The Patchwork House Christmas Gift Campaign

AIM OF THIS CAMPAIGN:

To help the people currently supported by the Patchwork House Women's Centre with the means to provide Christmas for their families.

Leading up to Christmas this year The Patchwork House Women's Centre has been supporting 40 mums and 3 dads, 43 families in total, with a combined 104 children (56 boys and 48 girls).  In previous years our Christmas campaigns have involved our community (far and wide) sending gifts and vouchers to be wrapped and given to the families, however this year we'd like to do things a little differently.  We want to give our families the opportunity and independence to shop for their own children and so we are fundraising for the below:

• For each child we would like to give their parent/s a £30 voucher (the family's will choose these) to spend on each child.  
• We'd like to be able to allocate each mum £20 for either a gift or voucher.
• We'd like to be able to allocate each dad £20 for either a gift or voucher.
• We'd like to be able to provide each of our 43 families with a £20 supermarket voucher to help with extra bits they may not able to pick up from us at The Pantry.

Totals:  

• 104 children x £30 voucher = £3120.00
• 40 mums x £20 = £800.00
• 3 dads x £20 = £60.00
• 43 x £20 voucher = £860.00

Total = £4,840.00

We would also love to help our community further and our stretch goal would enable us to support 40 additional children cared for under Torbay Children's Services with a £20 voucher and also 10 mums and 7 children currently under the Torbay Hospital Maternity Unit with a £20 voucher.

Stretch Totals:

• 40 children x £20 = £800.00
• 10 mums + 7 children = £340.00

Stretch Total = £1140.00

Final Total = £5980.00

Thank you so so much for any support you're able to offer.

BACKSTORY:

The Patchwork House Women's Centre CIC was founded by Rachaele Hambleton; a now triple Sunday Times Bestselling author, Social Media Influencer and mum of six.  12 years ago, Rachaele was in a very different situation having fled a 10-year relationship filled with domestic abuse with her two eldest daughters, aged 7 and 2 at the time, with pretty much just the clothes on their backs and a single mattress.  It was during that time Rachaele vowed that if she ever found herself in the position to do so, she wanted to help women and their children who found themselves in similar circumstances to those she was once in by opening a safe space for them to start figuring out how to rebuild their lives.

ABOUT US:

The Patchwork House Women's Centre CIC is a safe space dedicated to providing help for vulnerable women and families, many of whom have suffered from domestic abuse, in the Torbay area of Devon.  The centre provides a holistic service with 1:1 support and opportunities with the aim of helping to improve mental health & wellbeing.  Our overall goal is to guide the families we work with from initial intervention and support to a pathway of self-sufficiency and independence.  As part of this we also deliver The Freedom Programme and a trauma therapy course.  Most recently we have also been able to take on an in-house IDVA.  An IDVA is a specialist professional who works with the victims of domestic abuse to develop a trusting relationship.  They can help a victim with everything they need to become safe and rebuild their life, and represent their voice at MARAC (Multi-agency Risk Assessment Conference) meetings, as well as helping them to navigate the criminal justice process and working with the different statuatory agencies to provide wraparound support.

Alongside emotional support we also provide our families with free access to The Patchwork Pantry, our community fridge, and Second Chances, our free shop, which provides essentials like clothing, shoes, toiletries etc the majority of which has been donated through local connections and, our Founder, Rachaele's incredible social media following. On-site we also have washing & drying facilities, meeting rooms and phone & internet access.

Within the centre we also offer volunteering opportunities for any of the women we support who are looking for ways to return to employment or gain work experience - these can be within the centre itself or as valuable retail experience in Second Chances or The Pantry.

Over the last couple of months the centre has received and accepted referrals to help some single father's out in the community with food and clothing parcels.

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE:

Bid-obtained funding can be hard to successfully achieve in such a competitive area and so in 2022 we launched Patchwork The Store, an online clothing and gift shop, to help provide the centres with un-restricted funds.  

We also run regular prize draws to help funding and open The Pantry two days a week to the general public for a small charge so that we do not have to offer a means-tested service meaning anyone can come and shop with us on those days.

All profits from The Store, prize draws and The Pantry get funnelled back into the Women's Centre and allow us to continue doing things which wouldn't necessarily be covered under the restrictions of bid funding, such as paying for a service users dental treatments so she felt more confident and was no longer in pain, providing a bus pass to allow a service user to get to work and her child’s nursery placement, buying rain-covers for children’s buggy and many other situations where someone just needs a bit of help.  These funding streams also help us to sustain the regular services we offer such as trauma therapy and to do things like topping up The Pantry with essentials as needed, paying for a Fairshare membership, being able to increase staff hours to ease our waiting lists and paying ever increasing bills which allows us to stay open.

Thank you so so much for any support you're able to offer.

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