Haven House Children’s Hospice
On Wednesday 9 October, we visited Haven House Children’s Hospice to view some of the new facilities there funded by The Story of Christmas. In particular, the new Interactive Discovery Room, funded through the 2018 event, was formally opened by SoC’s Marc Corbett-Weaver. This now enables all children at the hospice to benefit from state-of-the-art multi-sensory experiences, including Music Therapy, Physiotherapy and Yoga Therapy. These experiences have been shown to awaken memories – and improve the children’s concentration, alertness, movement, co-ordination, creativity and general awareness of the surrounding world – and support the relief of pain. The new café area facilities, funded through the 2016 event, together with other renovations were also viewed.
CRASH: The Upper Room
Later the same day, we visited ’The Upper Room’ project managed by the charity CRASH, which was funded through SoC’s 2016 event and is now completed. The Upper Room is a front-line homelessness charity based in west London which began life as a soup kitchen in 1990. The charity supports immediate needs of homeless people by offering food as the first point of contact before providing access to employability projects and a broad range of referrals to other specialist organisations. The Story of Christmas financed a major redevelopment project at the centre, which has transformed The Upper Room’s formed workspace to provide an entire additional mezzanine floor. This has created one-to-one rooms for confidential casework and counselling, a training room, storage space for donated goods (such as clothes and food for the rough-sleepers) and an open plan office space for staff and volunteers.
The Children’s Trust
On Wednesday 13 November, we visited The Children’s Trust to view the new lift installed there by The Story of Christmas. This was funded by the SoC’s 2018 event. The Children’s Trust is the UK’s leading charity for children with brain injury, providing expert therapy and rehabilitation for children following a serious accident or illness. The Story of Christmas’s new lift now enables safe wheelchair access for all of the children to able to join in the activities in the main house.
Depaul: Westbourne House
Later the same day, we visited Depaul’s new centre, Westbourne House, also supported through the 2018 event. The Story of Christmas funded a major renovation there – one of Depaul’s flagship hostels located in Westminster. Since 2006, the hostel has supported over 215 young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness (aged 16-25) at its 12-bedroomed supported housing service. Depaul works side by side with each young resident with the objective to build their resilience and develop the skills they need to enable their transition to independence.
