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Children First Derby is celebrating today after being awarded £311,618 in funding, over five years, from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.

Children First Derby is a local charity that works with vulnerable children, young people, and their families, to make a positive impact on their lives. Children First Derby will use the funding to enhance their highly effective community Family Support Service, which they have been delivering since 2015.

The service provides early intervention support to vulnerable families with children up to the age of 18, in the most deprived areas of Derby, designed to remove the need for Social Care intervention.

Irshad Baqui, CEO, Children First Derby said: “Families need support for many reasons and may struggle to cope due to family breakdown, mental health issues, social isolation, or children’s challenging behaviour.

This new National Lottery funding will allow us to enhance our service which aims to support families to move forward positively with their lives. Our support is child-centred, holistic and based on recognised good practice. We focus on improving family relationships, building resilience, reducing mental health issues, and facilitating connections with appropriate community support networks.”

In addition to providing one to one support to vulnerable children and families, Children First Derby offer several parental support workshops which provide practical and constructive guidance to help families address the challenges they face.

National Lottery players raise over £30 million a week for good causes across the UK. The National Lottery Community Fund distributes a share of this to projects to support people and communities to prosper and thrive. 

Fred Jacques, Chair of Trustees, Children First Derby explained, “Thanks to National Lottery players, this grant means that we can help even more families that need to access our vital services. The pandemic has intensified the situation for vulnerable families in the area and we are finding more families facing challenges due to increased isolation and loneliness and in the absence of the support from wider family networks. A significant number of parents and carers are experiencing mental health issues and another major area has been behaviour management, mainly due to children’s anxiety and isolation. All this has meant that the demand for the service has significantly increased, and the type of support needed has also changed. This funding will make a big difference to people’s lives.”

During the pandemic, in 2020 alone, The National Lottery Community Fund distributed almost £1 billion to charities and community organisations across the UK.

Children First Derby are on the hunt for Easter Eggs and we need your help!

We’re aiming to collect as many Easter Eggs as possible, which our team will then distribute to our supported vulnerable children and young people – just in time for Easter.

If you would like to donate any chocolate eggs to our charity, please just drop off your Easter Egg donations to:

Children First Derby or contact Louise Webb at louise.webb@childrenfirstderby.co.uk

Closing date for donations is Thursday 23rd March

Any donations would be MUCH appreciated. Thank you for your support.

Children First Derby would like to thank The UPS Foundation for their generous $20,000 grant to fund three ‘Reach for Wellbeing Programmes’.

The unique, fun eight-week courses are designed to support parents and carers to help improve their mental and physical health as well as help remove isolation and loneliness, build wider support networks, improve self-confidence, and develop parenting skills.

The first two programmes have now successfully run, with the third starting shortly.

The programme aims to provide guidance on general health and wellbeing, develop practical skills and understanding, help establish social support networks to build resilience and help parents to establish a sound and stable environment in order for
them to help their children develop, progress and achieve the best possible outcomes in their lives.

Irshad Baqui, Chief Executive, Children First Derby explained, “The demand we are seeing for support amongst vulnerable families is increasing and the more parents partake in these workshops the less chances of them facing more complex mental health issues.”

The programmes are being delivered in partnership with @beingmeorganisation, a local not-for-profit mental health support organisation, who deliver friendly and informative sessions tailored to needs of participants. The weekly sessions cover topics including mental health, social connections, exercise, sleep, confidence, and cooking. 

Irshad added, “The programme will have a positive impact on parental mental health which will have a long-term benefit on family life and the child’s well-being. The environment in which children and young people grow affects their development and emotional well-being, and children of parents with any mental illness are at risk a range of mental health problems, including mood disorders, alcoholism, and personality disorders.”

To compliment the courses links will be provided to useful wellbeing apps and signposting to additional services, as well as a selection of free self-help books and recipe bags for participants to takeaway.

Children First Derby would like to thank The Provincial Grand Charity of Derbyshire (The Derbyshire Freemasons’ Charity) for supporting its new five-a-side Football Club.

The generous £1400 grant from the PGC Derbyshire Freemasons’ Charity means that Children First Derby can now cover the cost of venue hire, to run the football club on a weekly basis for the next two years.  

The new football club is part of the Group Mentoring activities that the charity delivers, which also include drama and climbing, to support vulnerable 10-18 year olds in Derby. The addition of five-a-side football has helped engaging those young people that are interested in football in the mentoring process.

Children First Derby are delighted to have been awarded a grant from the Barclays Community Football Fund, being delivered in partnership with Sported, to help establish a five-a-side Football Club as part of the Group Mentoring activities that the charity delivers.

The Mentoring Service at Children First Derby offers 1-to-1 mentoring providing confidential, community-based support for young people aged 10 to 18 facing challenges. They offer regular, group and intensive mentoring.

Chief Executive, Irshad Baqui, said, “Group Mentoring and the diversionary activities offered as part of this are a critical part of our mentoring model. Diversionary activities help to divert your attention from things that are less desirable or stressful to manage. The significant improvements in life prospects for young people at risk, from participating in diversionary activities and the benefits to the wider community are well documented. We currently run a Drama Group and a Climbing Club and are excited to now be able to offer more choice of activities with the new football club.

Five-a-side football will help engaging those young people that are interested in football in the mentoring process. We are grateful to Barclays Community Fund for this grant which will be used for purchase of the equipment for the initial set-up, such as balls, cones, kits, and other equipment as well as for venue hire.”

The Barclays Community Football Fund launched in 2022. The fund will primarily support young people in deprived or underrepresented areas through local organisations (like Children First Derby), many of whom are not yet benefitting from the wider football pyramid. Sported is the largest network of community sports groups in the UK, supporting more than 2,600 groups to help disadvantaged young people build confidence, gain skills and get their lives on track.

Nicola Walker, Chief Executive of Sported said: “Groups like Children First Derby make a real difference in the lives of young people and it’s so important that they get the support and resources they need to sustain their good work. Through Sported’s partnership with Barclays, we want to widen the net of opportunities and this new football project will give more youths in Derby the chance to get a kick out of sport.”

We have recently appointed a new PR and Marketing Coordinator, Jordan Hazell, to the team at Children First Derby.

Jordan has over 10 years’ experience in corporate marketing and communications and has most recently worked at the charity Derbyshire Wildlife Trust.

Jordan said, ‘I’m very excited to get stuck into my role at Children First Derby, using my skills, experience and contacts to help promote and raise the profile of the fantastic work that the charity is doing.

Whether that’s through writing blogs, securing press coverage or updating social media and the website, I can’t wait to share more about the amazing things Children First Derby does and the important impact that has for local children and families.’

Watch this space!

We are proud to report that our first Christmas Family Market was a huge success! Held at The River Mill, Darley Abbey with the help and support from Chrissie Rose, Founder/ Director of The West Mill, The River Mill, The Mill House and The Mill Cottage. What a superb venue for a Christmas Market, the River Mill oozes character whist creating a warm and welcoming environment for families to enjoy the perfect day together.

We would like to say a huge thank you to Cosy Foundation for sponsoring the event, we are so grateful to all the team at Cosy for their continued support.

We are also so thankful to so many people for supporting Children First Derby, who attended to shop for gifts or who had their own stall to showcase their wonderful merchandise.

Personal thanks go out to Rachel Hill for bringing her very well-behaved donkeys to say ‘Hi’ to the children & adults, what beautiful cared for happy donkeys, they made so many people smile on the day, and we cannot wait to have them visit again next year.