Communities Fund provided £4,850 of match funding
Loved Again
London, England, United Kingdom
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Aim
Loved Again – Financial resilience after a difficult start for families
Most parents expect having a baby to cost money. What is much harder to prepare for is a pregnancy or birth that does not go to plan.
Loved Again particularly supports families who have experienced Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG), complex or high-risk pregnancies, premature birth, early NICU stays or babies born with additional health or developmental needs.
For these families, financial difficulty can begin before the baby even arrives.
A mother with severe HG may have been unable to work normally for months. A premature birth can suddenly bring forward maternity leave and disrupt carefully made plans. Parents may face repeated hospital journeys, parking and travel costs, additional childcare for siblings, specialist feeding or clothing needs and time away from work. After discharge, some discover that their baby's needs make returning to their previous hours or employment unrealistic.
Families who were previously managing can suddenly find themselves relying on means-tested benefits, while families already receiving benefits have very little flexibility to absorb additional costs.
At exactly the same time, they are expected to buy everything a new baby needs.
Loved Again responds to both sides of that pressure: reducing what families need to spend now and helping them become better prepared for what comes next.
1. Loved Again Baby Library – don't buy what you can safely reuse
We collect suitable donated cots, prams, buggies, highchairs, changing furniture and other baby equipment and keep these valuable community resources in circulation.
Items suitable for reuse are checked, cleaned and refreshed and then loaned or passed to another family. Where appropriate, when that baby has finished using the item, it comes back into Loved Again for its next family.
For a household whose income has suddenly reduced, avoiding several large purchases at once can make an immediate difference.
It also introduces an important financial habit:
Before buying new, ask: can I borrow it, reuse it, repair it or source it pre-loved?
This isn't presented as something families should feel embarrassed about. It is good financial and environmental practice.
2. Baby Budget – preparing for the costs nobody warned you about
Alongside practical support, we will offer small, sensitive financial-literacy workshops designed around the realities of pregnancy, birth and the first years of family life.
These will not be generic lectures about "managing money better". Many of our parents are already extremely careful with limited household budgets.
Instead, sessions will help families work through real decisions including:
• What does our baby genuinely need and what can we avoid buying?
• How will maternity leave, sickness or reduced working hours affect our household income?
• What happens if I cannot return to work when I expected?
• What additional expenses could arise following premature birth, hospitalisation or a baby's additional needs?
• What benefits and other financial support might we be entitled to, and when should we seek specialist benefits advice?
• How do childcare costs compare with returning to work or changing hours?
• Which annual or irregular expenses should we start preparing for now?
• How can we create a small emergency buffer even when there is very little spare income?
• How can partners make financial decisions together when both are exhausted and under pressure?
• How can meal planning, buying carefully, borrowing, sharing, repairing and reusing reduce regular household expenditure?
Parents will leave with their own practical Family Financial Plan, rather than simply information from a workshop.
3. Financial MOTs at key transition points
One budget made during pregnancy will not necessarily work six months later.
We therefore want to offer short financial check-ins at important transition points: preparing for birth, coming home following a difficult or premature birth, the end of maternity leave, returning to work, starting childcare, or when a child's additional needs begin affecting employment or household expenditure.
The question becomes:
"What has changed financially since we last saw you?"
A parent who expected to return to work full-time may now only manage two days. Another may suddenly have significant travel expenses for hospital appointments. Another may need help understanding what financial support could be available following their child's diagnosis.
Where needs go beyond financial education, we will signpost or refer families to appropriate specialist welfare, debt or benefits advice rather than expecting a peer mentor to provide regulated or specialist advice.
4. Money conversations without stigma
The parents we work with have often already had to tell their story repeatedly to medical and statutory professionals.
They do not necessarily want another formal appointment.
Financial wellbeing conversations can therefore happen alongside our existing parent support: over refreshments at a teatime meeting, while arranging a cot, during a peer-mentor check-in or as a short workshop with other parents at a similar stage of life.
This gives us opportunities to identify financial pressure earlier.
A conversation that starts with:
"Does anyone have a highchair I could borrow?"
may reveal that a parent has stopped working, is struggling with an electricity bill or doesn't understand what support they can access.
Loved Again gives us a trusted doorway into that conversation.
5. Returning to work after baby
Our families have also shown us that financial wellbeing and emotional wellbeing cannot always be separated.
Nine women who had returned to work within two years of having their babies told us that they were finding the transition difficult. Even travelling to an exercise group created additional time and cost when they were balancing employment, childcare and getting home to their babies.
We responded by arranging Pilates close to their workplace while their babies were in playgroup. Other nearby women could join too.
This is the approach we want throughout Loved Again: support should fit around family life rather than creating another expense or obligation.
Return-to-work sessions can therefore explore childcare costs, changes in household income, budgeting around working hours and the practical financial implications of increasing or reducing employment.
6. A circular economy within the community
Loved Again also asks families to become contributors whenever they are able.
A parent may receive a cot during a financially difficult year and return it when their child outgrows it.
Someone who once needed a pram may later donate a highchair.
Another parent may volunteer to clean equipment, organise donations or help at a reuse event.
Resources move around the community rather than in one direction.
DONATE CHECK CLEAN/REPAIR BORROW RETURN LOVE AGAIN
This means our £25,000 investment has the potential to continue creating value beyond the initial grant period.
A grant spent purchasing one cot helps one household own a cot.
