Freephone 0800 234 6282

Children’s charity launches 150th birthday campaign

St Christopher’s Fellowship is launching two fundraising campaigns on Monday 7 October to celebrate 150 years of creating brighter futures for children and young people.

Both campaigns are focused on providing better opportunities and more stable relationships for young people as they leave the care system and move onto independence.

In the UK, funds raised will go towards helping young people to learn the life skills and build the resilience they need to live independently. When a young person leaves care they can be as young as 16 years old, and they are expected to juggle education, work, bills and all the other responsibilities of adulthood. St Christopher’s wants to ease their transition to independence and help them succeed in their dreams.

For the Isle of Man, the campaign is raising funds for the Support Into Employment scheme, which helps care leavers learn new skills, understand workplace etiquette and ultimately find the career path that is right for them. Pushing care leavers into work before they are ready can knock their confidence, sometimes for years, so the specialist team work to build their self-belief and raise their aspirations before helping them to secure an appropriate role.

St Christopher’s is looking for people to take on fundraising challenges over the next few weeks and beyond, whether this is running a marathon, doing a skydive or hosting a tombola. They are asking supporters to raise £150 (or more), representing a pound for every year that St Christopher’s has been working with young people. They are using the Crowdfunder platform to offer donors incentives to thank them for being part of their birthday fundraising campaign.

Chief Executive Jonathan Whalley said: “St Christopher’s has a rich history of supporting children and young people across the UK and Isle of Man. Since 1870 we have developed innovative services and provided safe, caring homes for thousands of people.

“We hope our birthday year in 2020 is an opportunity for us to spread the word about the talents, value and dreams that children in care and care leavers have, and to invite all of our supporters to be part of our life-changing legacy.”

You can sign up to fundraise for St Christopher’s or donate to our campaigns using the buttons below:

UK – Supporting young people leaving care Isle of Man – Support into employment for care leavers