How you’re helping War Child and the Trussell Trust this Christmas

In the midst of an extremely stressful time for all of us, Prospect members have once again shown the immense power that comes from a belief in solidarity. This spirit of helping others, which underpins the support that members provide in workplaces across the UK, has led to an incredible response to our second Christmas charity campaign.

Since the 1 December members have raised nearly £10,000 for our charity partners the Trussell Trust and War Child, which is an extraordinary achievement. This has included Gift Aid and contributions from our Member Recruit Member scheme and reminds us once again that every contribution can make a huge difference.

If you haven’t been able to donate to War Child and Trussell Trust yet there’s still time, with the campaign running until the end of December. You can also continue to donate your Member Recruit Member vouchers to these charities through December and into 2022.

The work that you’ve helped these charities do

We wanted to highlight how vital your support is, so earlier this month we ran a webinar with our partners to talk through the important work you have enabled them to do. Here’s an abridged overview from that event, on what you have helped each charity achieve:

Ella McNab, Senior Partnerships Manager at War Child

“The is situation is desperate in the countries that we’re working in but there is hope. With partners like Prospect, we were able to deliver programs and make a real difference to children living in dangerous conflict zones.

I want to talk about our work in Afghanistan, which your Christmas campaign is supporting. The first phase of our support includes providing social workers who are a direct one to one support for children and their families. We provide psychological first aid to children, and we’ve also reactivated our child helpline, which is a free helpline that children can call if they feel unsafe. And as part of our longer-term recovery plan we provide learning materials and teacher training, sanitary kits, agricultural kits and cash grants.

Over the years Prospect has donated tens of thousands of pounds to War Child, which has made such a huge difference. But just to take it back to a manageable number of say £30.

£30 can have such a huge impact on the children we work with in Afghanistan. £30 could provide a warm blanket for a whole family and food for a month, so if you take the month of December, which is the toughest month in Afghanistan at the height of winter, just £30 can provide a lifeline a whole family.

Prospect has helped us to help so many families. A massive thank you from all at War Child for your support.”

Crispin Shingler, Corporate Partnerships Manager at Trussell Trust

“Thank you so much, firstly, for your ongoing support of the Trussell Trust especially throughout the pandemic. Your donations have enabled us to implement our strategy of Changing Minds, Changing Communities and Changing Policy.

This strategy includes giving food banks operational support, reaching out to all areas of government to inform as to what is happening on the ground so policymakers know what the reality is, and running campaigns around changing perceptions.

What that looks like on the ground: from April this year to the end of September we have distributed almost a million food parcels; trained project managers, volunteers and trustees so they can run their food banks as efficiently as possible; and provided a helpline for those working in foodbanks for queries including anything from not being able to turn on their laptop to strategic planning.

One of our main success stories has been our Help Through Hardship advice helpline. This helps us to understand the reasons why people are being referred to a foodbank. The trained advisors spend a lot of time – more time than someone would experience if they were applying for universal credit – to really understand their caller’s circumstances. Advisors will go through a caller’s household income and their benefit claims and are able to ensure the right amount of household income is coming to that household. A sign of the success of this project is the cumulative income gained since the start of the helpline of over £18,000.000.

This is just a snap shot of the work you are helping us do. As ever we are truly grateful for your support. Thank you.”

Find out more about our charity partners and their work at our Charitable Causes page.

Honour Bayes is Prospect’s Digital Projects Officer