£16,218.75 raised for the SHS Welfare Fund!
News article from December 12, 2017
We’ve all heard it said that Christmas is about giving, and over the past weeks we’ve really put that to the test at School-Home Support (SHS). We took part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge, the UK’s biggest match funding campaign, which meant that donations were matched by pledges and our friends at the Childhood Trust.
All of the money from the Challenge goes straight to the SHS Welfare Fund. The Welfare Fund is used to buy essentials for families living in poverty and is increasingly needed, as an average of nine children in in every classroom in the UK are now living in poverty. Children from deprived areas are almost three times more likely to be persistently absent from school than those from the least deprived areas, for a multitude of reasons.
Not only does poverty impact on areas of life such as housing and mental health, but it often also means a lack of essentials. It can be hard to imagine missing out on education due to something as basic as not having the money for the laundrette, having no shoes except slippers, or trying to sleep on a mattress shared with parents and siblings, but this is the reality facing many of the children supported by School-Home Support.
Thankfully, that’s where the SHS Welfare Fund comes in. It allows practitioners to apply on behalf of families, purchasing essentials which mean children can attend and achieve at school, ultimately reaching their potential. Whether their attendance improves because they finally have a clean, well-fitting uniform, or they are able to engage in class because they’ve had a good night’s sleep in their own bed, the items provided by the SHS Welfare Fund have a direct impact on children’s education.
Over the past weeks, we’ve been continually surprised by the generosity and kindness of our supporters, whether we’ve known you for 10 years or 10 minutes!
Thanks to your donations, the SHS Welfare Fund can now provide:
- 29 washing machines so children can have clean clothes for school,
- 25 beds so children can get a good night’s rest,
- 55 school uniforms so children fit in as members of their school community,
- 100 pairs of school shoes so children’s feet are warm and dry, and
- 100 emergency food parcels for families in urgent need…
We can’t thank you enough for your donations, and your help sharing our project with your friends and family. Thanks to your support, more families will be able to benefit from essential items this Christmas season, and well into the New Year.