Children's mental health charity Kids Inspire reflects on the year 2023

Chief Executive Officer and Clinical Director, Sue Bell OBE takes time to reflect on the impact and progress in support of children and young people’s mental health in 2023.

“2023 has, without doubt, been about resilience. A challenging year. So many of us impacted personally and professionally by the ‘cost of living crisis’ that continues to hover, by the wars in Ukraine/Russia and in Gaza/Israel, and our ongoing concerns about climate change.
Challenging times can however be a source of strong perseverance. This is something embodied throughout Kids Inspire. For me personally, this year has provided opportunities to collaborate with individuals across the organisation, with our board of trustees, and with our external partner, Impetus and through them Bain and Company. From this collaboration we have co-developed our three-year growth strategy, gained clarity about our target population, and the importance of investing time and focus on strengthening our impact story.
2024 will without a doubt be another year for collaboration and one of transformation. As we begin to implement our growth strategy and pilot our new programme in a different geographical area there will be many exciting opportunities to support those who need us the most.”

Our Chief Operating Officer and Head of Marketing and Communications also reflected on the past year and highlights that have led towards growth, progress and collaboration in support of children and young people’s mental health.

Kids Inspire’s Chief Operating Officer is responsible for the smooth operation of the team and outputs, including HR, volunteering, and business operations.

When looking back, Vicky reflected on several areas of positive progress from the past year. The four ‘Driving Impact’ workshops with Funding and Business Partner, Impetus, were highlights because of the time spent on looking back at where we are now and where we are going in the forthcoming three years.

2023 has been a year of growth for the team. Without a doubt, our team has become stronger and richer because of the new specialist colleagues we have welcomed onboard in response to the growing need. We acknowledge the colleagues who have left us this year, but equally, we wish them all well as we know they do us.

“2023 has seen preparation get underway for a transformative time for Kids Inspire. It has been really exciting to be part of this period of reflection, planning and collaboration. The New Year will be busy as we implement our ambitious plans to support even more children young people and their families.” - Vicky Haylock COO

Finally, we want to reflect on what has been a record-breaking year for our wonderful Christmas Appeal. In its 14 years, we have seen the number of gifts distributed double and we have accrued the highest number of volunteer hours for any Kids Inspire campaign (measured over a short period… as our Mentoring project would of course beat this total number of hours.)

Helen, our Head of Marketing and Communications joined the charity in May 2023 and has focused on consolidating and building the team over the year. The emphasis has been on sustainability and future-proofing our processes and procedures and putting us on the front foot as we head into 2024 and the exciting opportunities coming up.

There has also been a real emphasis on collaboration with teams across Kids Inspire, sharing knowledge and ideas all geared to helping us support more children, young people and their families. From working with colleagues in many teams on blogs, including ‘Falling into the rabbit hole’ and ‘A Sense of Belonging’ to getting out and about with the Community Engagement and Fundraising teams we’ve written, videoed, shared, posted, commented and more - all with the aim of engaging with people locally, regionally and reaching into new audiences and exploring new partnerships and opportunities.

On a wider note our focus has turned to how, with the expertise and knowledge we have within Kids Inspire we can contribute to wider national issues and policy discussions. We joined the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, a national coalition of organisations and charities all pushing for wider recognition of the importance of children’s mental health, and have already contributed to their new strategy and manifesto ahead of election year. We will continue with this work, and do more of it in 2024.

Our other new SMT member, Sarah who began her new role as Deputy Assistant Director (Teams) in May has, like many of us joined at a pivotal point for Kids Inspire.

As others within the team have already mentioned our efforts have been on thinking about and planning for growth. This involved welcoming new members to the team, both as contractors and core team and benefitting from the development opportunities this offers for new learning and understanding; a real strength within our clinical team.

When mentioning new team members we have also welcomed a new collaboration internally with our growing Community Engagement team. From running school holiday activities to leading assemblies and supporting young people through The Voice, they have been helping to put Kids Inspire at the heart of our local communities. An example of how they are engaging is their attendance at the Writtle skills festival in June where teenagers openly spoke to us about their wellbeing and led to our first workshop at Hylands School. Working with the team we will be exploring new approaches together to help open up referrals from all over Essex and beyond.

We have also expanded our breadth of knowledge as a team by building a social work unit for the first time in several years. Not only does this offer us the benefits of different professional perspectives, it also serves to strengthen our relationships with the communities we endeavour to serve.

Tom, a young boy who did a bike ride for Kids Inspire wrote to us his reasons why: “I did my bike ride because I felt bad that other kids have to struggle from day to day and I’m one of those kids. I felt bad for all the kids who have it worse than I do and if I struggle then they must struggle to a while new level I can’t even imagine.”

Core to our work is that of our incredible fundraising team, led by Paula.

As always, we are inspired by our amazing group of fundraisers and supporters, their commitment (both from old and new supporters) helps us to remain motivated year after year as we grow and as we face bigger challenges. This year we have enjoyed hearing the ideas and motivation behind the fundraisers - Pam hosts a regular market stall week after week in aid of Kids Inspire because she wants to make an ongoing difference. Matthew attempted to run 100 miles in aid of our work, in his words, he told us: "Kids Inspire helps so many children throughout our community and I felt very proud to be raising money on their behalf.”

Tom’s words need no introduction, and his ‘why’ for his bike ride touched all of our hearts here who read it when we received it.

Finally, our own May Ball and 2023 Cycling Challenge are both highlights that we look back on after an incredible year of fundraising success. We can’t wait for the forthcoming year and all the fun and fundraising opportunities we have lined up. We invite everyone interested in being a part of ‘Team Kids Inspire’ to join us in March for Bakers Brentwood Half Marathon or to sign up for our own Essex to Amsterdam Cycle Ride in June. Our Annual Ball is also confirmed for Friday 4 October so please pop the date in your diaries for a fantastic evening.

We have an exciting year ahead as we look towards the growth of our services and having a greater and sustained positive impact for those we support. Thank you to everyone who has worked with us, supported us, volunteered, mentored, and fundraised for us - without you all we couldn’t do what we do.