Our next Reach For Wellbeing Program starts on Wednesday 4th October and will run for 8 weeks. Please see below for full details and how to book.
New Reach For Wellbeing Programme starting 4th October
Hays Travel Allestree Get Their Walking Boots On For Children First Derby
On Sunday 13th August, four members of the team from Hays Travel in Allestree complete a tough 17 mile walk, raising £519.00 for Children First Derby.
Kelly, Arran, Kacey and Emmie from The Hays Travel Allestree decided to arrange a sponsored walk from Hays Travel Allestree to East Midlands Airport.
Starting at 8.30am on the Sunday morning, the long walk which went through The City Centre, Alvaston, Shardlow and Castle Donington, before ending at East Midlands Airport Arrivals, took 8 hours and 30 minutes, 3 pub stops and 37,707 steps to complete.
Kelly Irvine, Branch Manger explained, “We decided to support Children First Derby as it is a cause that we really care about, and a charity that aligns with our values and beliefs here at Hays Travel. Hays Travel are big ambassadors of supporting local charities within our communities.”
Hays Travel have their own charity, the Hays Foundation which focuses on causes supporting and helping children and families. Each year the branches are all encouraged to do charity and community work in their own local areas and are given £500 to help them with this.
“Although it was tougher than we thought, and I couldn’t move afterwards, we really did enjoy walking for this great charity.” added Kelly.
“It was a great day for team building too and we felt really accomplished at the end of it. The pub stops on route certainly helped too. We decided to do a walk to the airport as we wanted to do something linked to travel.
We can’t wait to do more in the future to support Children First Derby and other causes in our community.”
The walk raised a fantastic £519.00 through donations on Just Giving before the walk, and in cash donations that were donated along the way.
Louise Webb, Fundraising Coordinator at Children First Derby said, “We are really grateful to Hays Travel for fundraising for us. The team all did a great job completing the walk and not only did they raise a fantastic amount, but they helped raise awareness of the charity, wearing our branded t-shirts, talking to people on the way and sharing lots of photos on social media.
We are delighted that they chose to support us and can’t wait to do more work with them in the future.”
Positive parenting course – starts monday 6th November 6.15pm
Our next Positive Parenting Course starts on Monday 6th November, 6.15pm-8.15pm and will run for 5 weeks. Please see below for full details and how to book.
Children First Derby Receive Significant Grant For Creative Club
Children First Derby has received a grant of £14,942.00 from the Open Work Foundation for the delivery of a mentoring Creative Club for young people.
The Creative Club will build on Children First Derby’s already successful mentoring programme that supports vulnerable 10–18-year-olds living in Derby.
Children First Derby provides effective support with managing challenges, increasing self confidence and self-esteem, reducing isolation, and improving self-regulation.
The funding will create a safe space and provide opportunities to implement a creative setting for positive peer interactions and activities to develop key skills. It will also offer additional one-to-one mentoring.
The activities will be delivered in partnership with external providers to ensure that the additional and varied needs of the children are met.
Kerreene Davidson, Mentoring Service Manager, explained, “The pandemic and current economic climate have escalated needs, continues to impact families, and exacerbate challenges young people face.”
Kerreene went on to explain, “Our group work immediately serves a larger number of mentees with the option of one-to-one support if required. It offers an environment to promote diversity, consider different perspectives and inspires young people to share their ideas and express opinions”.
ACTRESS GWEN TAYLOR ENTERTAINS AUDIENCE AT CHARITY LUNCHEON
Children First Derby celebrated the hugely successful return of its popular Annual Fundraising Luncheon, held on 28th June at Morley Hayes Derby, which raised crucial funds to help support local vulnerable children, young people, and families.
The event was attended by over 80 people including prominent local business leaders and dignitaries, with guests of honour including the Deputy Mayor of Derby, Councillor Ged Potter.
Derbyshire born actress Gwen Taylor, who is also a patron of Children First Derby, has appeared in many British television programmes including Duty Free, Barbara, Heartbeat, Coronation Street and Eastenders, attended the luncheon as the guest speaker.
