Providing essential support for Salford families

Aim

To support families in Salford with basic essentials, especially those facing homelessness/unstable housing and financial hardship.

About Visit from the Stork

“I am beyond grateful for all the help and support me and my baby have received. Thank you, you are saving lives!” - M. in Salford

At Visit from the Stork we believe every parent should have access to the tools and resources they need to give their family a better quality of life.

Since 2014, we’ve helped more than 10,000 individual families to thrive and build their support network around them. We support families through our varied projects: Stork Support (see more below), Be Open on Breastfeeding Support (B.O.O.B.S) providing infant feeding support, Stork Boost delivering independent work skills training courses for parents, our weekly Stay & Play, with wraparound care for our clients including referring to other services.

About our team

We are a small but mighty charity, with 6 staff members and 22 volunteers. Our team members come from a diverse background of parents and professionals, with both lived experience and local knowledge of the issues that are prevalent in our community. We are all members of the communities we serve.

Our project

We are crowdfunding to raise funds to help us continue our vital services, with a particular focus on our Stork Support project. Through Stork Support we support families through:

Advice and advocacy - including (but not limited to) support with Universal Credit, housing, grant applications, benefit information
Providing essentials - nappies, wipes, toiletries, infant feeding support including contribution to first infant formula milk
⁠Providing extras - toys, clothes and equipment (currently not always guaranteed, subject to funding)
Applying for grants from other organisations on behalf of families
Foodbank referrals
Other professional referrals

Our vision

We believe long-term, consistent support instead of short interventions breaks down barriers and encourages families to ask for help when they need it, instead of getting to breaking point.

Organisationally, we are predicting a 20% increase in need over the next year, based on past trends. The ramifications of the cost-of-living crisis that has swept the nation since 2022 mean that many in Salford are barely keeping their heads above water, and the increasing numbers of families experiencing poverty are projected to rise.

Our goals are to:

Ensure that families in Salford do not go without the basic essentials for their babies and children;
Advocate for families so that they receive the best support from all possible services;
Improve the overall wellbeing of families we support;
Provide opportunities for the families we support to feel more connected within their community;
Offer up to three months of continuous support for the most vulnerable families.

How we will use the funds raised to achieve our vision

We provide consistent, empowering and engaging support to families in need across Salford. We are the support network for parents and their children who have no one else to turn to; a tribe of professionals and parents alike who encourage, empower and connect each other.

In order to run our essential services we have core costs which of late have been increasingly hard to fund. The funds raised through this campaign will contribute to the running costs of our Stork Support project, ensuring we can continue to provide our services to families in Salford.

Thank you for your support, this means so much to us and to the families we support.

Testimonials - what our families say

“I cannot express enough gratitude for the incredible support my daughter and I have received from Stork. They have been a true lifeline, providing us with clothing, toys, and invaluable emotional support. Their team is always ready to help with any form of assistance we need, showing genuine care and compassion. We are truly blessed to have them in our lives!”

“When I was pregnant, I felt there was no support from anybody. After I spoke to one of the team on the phone, you guys were there for me every step of the way, you advocated for me, gave me items I needed, even paid for me to have Gambian food cooked for me in the first week after birth when I was alone. I was so stressed about having to move house just before the baby was born and I hadn’t managed to buy any items for her. Visit from the Stork helped me by taking me shopping and buying essential items for me, enabling me to start paying for items for the house instead. I have really enjoyed coming to the group with my baby and seeing her grow with the other children, and I have made new friends. I feel so supported now and I am in a much better place.”