At the start of every year, we take a company-wide vote to decide which of the many worthy organisations in our local area will be the Crick Software ‘charity of the year.’ We then spend the next 12 months baking, quizzing, running, and undertaking all manner of other fundraising challenges to make as much money for them as we can!
This year, the runaway favourite was KidsAid – a charity born out of the realisation that there was a considerable lack of provision for young people in the community who had suffered trauma.
Why KidsAid?
According to the NHS, 1 in 6 children and adolescents have a diagnosable mental health disorder. Of those, less than 1 in 3 get access to NHS care and treatment. KidsAid is on the front line of this growing mental health crisis, with referrals to their team more than doubling since the start of the pandemic. The past few years have highlighted more than ever the importance of mental health to the wellbeing of our children, and the team felt strongly that this was the cause we wanted to pour our efforts into during 2022.
Their work
KidsAid provides early intervention in the form of creative therapies to help young people lead healthier, happier and more fulfilling lives. Through the mediums of art, dance, drama and play, their fantastic team of therapists support children struggling with bereavement, illness, neglect, bullying, abuse, family breakdown, and other traumatic circumstances.
Our team were particularly impressed by the way KidsAid also provides assistance to the child’s support network. They offer extensive joint/attachment sessions with caregivers in order to give them the best possible chance to break intergenerational trauma and move forward with their lives.
Where we come in
We have lots of fun activities planned to ensure that 2022 is our most successful fundraising year ever, including a company marathon, cake-off and bring-and-buy auction – as ever, we’ll keep you posted via our Facebook and Twitter channels.
If you’d like to find out more about KidsAid or support the vital work that they do, you can visit their website here.
A few months ago, we announced our support for Magic Breakfast, a fantastic charity that provides nutritional breakfasts to thousands of children across the UK. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted just how essential their work is, as they have continued to provide relief to struggling families in these difficult times. Over 24,000 children received Magic Breakfast food during the COVID-19 school closures; during the 2020 summer holidays, they helped to feed 35,000 children.
The pandemic put a halt to the majority of our fundraising plans for this year. In spite of this, we’ve still been supporting Magic Breakfast through the events we could do while we worked remotely.
One of our ongoing efforts is a ‘Book Swap’ campaign. We’re avid readers at Crick Software (as you might expect from a literacy company), and this is a good way to share some of our favourites with one another. For every book we borrow, we add a donation to the pot. Fingers crossed that by the end of the year, we will be significantly more well read and have a nice sum to go to Magic Breakfast.
For Halloween this year, we held a company-wide pumpkin carving competition. Members of our team from the UK and US flexed their creativity and produced some amazing pumpkins while contributing to charity. The winner this year was Charlotte with her fantastic Clicker-inspired carving, but everyone who participated did an incredible job. You can view the entire gallery on our Facebook page.
On the 11th of December we’ll be celebrating ‘Christmas jumper day’ by wearing the most festive and most terrible articles of clothing. Look out for that on our social media channels.
If you would like to find out more about the amazing work Magic Breakfast are doing, you can do so by visiting their website https://www.magicbreakfast.com/.
As part of our efforts to conduct our business in an ethically responsible manner, we have for the last two years nominated a specific charity to be our ‘charity of the year’. In 2019, we chose the Northampton Hope Centre; for 2020 we will be working with Magic Breakfast to bring nutritional breakfasts to tens of thousands of children across the UK. We are very proud to be working with an organisation whose values are aligned so closely with our own and which is providing invaluable support to children across the UK.
In the UK, 1.8 million children are at risk of starting the school day too hungry to learn. Hunger has a huge impact on access to education with children missing out on early morning learning. Independent research has found that year 2 pupils who benefit from breakfast in the morning boost their reading, writing and maths skills by an average of 2 months’ progress per year.
It costs just 30p to provide a child with Magic Breakfast, plus wrap around support, so we’re keen to help as much as we can. We raised over £1,000 for the Hope Centre last year and aim to beat that this year.
Our first event in February, a Crick Software breakfast club, was a great success and raised £100 between our UK and US teams pitching in. We’ll be releasing more information about what we’re doing on our social media pages nearer the time, but here’s a quick breakdown of what you can expect:
- In April we’ll be hosting an Easter themed quiz and scavenger hunt for our staff
- To celebrate UEFA 2020 kicking off (pardon the pun), we’ll be organising an office sweepstakes in June
- We’ll also be organising themed events nearer to VE day, Halloween and Christmas, so keep an eye on our social media profiles for those!
Magic Breakfast suggest their own fundraising ideas too:
- Live below the line challenge: for one working week, live on just a £5 food allowance. Several members of our team have agreed to try this challenge; give it a go yourself, too
- Sponsored activities like runs and skydiving
We’re very excited to be working with Magic Breakfast this year. If you want to find out more about what they do, please visit their website.
