A gift from one team to another

15th January 2021

Our Team Fund here at Essex Community Foundation (ECF) gives support to other charity teams who we think would benefit from an unrestricted donation at Christmas time. They can do anything they want with the funds so long as it brings a smile to the faces of their team and/or clients.

This year we decided to give a donation of £1,000 to Safer Places, the domestic abuse organisation in Harlow and we were delighted to receive a heartwarming thank you letter from their CEO about how they used the money to celebrate the end of a very tough year.

Setting up a charitable fund with your team is easy. For more information click here.

Thank you from Safer Places in Harlow

“Thank you for providing funding for us to celebrate with our staff at the end of this tough year.

We held an online staff party which was hosted by GAV Quiz. As well as the quiz it also included performances from the musicals and musical clues from a group of performers from the London Musicals and a singalong which sounded really awful, but was such good fun. Everyone enjoyed it and it was so lovely to all be together. We also sent Christmas presents to every one of our staff and volunteers.

We have been doing a great deal to try to support the wellbeing of staff over the last months as they have their own personal anxieties and circumstances to deal with, as well as needing to provide a good deal more support to our clients for whom this pandemic has been such a challenge.

We decided to gift them a package that would support their wellbeing and so went for something for each of the five senses. Everyone received some sock slippers, some body butters, a Yankee candle votive, some Lindor chocolates and a handmade Christmas bauble made by one of our Trustees, and a Christmas greeting and thankyou letter. Two members of our team, Aimee and Rachel, volunteered to double as elves to do the parcelling up and dispatch from the Santa depot North Pole (aka our very cold store room!).

As a result of an obsessive search for the best deals on Black Friday we got a great deal for our money. We had a small amount set aside in our budget for Christmas and by combining this with the money you so kindly provided we have enough left to be able to come together and do something when it is safe. We have in mind a picnic in Hatfield Forest as we expect to be able to do that sooner than anything indoors.

Everyone really enjoyed the celebration and receiving a parcel was very much appreciated especially at a time when some of our staff were on their own and not able to have their usual Christmas. The feedback has been really heartening.

Strangely though physically together less often, we all seem to have become closer over this time and relationships between all of us at Safer Places have only strengthened as we have looking after each other as well as our clients. Our staff have been incredible and so to have the opportunity to celebrate and thank them on behalf of the organisation, and for them to know that this was as a result of being recognised by the Foundation was wonderful. Thank you so much and best wishes for 2021.”

If you would like to support local charities, short or long-term, we will be pleased to discuss your wishes and the options that might work best for you. Click here for more information.