Islington Giving: Supporting Families Islington Giving brings together residents, businesses and organisations to help tackle poverty and inequality in Islington and make a real difference in the local community. Islington Giving encourages people to give what they can, be it money, time or talents, to support a wide range of projects. No matter what the contribution, everyone has something to offer, give and gain. Since 2010 Islington Giving has raised over £5 million, to support over 60 voluntary organisations and charities, and engaged the support of over 4,000 volunteers to change people’s lives for the better. This work is focused on 3 main areas: • • •
Investing in young people Supporting Families Reaching isolated people
Working in partnership and maximising the contribution volunteers can make are the core values underpinning these areas of work. All running and administration costs of Islington Giving are met by Cripplegate Foundation, so every penny raised for Islington Giving is spent directly on the organisations and projects supported. In 2012 Mitford Centre donated funds of £273,121 to Islington Giving to work with families with young children. Read on to find out how just over £40,000 of this money was allocated to 8 local projects and the difference it made to people’s lives.
Supporting Families Small Grants Programme 2015-2016 Aims: Islington Giving actively sought partners who could deliver a programme of summer holiday and / or weekend activities to help improve the lives of Islington families. The Supporting Families programme was specifically designed for families with children under 5 and sought projects that provided fun, social, and low-cost activities that enabled parents and children to spend time together with the aims of: • improving relationships • supporting parents with the challenges of being a parent • connecting people to local resources and opportunities • enabling families to establish new friendships and networks • having fun and new experiences
Outcomes:
8 local projects funded
Over 650 children and young people and 600 adults directly benefited
Over 135 activity sessions delivered
44 people volunteered their time
Strong partnership working evidenced; 20 partner organisations worked with the 8 funded projects
A further £18,250 was leveraged into these groups as a result of the initial funding from Islington Giving
Who we reached:
*most organisations only reported on the gender of the adults who engaged with their project
The difference: All the projects engaged families that often struggle for opportunities to have fun, socialize and learn new things together. As a great example of what the programme achieved, Moreland Children Centre, in partnership with Islington Museum, provided local families with access to a holiday programme of creative workshops themed on the local area. Families worked with a professional storyteller and created fabric screen prints with a textile artist. The project culminated into a celebration event and exhibition of work created, which will be permanently displayed in the museum and children’s centre. Moreland Children Centre reflected that by providing an enabling environment families benefited from spending quality time with each other, had new experiences, made friends and had an increased sense of being a part of the local community. Below is a story of how one family who took part benefited.
Mrs A and her husband who are from Nigeria live on a neighbouring estate and have three children, twins aged 3 and a 15 month old baby. She has a chronic health condition which has led to periods of hospitalization. The family is on low income as no one in the family is able to work. The family has received family support from the Children's Centre and Mrs A has often said it is hard to leave the family home with all 3 children. Mrs. A was contacted about the project through her family support worker and was keen to attend as she wanted to do activities in the holidays with her children and she also knew that there would be familiar staff from the children’s centre to help with the children. Mrs A had never been to Islington Museum before, so along with other families we met at the centre first and walked to the museum which broke down the barrier of going to an unfamiliar place. Islington Museum is a short distance from the family Home and now mum says she feels more confident to go to holiday activities on offer at the museum. “It’s a very nice project. I enjoyed myself and the children ask to go all the time, when they pass it they remember going “ The project had a positive impact in that mum was also able to enjoy herself in her own right doing the art work, socializing and meeting other families, as well as have fun joining in and doing activities with her own children. Mum and her 3 children attended 2 workshops and also came along to the final exhibition and enjoyed meeting up again with the families who had attended as well as meeting the Mayor and seeing all the work on show.
The difference: Over 40 people volunteered their time to support local families in the borough and enable them to get the most out of the opportunities provided. Below are three accounts of the difference volunteering made to Islington residents.
Michael spent 5 weeks over the summer assisting the Family Group Worker with delivering and setting up the Farming Families sessions. Through this Michael gained new skills and confidence in working with new people and expressing himself. He was able to learn about planning and reviewing sessions and tailoring activities to the needs of individual families. He gained experience of working as part of a team and key knowledge such as safeguarding and health and safety. He managed to overcome personal barriers to taking on responsibility including being confident in his own ability and having strategies to reduce the level of instruction and reassurance needed from others to complete tasks. During the time he not only supported the sessions but also assisted another young person with cerebral palsy to engage with farm activities. During the year he has continued to volunteer at the farm and to support activities during the school holidays. He has been accepted on a course in teaching and learning to train as a teaching assistant in the coming year and is looking forwards to starting.
To find out more or get in touch: Website: www.islingtongiving.org.uk Contact:
[email protected] Call: 020 7288 6941
“After almost two years caring for my newborn and becoming truly 'Baby-brained', I thought I would never have the selfconfidence to look for work again. Volunteering (at Paradise Park) allowed me the opportunity to practice my administrative and social interactive skills in a friendly, relaxed environment, without the anxieties that a paid job would have brought me. It helped me to see that I was capable and it gave me the confidence I needed to start job-hunting and socialising again”.
“Volunteering was a positive experience for me. It exposed me to a new experience in assisting the screen printer. I learnt new skills and working with the children was fun – it will be good for my CV. Giving my time as a volunteer helped the smooth running of the project, giving a better experience for all and extra support to children and families so everyone could participate”.