She delivered a funny and emotional speech, sharing stories from her time acting which had the audience both laughing and crying. Gwen was happy to chat with anyone that wanted to speak to her, and even gave tips to aspiring actress and mentoring volunteer Mia Luft, who helps run the drama group at Children First Derby.
“It was a fantastic experience speaking to Gwen and I found her insight on drama schools and how to get experience invaluable. I hope to be as successful as her one day!” said Mia.
As an extra surprise, Gwen brought along her leaving gift from her most recent stint on Eastenders, an Albert Square sign, signed by all the cast to show the luncheon guests.
“It was lovely to hear about Gwen’s life in theatre and acting, she was a pleasure to listen to and made the crowd smile and we are lucky to have her as a patron.” Louise Web, Fundraising Coordinator at Children First Derby.
As part of the event, guests enjoyed a two-course luncheon, served in the Pavilion. The charity’s fundraising team led fundraising activities throughout the afternoon, which included a raffle and bonus ball game.
“We were delighted to see so many people from the local community come together at our luncheon. We rely on public funding and fundraising events such as these to operate our Mentoring and Family Support Services. Thank you to everyone who attended and everyone that helped make the event a success.” added Louise.
Thanks also went to the all the staff at Morley Hayes, who worked hard to help make the event a success and generously provided all guests with a complementary reception drink on arrival.
CHILDREN FIRST DERBY LAUNCH SUMMER HOLIDAY TREASURE HUNT AT DERBION
Children First Derby will be running a Treasure Hunt at the Derbion throughout the summer holidays to raise money for the charity.
Launching on Friday 4th August, the treasure hunt sheets will be available for £2 from the Customer Service Desk in the Derbion Centre.
Children (and adults if they want to!) will be given a treasure hunt sheet with 12 clues to solve to find out which shops and restaurants they need to visit. In the window in each of the 12 locations, there will be a summer themed sticker. It’s easy to take part, you just write down the symbols you find on the sheet and return it to Customer Service when you are done.
Every child that completes the treasure hunt will receive a small gift, which could be giant lollipop or fidget toy.
Every participant will also be entered into the grand prize draw. With prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place you could be going home with a 3 in 1 tabletop game, a table football game or a cuddly build a bear.
The grand prize draw will take place on the final day of the treasure hunt, which is Friday 1st September at the Children First Derby Summer Fayre.
JOIN OUR FREE 8-WEEK AUTISM PARENTS COURSE STARTING IN SEPTEMBER
There’s still spaces on our next Autism Parents Course starting on Thursday 28th September. Please see below for full details and how to book.
CHILDREN’S CHARITY BENEFIT FROM HOUSING STAFF PUTTING IN THE HARD YARDS
Staff from a Derby-based housebuilder have helped to raise more than £7,000 for a children’s charity in the city.
Children First Derby, who work to support vulnerable children, young people and families in the city, have received £7,192 from Miller Homes East Midlands, whose offices are also based in Derby.
The housebuilding firm’s staff took part in a charity challenge to clock up as many miles on foot as they could within a calendar month, with their combined efforts totalling 7,192 miles.
This resulted in £1 per mile being contributed towards the fundraising pot from the national housebuilder’s head office, with the money all going towards Children First Derby, who are Miller Homes East Midlands’ charity of choice.
Louise Webb, Fundraising Coordinator for Children First Derby, said: “Children First Derby are extremely grateful to Miller Homes for their continued support and fundraising over the last two years. The team at Miller Homes are always fantastic to work with and their latest fundraising effort is incredible, to raise £7,192 in just one month is a fantastic achievement.
“Thank you to everyone that took part in the challenge. This generous donation will make such a difference to the vulnerable children, young people and families that we support in and around Derby.”
Miller Homes have been supporting Children First Derby since 2021, raising more than £22,000 in that time.
