We’re breaking away here to give thanks to all the supporters and funders who enable us to carry out the work that we do in providing a safe space for our community. If not for them, we would not be able to provide the sessions in the way that we do.
For a good amount of time now, we have received support from various sources. One lady who has helped SSNC at many significant times of the year is none other than Linda Carrington. During the various holidays in the year: Easter, Halloween, Christmas celebrations. Linda has brought our community (and consequently its members) food, biscuits, advent calendars, and various other bric-a-brac bits. Linda is a highly-esteemed, well-regarded local individual who has even received an BEM award for her services to the local community. She is pictured below and works with the NSPCC as well.
Healthy Holidays Hull, organisation, contributed in making our 2023 Summer Program a reality (Healthy Holidays Hull, 2023). They provided us with the funds at SSNC to give our young people nutritious balanced meals, as well as putting on interactive activities that were both engaging and supportive of their ongoing development. If you check out our Events page, you can see just a glimpse of what they helped us make possible for our attendees.
#HAF also have a similar ethos to ourselves. They are also concerned with breaking down the barriers to help young people gain access to activities that they might not otherwise be able to do without our support. Ones that without our help, and the help we received from Healthy Holidays Hull, our young people may not otherwise be able to do.
Healthy Holidays Hull are supported to fund events through: The department of education (The Education Hub, 2023).
In the years that have passed, Big Local have helped us to fund a staff team for many of our in-house events with qualified, trained, and knowledgeable employees and volunteers. The enterprise regularly works alongside many constituencies across the breadth of the UK. (Over 150!) Check out Big Local, a group of wonderful people who not only strive to help us, to help you (Greatfield, 2019). They also have a social investment fund, whereby if you have a concept that you believe could support your local community, they can help you more directly. They are supported with their funds through: The national lottery funding (The National Lottery Fund, 2023).
Another of the supporters/funders we are maintained as a community by? Funds from the Hull City Council (Hull City Council, 2023). We have approached them for supporting various elements of running our community. Refurbishing our hygiene facilities alongside other funds, over-heads, resources. You name it and we need it. The various grants from them and the plethora of other funders listed here have supported us, to support the community here at SSNC. Just to keep a base for our community members to come to. It’s vital for the continuation of our local support services.
A consistent support to our sessions we offer is the company that provides cheap food for our community. Fareshare supports us and over 8,500 other charities. Without them, we would not have been able to venture into the ‘Can’t cook, come and cook’ project. Now, we use them to sustain our community and provide a cooked meal for all our members during most, if not for the majority, of all events we put on.
So, sometimes during the winter months, we are unable to provide outdoor activities that our young people enjoy. We have also put on events for our older community members for outings, which is not possible during the winter months. Some of our members attend and play weekly games of dominoes.
Our young people enjoy engaging with digital activities, which can be difficult for some in our community to gain access to these activities without resources provided. SSNC took notice and contacted local funders: Arnold Clark (Arnold Clark, 2023). They previously provided us with the funds, to the tune of £1000, to purchase some digital consoles. (Playstation4s, Nintendo Wii(s), Nintendo Switches etc.) Also, if it was not for their support, we might not have been able to provide the support we did during lockdown and afterwards. Why not find out about how this benefits the users of our service by visiting the Your Community Voice page. (Remains to be updated.)
A lot of the resources we have come into the SSNC community as a result of having open conversations with our attendees. One of the things that people who attend SSNC sessions previously requested were activities involving sewing and textiles art. We noticed the need, so we requested funds from the ASDA Foundation Grants to purchase the materials (ASDA Foundation, 2023). SSNC included the purchase of three sewing machines.
Our young people were able to use these supervised and thoroughly enjoyed crafting various items. They made mini pockets, floral patterns, and learnt transferrable skills using small sewing kits – which they can continue to use in repairing their own items. So, this is how we utilised the fund. The reason we reached out to them? They support grassroots organisations such as ourselves to better support the growth of young people.
To end on just a small selection of funders and supporters we have worked with to gain funds and accessibility of various things for our community, we wanted to tell you about a local charitable organisation we have had assistance from in keeping ourselves propped up and afloat. The Charity that is also responsible for the set-up of the Garden Village settlement in East Hull! (Hull and East Yorkshire Heritage store, 2023) Initially, the settlement was created for the employees of Sir James Reckitt, a local businessman and philanthropist who valued all the people in his community and workforce. Sir James Reckitt’s influence to build upon what we have and providing more prosperity for all lives on, in the form of the Sir James Reckitt Charity (The Sir James Reckitt Charity, 2023). SSNC used the funds from them to keep their building quite ‘literally’ afloat. They used it in refurbishing their facilities and funding over-heads such as heating and lighting costs. In recent years, the cost of living crisis has greatly impacted many local service providers and communities. Many places have been hard pushed to cover a lot of their overheads and have sadly had to close down. So, we are extremely grateful for their funds that enabled us to continue our work in the community.
We are aware that there are a vast number of other organisations we have to thank for the continuation of our services. They help us to continue our vision of supporting the well-being and growth of our community. In short, if it wasn’t for all hands on deck…we would not be here today. We appreciate every single one of you. Thank you!
Author: Emma Penfold – Hall, updated November 2023
Bibliography
Arnold Clark (2023). Available online: The Arnold Clark Community Fund | Arnold Clark [Accessed: 23/08/2023]
ASDA Foundation (2023). Available online: Foundation Grants | Asda Foundation [Accessed: 23/08/2023]
Fareshare (2023). Available online: Hull & Humber – Fareshare [Accessed: 06/09/2023]
Greatfield. (2019) Big Local. Available online: Big Local at Greatfield Big Local Community [Accessed: 23/08/2023]
Healthy Holidays Hull (2023). Available online: Healthy Holidays Hull [Accessed: 23/08/2023]
Hull and East Yorkshire Heritage store (2023). Available online: Explore Garden Village | hullandbeverleyheritagestore.co.uk [Accessed: 23/08/2023]
Hull City Council (2023). Available online: Grants and funding | Hull City Council [Accessed: 23/08/2023]
The Education Hub (2023). Available online: Funding – The Education Hub (blog.gov.uk) [Accessed: 23/08/2023]
The National Lottery Fund (2023). Available online: Home | The National Lottery Community Fund (tnlcommunityfund.org.uk) [Accessed: 23/08/2023]
The Sir James Reckitt Charity (2023). Available online: Home | Sir James Reckitt Charity (thesirjamesreckittcharity.org.uk) [Accessed: 23/08/2023]
