Today marks our 11th anniversary
… and what a year of celebrations we have had!
Our year started with a HUGE 10th anniversary cake, and has ended with our Clinical Team being shortlisted in the in the Stay Well category in the Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group’s Marvels of Mid Essex Community Awards. Results will be announced this week – you can stay up to date with our latest news here (on our blog), but also by signing up to receive our newsletter.
Thank you all for your continued support. Shares on social media, volunteering, fundraising, donations – everything you do, big or small, helps to reclaim lives and rebuild futures.
Just a tiny selection of highlights from our 10th year can be found below:
We were chosen as the 2017 Charity for The Baddow Races – a team of staff and supporters raised over £7,000Our Christmas Appeal distributed 1,149 gifts and 117 hampers, helping to give families across Essex the Christmas they deserveThanks to the generosity of the local Freemasons and the Provincial Grand Lodge of Essex, we will be able to provide a Mid Essex Therapist for two yearsA team of supporters took on the Palace to Palace Cycle Challenge from Sandringham Palace in Norfolk to Buckingham Palace in London (over 200km!) raising £8,000We were thrilled to have won a Heart of Essex Award and £2,000 toward our Mentoring All thanks to a community vote!We have been chosen to benefit from Big Lottery’s Reaching Communities fund to help expand our trauma resolution therapies into South EssexA team from Kids Inspire and their families raised over £2,000 at the Superhero Run50 Worry Monsters have been knitted by one of our wonderful volunteers and we have distributed nearly all of them to the children (and their siblings) that we work withOne of our supporters took on a virtual walk for Land End to John O’Groats and raised £947 for her dedicationWe are proud to be partnering with Children in Need, whose support is providing creative therapies to children affected by issues including trauma and bereavementA group of young people, via the National Citizens Service (NCS) scheme raised over £2,000And finally, our first ever Kids Inspire Week was hosted this year with the aim of raising awareness of what we do locally… more to come from this dedicated KI week next year.
Kids Inspire was set up by Sue Bell 11 years ago in a classroom and a small cupboard, all based at what was St Peter’s College. A team of volunteers begged, borrowed and gave generously of their time to get ready to open the doors to the charity at the start of the academic year 2007.
Today, 11 years on, we are looking to the future with new premises on the horizon, a host of new projects – shaped in response to emotional need and well-being – and ongoing community engagement.
Here is to our 11th year!