What's new

Read our January newsletter here

All the latest fundraising stories and info.

Latest raffle winners:

W7 Raffle: 6 January 2011

Miss P Egan, (Liverpool). Ticket No. 45586
Mr J Welsh, (Bonnyrigg). Ticket No. 58802
Mr J Cavers, (Edinburgh). Ticket No. 58810
Super Seller Draw Winner - Mr J Dack, (Mitcham), tickets 83981 - 84000.

Learn more about our monthly raffles.

A fantastic year of fundraising with Takeda

After a busy year of runs, cake sales, auctions and abseils Takeda employees presented us with an amazing £14,510.30 cheque. Hisba, Yi Ling and Siobhain went along to say thank you to everyone for all the time and effort they put into supporting us throughout 2011.

The Twelve Trikes of Christmas

This Christmas Eve we're hoping to deliver tricycles to 12 disabled children, ready for Christmas morning.
These children have very particular disabilities. Like Ryan, two years old and Keely, six, who have a brain injury and Cerebral Palsy respectively, and cannot sit up on their own. This trike will help to reduce the pain in their muscles and gradually strengthen them up, improving their abilities to hold themselves up.

It's no exaggeration to say that a tricycle can really change these children's life for the better.

For more information click here.

Access Self Storage calls for donations to take part in its biggest ever charity appeal for Christmas

We are delighted and grateful to our neighbours at Access Self Storage who are asking for donations of new and unused presents, games and toys. These will be sorted and delivered to children in each store's local area, including Action For Kids.

With the Gold Challenge you can take on Olympic or Paralympic sports and do your bit to get active in 2012.

The fundraisers that raise the most for Action For Kids will be able to try out the 100m track at the Olympic Stadium for a test event when it first opens - you can find out more here!

Another wonderful donation from GamesAid

We were thrilled beyond words to be selected as one of GamesAid's charity partners once again. Fundraisers who work in the computer games industry arrange and take part in sponsored events throughout the year and then vote on 5 charities to receive a grant. This year they raised 74% more than last year for smaller charities like us -and we received this whopping cheque for £29,000. How amazing is that - what a fantastic group of people! Thanks everyone

Sainsbury's Muswell Hill - thanks to the staff and customers for your support

Some of our friends from the store came to visit recently to catch up with our young people and deliver a fantastic donation of £320, collected in store (along with some gifts for the girls). Shruti, Yi Ling and Ashley enjoyed showing them round and having their photo taken.

Inspire mark

National disability charity, Action For Kids has been granted the Inspire Mark by the London 2012 Inspire programme, in recognition of its Multi Activity School Holiday Programme.

Sports such as boccia, volleyball and tennis are featured within the charity’s participative and stimulating holiday programme, to help build anticipation and excitement amongst its students ahead of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Seb Coe, Chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, said: “We want to use the power of the Games to inspire change. The Inspire programme is recognising the work our partners all round the UK are doing to help us achieve this vision now – one year away from the start of the Games. I congratulate everyone involved in the Action For Kids’ Multi Activity School Holiday Programme for securing the Inspire mark and wish you every success with your work.”

“We are absolutely delighted to have been granted the Inspire Mark for our Multi Activity School Holiday Programme,” said Sally Bishop, founder of Action For Kids.

Find out more about our Holiday Programme here.

Our March Appeal

A big thank you to all of you who donated to our March appeal for a Communication Board for Michael. He has now received the Communication Board and is very excited to be getting used to it!

His family had this to say - "Thank you so much for everything you have done for Michael.

Despite every obstacle stacked against him he gives us so much happiness and joy... his smile lights up our world, his cheekiness gives us hope and the courage and strength he shows in the face of overwhelming difficulties is inspirational. We are blessed to have him in our lives and will do anything in this world for him.

We lived for heaven, patiently waiting for the promise and the opportunity to see Michael do all the things he could not do in this world.. but heaven came early the day you came into our lives. We cannot thank you enough xxx"

This is thanks to the support of everyone who contributed to Michael's appeal, and brought the dreams of Michael and his family to life.

Support our work with every cuppa - buy the new Action For Kids mug

A couple of months ago a group of students on our work related learning programme set up a mini-enterprise group with the brief to design an item of merchandise to raise funds for Action For Kids. Their research led to the production of mugs with two different designs - Fish and Tree.

Great excitement this week as we took delivery of the new Action For Kids mug. Project manager Tanya, pictured here said "I am really pleased with how they turned out and I hope that people will buy them"

If you want to get your hands on these mugs they are available from our office for £4 each (£5 inc p&p). Contact Tanya or Lyn on 020 8347 8111 or email partnerships@actionforkids.org to place an order or click on one of the mugs to download a poster for your workplace.

New report and SROI evauation demonstrates benefits of work related learning for young disabled people

The work related learning programme from Action For Kids has been given the green light from Middlesex University after receiving an independent research report - the very first of its kind.

"The results are fantastic," said Mike Hayes, Action For Kids Chief Executive. "The report and SROI evaluation demonstrates that the work that we do with the young people really does have a positive impact."

The report, which was commissioned by Action For Kids, is the first piece of research to be produced under the Social Enterprise Research Capacity Building Cluster Voucher Scheme, funded by the Office of the Third Sector and the Economics and Social Research Council, as part of a five-year research programme to develop links between social enterprises and universities.

The report also shows that in addition to the young people developing actual office skills (keyboard practice, IT skills training, office administration, data entry systems) the supportive environment which nurtures team working, job coaching and enhanced skills training is invaluable for their development.

The research report was presented to Action For Kids by Dreenagh Lyle, who conducted the research, Professor Eleanor Kofman, and Erin Sanders, a research fellow in the School of Social Sciences.

"As this is the very first research report of its kind, we are delighted to be able to visit Action For Kids and personally hand it to the charity," said Professor Eleanor Kofman from Middlesex University. "It is a really innovative way of showing the charity working at its best and we are thrilled with the results."

Click here to read the full report.

What Action For Kids does for kids

Click here to see our latest case studies

Action For Kids is committed to supporting disabled children and young people by removing the barriers to independence. We do this in 4 main ways:

By funding mobility equipment, nationally
By providing a national family support service

By offering work related learning placements
By delivering a 'towards independence' training and support programme