SHS and the Big Give Christmas Challenge 2018

We’re counting down the days to the Big Give Christmas Challenge 2018 – the UK’s biggest online match-funding campaign that School-Home Support is once again taking part in. We need your help to hit our target and provide disadvantaged children and families with the life-changing (and life-saving) items they need to succeed at school.

Every donation* made to our page between midday on the 27th November and midday on the 4th December will be matched by our generous pledgers and champions – including our friends at The Childhood Trust. For one week only, your donations will be doubled* – meaning they will change the lives of twice as many families living in poverty.

The realities facing the families we support can be hard to imagine. Over the past year, we’ve been bombarded with news that a million more children now live in poverty than in 2010, that child poverty is rising faster than we thought, and that it’s teachers who are stepping in to provide for their most vulnerable students.

For families supported by School-Home Support, this shocking news is part of everyday life. SHS Practitioners have witnessed children turning up to school, frozen and shivering because they don’t have winter coats or shoes. They’ve worked with children unable to concentrate because their one daily meal is a free school dinner, or children falling asleep in class because they have to squeeze into one bed each night with siblings or parents.  Some children miss entire school days altogether – along with the warmth, food, and development available there – simply because there’s no money for the bus.

Thankfully, the School-Home Support Welfare Fund enables our Practitioners to take direct and immediate action by providing essential items to families in times of desperate need, while also continuing to support families to achieve long-term improvements.

Thanks to the generosity of people like you, Dylan and Matias have school uniforms to wear, Mai and Kim have a fridge to store fresh, healthy food – and David got to join his classmates on their end of year trip. It’s easy to take something as basic as a school sweatshirt for granted, but the items provided by the School-Home Support Welfare Fund are remarkably powerful in changing the lives of disadvantaged children. Your donations ensure children can make the most of their education without barriers to stop them – and education is vital to escape cycles of poverty and disadvantage.

This year we have our biggest target yet. We have the opportunity to raise a life-changing £19,400 to provide children with essentials like beds, emergency food, and school uniforms.

No matter how big or small, the Big Give Christmas Challenge is an amazing opportunity for your donation to make double the impact. All you have to do is donate through the Big Give website between midday on the 27th November and midday on the 4th December!

For more information, please contact fundraising@shs.org.uk or visit The Big Give Christmas Challenge website.

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