We’re celebrating 16 years of being a community charity
As one of many great charities in Essex, we're excited to celebrate today by showing the breadth of our impact and reach across the past 16 years as a community charity.
Focusing on children’s mental health and with the child always at the centre of our work, we also recognise the importance of parental mental health. When we work with adults our role is clearly defined as an advocate for the young person referred to us for support. “Happy child, happy life.”
Growth
Within the past year, most notably, we have averaged 31 referrals per week – totaling 4,023 referred into our service.
Working with the family is vital for young people
Across 16 years, the reach of our work as a community charity has widened, and as well as our home county of Essex, we now work in Suffolk, Thurrock and Southend on Sea. Annually we see the demand for our youth mental health services grow and expanding to new areas. We anticipate further organisational growth to meet the demand for the child-centred approach that we have become widely recognised for.
Our growth and the wide impact on young people and families wouldn't have been possible without securing grants from community foundations and other charitable funding organisations. We're equally grateful for the generous support we've received from Essex businesses.
Our Kids Inspire team has hosted various charitable fundraising events across the county and are going from strength to strength raising more funds than ever to help more children and families.
A few event highlights include our annual Ball, Christmas Wrapped Up at Ingatestone Hall, charity cycle rides, as well as charity funding from trusts and foundations such as Children In Need, the National Lottery and on a local level Essex Community Foundation.
Awards and recognition
Recognition, awards and accolades have meant so much to us over the years. Each one is different, yet all represent the values we commit to as an organisation, as well as offering validation that our foundation, 16 years ago, was much needed.
Sue Bell OBE founded the charity and was recognised for her work across the years when she received her OBE in June 2021.
“I celebrate all the courageous young people and their families that we meet. I feel proud of each life progression, knowing how positive intervention has supported them to go on and fill their future with love and opportunity.” – Sue Bell OBE
Veronica being awarded by the High Sheriff
Collaboration is vital to progress, and in recognition of this we are proud to highlight a few other recent awards. Last year, during our 15th Birthday Celebrations, our fabulous volunteer, Veronica Mead received the High Sheriff award. Slightly earlier the same year, our Trustee Yvonne Spence and volunteer Martyn Mead both received Coronation Champion awards in recognition of their roles as volunteers for mental health.
The Pride of Essex Awards came late in 2022, and we proudly nominated two of our young people we had worked with that year. It was wonderful to see them both recognised for their fight facing adversity in their life.
We know we have mentioned it before (a few times!) but it wouldn’t be right to miss the fact that we received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service from this celebratory blog. We are grateful every day for the work of our volunteers, which leads us nicely into…
Volunteers for mental health
Advocacy volunteers for mental health come in all shapes and sizes.
The Kids Inspire Team - including volunteers and mentors
A constant that has thrived across the years is our mentoring scheme which offers young mentee’s a safe space and opportunity to improve their self-confidence, resilience and emotional wellbeing alongside a trained volunteer mentor.
We currently have over 50 amazing mentors who are actively meeting and supporting young people referred to Kids Inspire:
“Because of the mentoring I've received, I feel like I have changed as a person. This has brought out a new side to me, someone who is confident, optimistic and positive. It's changed my mindset, so now I can always see the brighter side of things and I know not to think so negatively. It has made me realise how lucky I am to be able to receive the help I needed.”
We can share that over 6,300 hours were gifted to us last year by our incredible volunteers. Thank you all!
Working with funders/partners and Internal changes
Change can be a wonderful thing for an organisation. It can take impact and growth into new directions.
Last year, Impetus selected us to be one of its charity partners. Since this announcement, many internal changes have taken place, including the appointment of two new senior management roles. One role addition focuses on the Clinical Team and the other leads on Communications and Marketing.
“I stop often to reflect and pause and feel continually warmed by our achievements – the sense of togetherness and commitment to our mission is nothing less than awe-inspiring. Thank you for being a part of this journey and for recognising that together, our impact is far-ranging and long-term, and that by working together we do make a real difference.” – Sue Bell OBE
Impetus believes that learning skills for personal social and emotional development can help young people to succeed in school, work, and life. This aligns with our own findings and beliefs. This past year of working alongside Impetus professionally has been such a positive experience.
If you have made it to the bottom of this blog, you’ll notice that we have proudly highlighted 16 great things that have all contributed to the growth, impact, and reach of this community charity centred on children, young people, and their families:
successfully applying for grants/trusts and foundations
successfully applying to community foundations
support from businesses in Essex
working with partners and internal changes (meet Sarah and Helen - both have contributed to our blog already!)
We’re all looking forward to the year ahead and helping even more young people and their families with their mental health.