Despite having only been running for three years, Yorkshire Children’s Charity has made great strides in its fight against childhood poverty. We spoke with Charity Development Manager, Azure Stroud.
Hi Azure! How did you come to be involved with the Yorkshire Children’s Charity?
I’d been in the corporate world for over 25 years and never worked in the charity sector before. It’s an area I have always wanted to work in, so when this great opportunity came up, I jumped at it and I’m so glad I did! It’s just amazing, making a career of helping children.
The charity has been very successful in raising profile and fundraising and had a significant impact in a reasonably short time. To what do you attribute this success?
Our CEO Charlotte Farrington set up Yorkshire Children’s Charity just over three years ago, and we’ve helped over 50,000 children and raised £7.5 million to date. The charity definitely has the feel of a start up, we say yes to everything (and then worry about how we are going to deliver it afterwards), we are incredibly ambitious and Charlotte and Annabel, our Co-Founders, run a tight ship. They’ve also surrounded themselves with really good people and the team just has so much passion for what they do. I also think so much is down to the fact that the charity really is needed – and our supporters’ bandwidth is being hit. The recent Children’s Commissioner report really laid bare the reality of children in England living in almost Dickensian levels of poverty. Yorkshire perhaps the worst affected areas, with one in three children living in poverty. There are two sides to the charity: fundraising and programmes. For example, today our programmes team have taken 500 children to Lightwater Valley – children who will never have experienced going to a theme park or a day out because families and the schools can’t afford to send them on school trips. Last month we did a sports day for over 200 children, the majority of whom don’t have any green area and have never experienced this. To put it in perspective, there’s one family whose children were having to take turns attending school because they had only one pair of shoes. This is literally happening on our doorstep!
Tackling a problem like child poverty must seem daunting. Tell us about the strategy?
It’s about building relationships with schools and teachers, that’s how we can really understand the needs of our families and how best to help them. Even though we do high-profile events where we talk about the needs of our families, we don’t want it to be “look what Yorkshire Children’s Charity has done” – it’s really important to us that children believe the support has come from those who love and care for them, their teacher or their parents/carers. We very much see ourselves as a silent partner.
What kind of fundraising events does the charity organise?
Our main fundraising comes from high-profile events like our flagship event ‘A Night Under the Stars’ at Grantley Hall, which in its inaugural year was attended by the Prince of Monaco. Last year Olly Murs performed, and we raised over £1 million. In June, we put up a marquee at Allerton Park for a week of events that included our wellness day, Yorkshire Fest, followed by two amazing days of poo clay pigeon shooting.
We also have our challenge events like ‘Rampage’ – where we closed off the top two floors of Leeds Victoria car park and had teams cycle racing, live DJs, and food stalls, it was a huge success.
Which had the greatest impact?
I think one of the largest impacts is our Winter Support Campaign. This will be the third year running and fourth year providing Christmas presents for our most privileged children. Last year alone, we supported 154 schools and delivered over 10,000 essential winter items and more than 6,000 Christmas gifts for children who would otherwise go without. As a result of this support, 80% of schools have reported a direct improvement in attendance from their most vulnerable pupils.
How do you attract volunteers and promote the charity to someone who is unfamiliar with it?
We have incredible volunteers who dedicate their time to help out in our office or help support us at our children’s days out. I think you get far more back out of volunteering than you put in, just seeing the joy and happiness on children’s faces is priceless. A lot of our volunteers come through family and friends, so it’s word of mouth. We’re always looking for volunteers, especially for our winter essentials campaign, we need people to help pack these parcels. We’re only a team of 10, but what we’re achieving is astounding. I feel so privileged and honoured to be part of the Yorkshire Children’s Charity team because we’re really making a difference to people’s lives – not just children in poverty, but children who have disabilities and any child at a disadvantage. We will always focus on the need and never lose sight of how important our work is.