Based at their regional offices on Pride Park, Derby, Miller Homes East Midlands is currently building new homes across Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire.
Tom Roberts, regional operations director of Miller Homes East Midlands, said: “Part of our ethos as a housebuilder is to support our community through a variety of ways, and we’re particularly proud of our heritage in Derby and being afforded the opportunity to actively engage with local charities and community groups.
“Miller Homes East Midlands is a keen supporter of the amazing work carried out by Children First Derby, and we were really pleased to greet them with the news that our staff had been able to raise over £7,000 throughout the course of just one month to go directly back into the charity to further aid the work they do. A huge well done to everyone within our team for putting on their walking boots and collecting the miles required to achieve this feat for charity.
“We feel very passionate about this charity and look forward to keeping in touch with the team from Children First to understand how this funding has helped to impact the lives of young people across Derbyshire.”
To find out more about the homes currently being built by Miller Homes across the East Midlands, visit https://www.millerhomes.co.uk/locations/east-midlands-and-the-surrounding-areas
CHARITY’S 8th ANNUAL FASHION SHOW RAISES OVER £2,300 TO SUPPORT LOCAL FAMILIES
This year saw the return of the hugely popular Children First Derby Fashion Show sponsored by Fatball. Now in its eighth year, the event, held on Friday 24th March at the Derby Conference Centre, raised over £2,300 to help support local vulnerable children, young people, and families.
The fun-filled, packed event was hosted by BBC Radio Derby Presenter’s Andy Twigge, (Twiggy) and Dave Fletcher, who kept the audience entertained throughout with their witty commentary. The guests of honour included Children First Derby Patron, renowned Actress and BAFTA nominee, Gwen Taylor, and The RT Hon Dame Margaret Beckett DBE MP.
Louise Webb, Fundraising Coordinator said, “I was delighted with the feedback from the fashion show. From the volunteers that helped organise it, to the models and the retailers, everyone contributed to making the night a huge success.”
The Fashion Show models included local business leaders who strutted their stuff on the catwalk to help raise funds and awareness for the charity, alongside a host of the charity’s longstanding volunteers, trustees and supporters. There were even several younger models this year, who helped diversify the range of clothing modelled as they danced up and down floor.
The dazzling models showcased a range of day wear and beautiful evening wear. There were also some stunning bridal dresses on show, which led to audience participation and a fun game of ‘Say Yes to the Dress’, with young model Zainab taking the crown as best dressed.
Stunning outfits were provided by Threadz Preowned Vintage, Dalrymples of Sawley, She’s A Rainbow Melbounrne, Izzi Fashion, Front Row Fashion Boutique, Cabi, Young Ideas, Next, Rebecca Henry Melbourne and Jillian Hart who all kindly supported the event, and outfits were accessorised with lots of sparkle from Merchants Jewellers.
The interval consisted of some head spinning entertainment from the Trinity Warriors Dance Academy who have recently auditioned for a popular TV Show. From back flips to break dancing, James, Mac & Cannon really got the audience clapping.
As part of the event, various fundraising activities took place throughout the evening, which included a raffle and guess the name of the giant bear – Fred, named after our chair of trustees.
Louise added, “Children First Derby relies on public donations and fundraising from events like this, with all the funds going straight back into running our vital mentoring and family support services, contributing towards costs such as family trips and mentoring activities, allowing children and young people to participate in new, creative activities that they might otherwise be unable to experience.
“We would like to thank everyone who attended for their incredible support, which is, as always, very much appreciated and of course to the sponsors Fatball, the models, our fabulous volunteers, especially Sandra Harrison who created this idea of a fashion show eight years ago and is still active in the organising today. and the generous retailers who all helped make the event possible.”
In an effort to generate even more funds for the charity, cricket commentator Dave Fletcher started an informal auction for a Derbyshire County Cricket T20 Blast Pass, which saw local businessman and continued supporter of the charity Karim Merchant of Merchant Jewellers, place the highest winning bid of £150.
