Tesco Fundraising Thanks!

Last week, Rebecca popped in to meet the team at Tesco in Atherstone, and to be presented with a cheque for Guy's Gift for £1000.

We've been part of the blue token scheme locally, and to be able to thank Tesco and all of you who put your blue tokens in the pot for us is really special. An extra thankyou to Tesco for donating some salt too, for children and young people to use when making memory jars!

We're currently in voting at stores in the Leamington and Warwick areas (Lillington Express, Leamington Parade, Warwick Superstore and Warwick Express. Aswell as in voting in the Southam store too. So if you're out shopping in those areas, please don't forget to grab your blue token and vote for Guy's Gift!

After all - Every Little Helps!

Hospital Support Packs delivered

On 14th March, we were delighted to see our Bereavement Support Packs delivered to Jackie Hobson and Debbie Sherwell at Warwick Hospital.

A huge thank you to Leamington Spa Rotary for their fundraising last year, and to Anna Lapworth, Mel Ayers and the team at EA Games in Southam for volunteering their time to put the packs together and deliver them to McGregor ward.

Sophie Peel (Delivery Team Leader - Groups and Support to Support) went along too, representing Guy’s Gift. Sophie will be supporting the team at the hospital further, with guidance on using the resources to help bereaved children and families.

Sophie shared that it was clear how passionate the team at the hospital are about the support Guy’s Gift are able to provide, and grateful they are to have resources to hand for when they are needed.

Remember, support with Guy’s Gift can be accessed by any child who has experienced the death of someone important to them. To make a referral, you can call us on 0845 467 3035 or complete the contact form here and one of the team will call you back.

Become a Guy's Gift Volunteer

As James H Doolittle states - “There’s nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.”

Why do people decide to volunteer?
Many of the wonderful Guy’s Gift volunteers join us as they want to “make a difference” or “share their experiences” or even “give back to a charity that supported their family”. All of these reasons demonstrate that these special people have strong and powerful hearts, with a desire to help.

Our volunteers may work directly with families, they promote us as Community Ambassadors, they deliver school and hospital resource packs and even act as trustees of the charity. Every one of them makes a huge impact on the lives of children and young people who have experienced the death of someone special to them.

We are always looking for new volunteers to join our growing team. If you also have a strong and powerful heart, with the desire to help bereaved children and young people in your local area, please do take a look at our volunteer recruitment page. You could join our team and be a fundraiser, walk leader or even group support volunteer. You may have a different voluntary role in mind, if so, do let us know. We are open to suggestions!

In order to join our team of volunteers, we do ask you to attend one of our induction days. The next one is on the 13th April 2024 and will start at 9:30am in Warwick.

If you would like to find out more about our volunteering opportunities and find out how to join our nextinduction day, please email me at volunteering@guysgift.co.uk.

Bereavement support packs for local hospital

We’re always looking at how we can reach more bereaved children and young people across Coventry and Warwickshire. We know that whilst some children and young people benefit from direct support with us, many more benefit from having access to self support/support to support initiatives. In 2019 we began a project to provide bereavement resource packs into local school, with the first packs heading out at the start of the pandemic (good timing?). We’ve been working on a project to provide similar resources into local hospitals, with the key difference being that the pack would remain with the child or young person, rather than being a shared resource.

Back in May 2023, the wonderful people at Leamington Spa Rotary did a fundraiser, which has provided the cash for our pilot project. Now, some of our fabulous volunteers at EA Games in Southam are preparing the packs, ready to deliver to Warwick Hospital later this month. We’re hopeful that we can extend this project to other local hospitals later in 2024.

We take this opportunity to do a shout out to those brilliant members of our community who put time, energy and cash into supporting this project. This really is a great demonstration of how our local community pull together to ‘do good’ for those who need it. Thank you to each and every one of you!

Work with us!

We have an opportunity to join our team as a Groups Co-Ordinator & Community Based Counsellor.

This role will focus on organising and running therapeutic group support for children and young people across Coventry and Warwickshire. Part of the role will also be to provide 1:1 counselling/support within Coventry.

If this sounds like something you’d like to do, check out the job listing here: www.guysgift.co.uk/work-with-us or send us an email to info@guysgift.co.uk