Investment in a properly organised reuse system can enable the same safe, suitable piece of equipment to support family after family.
What we want families to achieve
Loved Again will measure more than how many items we distribute.
We want parents to:
feel more confident about their household finances;
understand how their income and expenditure may change following birth;
identify upcoming costs before they become emergencies;
know where to seek specialist help when they need it;
reduce unnecessary expenditure on baby equipment;
develop practical habits around borrowing, sharing, repairing and reuse;
feel better prepared for maternity leave, childcare and returning to work;
and feel less ashamed about asking for support when circumstances change unexpectedly.
For families whose journey into parenthood has already included sickness, hospitalisation, prematurity or uncertainty, financial worries should not be another crisis they have to navigate alone.
Loved Again cannot make an HG pregnancy easier or shorten a baby's stay in NICU.
But we can make sure that when that family comes home, there is a cot waiting, somebody to ask about the costs they hadn't anticipated, and a practical plan for making the family's resources stretch further.
We previously tested Loved Again through a smaller Aviva Community Fund/Crowdfunder campaign. It was an important pilot for us: it demonstrated real demand for the project and showed us how willing families are to donate, share and reuse resources. The crowdfunding side was only partly successful. At the time, online crowdfunding was very new to us and our lead fundraiser was also going through a particularly difficult personal period, so we were not able to give the campaign the consistent promotion and supporter engagement it needed.
Since then, our fundraising capacity has grown considerably. We have learnt from that first Aviva/Crowdfunder experience, developed a much wider network of supporters and, importantly, now have a team sharing responsibility for promoting and driving the campaign rather than relying heavily on one person. The original funding has been spent, while demand for the service has continued to grow. We are therefore returning to Aviva with a stronger organisation behind the campaign, a more developed Loved Again model and the capacity to make a much more ambitious crowdfunding campaign work.
Loved Again builds on our smaller Aviva Communities Fund/Crowdfunder pilot earlier this year, Financial Footing for New Mothers/Loved Again Bank. That funding has now been spent and the pilot helped us test what families actually use, particularly practical financial support alongside access to pre-loved baby equipment.
This is a significantly larger next stage, rather than a repeat of the same project. We are expanding the baby-equipment bank into an organised loan, return, repair and reuse system, alongside structured Family Finance workshops, individual Money MOTs, return-to-work financial support and follow-up at points when a family's income or circumstances change.
We also learnt from the crowdfunding itself. It was our first experience of online crowdfunding and our lead fundraiser was going through a particularly difficult period, which limited the consistent promotion we could give the campaign. We now have a wider fundraising and communications team sharing responsibility, a larger supporter network and considerably greater crowdfunding experience.
The pilot gave us proof of need and practical learning. This £25,000 phase gives us the capacity to turn that small pilot into a year-round financial wellbeing and reuse programme.
Project Budget:
. Project management and coordination – £2,000
100 hours @ £20 per hour = £2,000
Coordination of families, referrals, volunteers, equipment loans/returns, workshops, monitoring and partnerships.
2. Family Finance workshops and individual Money MOTs – £4,500
30 small-group Family Finance workshops @ £100 = £3,000
30 individual/follow-up Money MOTs @ £50 = £1,500
Total: £4,500
Sessions will cover family budgeting, changes to income, maternity leave, benefits and entitlements, childcare, returning to work, planning for additional costs and avoiding problem debt.
3. Loved Again baby-equipment storage – £3,000
Secure storage @ £250 per month x 12 months = £3,000
For donated cots, prams, highchairs, changing tables and other equipment awaiting reuse.
4. Collection and delivery of baby equipment – £2,500
Approximately 50 collections/deliveries @ average £50 = £2,500
Towards van hire, mileage and transport of bulky equipment between donors, storage and recipient families.
5. Cleaning, safety checks, minor repairs and replacement parts – £2,500
Approximately 50 larger items @ average £50 preparation/repair cost = £2,500
Includes cleaning materials and appropriate minor repairs/replacement parts to keep suitable equipment in use. Items unsuitable for safe reuse will not be redistributed.
6. Peer mentor training and supervision – £1,500
6 training/supervision sessions @ £250 = £1,500
Covering safeguarding, boundaries, mentoring skills, recognising financial difficulties and appropriate referral/signposting.
7. Baby & Family Financial Wellbeing sessions – £2,500
25 baby-friendly group sessions @ £100 = £2,500
Informal practical sessions covering the cost of baby's first years, household and food budgeting, buying versus borrowing, preparing for childcare, reduced income and making family money go further.
8. Community reuse and repair sessions – £1,500
15 community/volunteer sessions @ £100 = £1,500
Sorting, cleaning and preparing suitable donations, simple reuse activities and community collection days.
9. Outreach and financial-literacy resources – £1,000
Budget planners and Family Finance resources – £300
Printing/flyers and referral materials – £300
Community/local outreach – £250
Accessible/translated materials – £150
Total: £1,000
11. Monitoring, follow-up and evaluation – £1,000
Financial wellbeing questionnaires and follow-up – £300
Equipment loan/reuse tracking and data recording – £300
Family feedback, case studies and outcome reporting – £400
Total: £1,000
12. Essential baby-equipment top-up – £1,000
Approximately 10 essential items @ average £100 = £1,000
For priority items that are unavailable through donations or where donated equipment cannot appropriately or safely be reused, particularly where a premature baby or child with additional needs requires something specific.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 24th November 2026 at 12:44am