help parents recover from the effects of the pandemic and rebuild their lives so that they can help their children thrive.
“My volunteer helped me by just being here. I have no family or friends and so simple tasks I found hard. It was also lonely, as I did not have the confi dence to get out. My mother passed away when my baby was 6 months old so it felt even harder. Just knowing that once a week I would see someone- I could have a brew and fi nish it! Clean, leave the house, take a rest, get advice- the simple things most take for granted.”
As part of our Christmas fundraising, we are wiggling in our winter woollies for our annual Christmas Jumper Day on Tuesday 14th December. Home-Start set up this campaign across the County in 2018, inviting businesses, organisations and schools to take a picture in their festive woollies, donate and post it on social media.
‘We had such fun raising funds for Home Start. Not only were we able to support a great charity that does such amazing work with local families, but we were also able to honour the work of our founders at St Columba’s College, The Brothers of the Sacred Heart, whose mission for the last 200 years has been to support the most vulnerable children in society, worldwide.’ Jim Lewis, previous Head of Development at St Columba’s College.
Our Christmas campaigns are important to us because whilst many are enjoying the festivities, there are families who will be suffering mentally and fi nancially this time of year. In the last fi ve months, our referrals for support have doubled from 5 per week to 10 per week. Taking part in our Big Christmas Give and Christmas Jumper Day will help us provide support to more families across Hertfordshire. Your donation is a gift that will be valued for life.
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