It’s beginning to look a lot like…a happy Christmas
It’s incredible what can be achieved when the right skills, expertise and steely determination come together. Just four weeks ago, we launched a Crowdfunder, with the ambition of raising £5000 to ensure that vulnerable children in our local community, have access to what every single child deserves on Christmas morning: a present just for them. Vouchers are redeemable in local participating shops, providing much needed support to our local economy. Digital was a critical element of the project, leveraging existing technologies and developing new functionality supporting a voucher scheme, allowing for redemption in store and online and providing reusability. And we delivered!
The run up to Christmas 2020 has been a stark contrast to my memories of this time last year.
But there are many similarities in terms of just how much can be achieved in a matter of weeks, by bringing together key skills and expertise, project management and a steely determination to succeed.
In 2019, it was being part of a small team that organised what has gone down in history as ‘the best staff party ever’ at Gilwell Park, Scout headquarters. ‘A night at the movies,’ with popcorn and cocktails, amazing fancy dress costumes and an incredible DJ keeping us on the dance floor all night long.
This year, it’s how a great idea to support the local community, become a reality in just six weeks.
The Coronavirus pandemic, yielded unprecedented displays of care and concern within my local community. A network of local food banks rallied round, supported by the generosity of many local contributors, with an unwavering commitment to ensure that no one in Chingford and Highams Park was without help, support or food.
Building on all that has been achieved together since March and over the summer, we launched a Crowdfunder on the 14 November. The campaign: to ensure that vulnerable children have access to what every single child deserves on Christmas morning: a present just for them.
Our target was to raise £5000, to give each child privately referred to us by food bank organisations, social workers and schools, a £20 voucher to spend in participating shops in Chingford and Highams Park, and so also supporting our businesses and local economy who have been hit hard by the pandemic.
Hot off the heels of a research project I worked on during the summer, exploring the digital support needs of local Charities and Community Interest Companies within the London Borough of Waltham Forest https://wfconnected.org/charitytechwalthamforest , the idea leant itself to act as a pilot for the report recommendations laid out in the report.
After four weeks of working with a small and committed team of talented individuals, I’m delighted to share that our ambition has been realised and on many levels linked to the report recommendations:
Collaboration - working with key volunteers in the community; from local residents and volunteers at the food banks, to local ambassadors helping promote the fundraising campaign on social media channels; Love North Chingford, Love Highams Park and on individuals’ personal channels
Strategic partnerships - working with digital printers and creative/digital solution agencies to create a Christmas themed, foil embossed voucher, each with unique QR code; supporting redemption in store and online
Strategic fundraising - following a funding bid, £1000 was kindly donated by a Charitable Trust to kick-start the Crowdfunder. The Trust also funded the project to invest in the technology to make the campaign a reality
Individual and digital fundraising - a total of £5,675 was raised on the Just giving platform via individual donations across the local area and beyond, with 182 donations in total
Total raised - £6,675, exceeding our £5000 target
Leveraging resource economies of scale - utilising existing technologies from Ding Digital to support the voucher scheme. Via Ticketlab, QR code and e-commerce technology supported businesses by expanding their retail offering online
Reusability/Future proofing - developing a voucher code system within Ticketlab, which can be utilized for future community campaigns should be be in a position to secure funding to do so; Easter, Summer and Christmas 2021
It was a challenging ambition at the outset, and with considerable risks within the timeframe:
to secure monies to fund the cost of the project
to raise £5000
to onboard a number of local businesses as business partners
to design and create a voucher
to design and create a voucher scheme
to distribute 350 vouchers during a second lockdown.
But as of writing, we have managed to achieve exactly that.
Now we look forward to the vouchers being redeemed in our local shops and supporting our hard working and creative businesses owners. And of course, our beneficiaries, enjoying both the gift of Christmas and more importantly, the gift they have received as a result of their community.
With massive thanks to:
Every single individual who donated to the Crowdfunder
The Trust for funding the project
Creators of the campaign idea and team leaders; Faiza Shaheen and Catherine Marcus
All the volunteers working across our local food banks; Highams Park Food bank, Friday Hill Rescue Hub and Peabody Pantry: Tracey Rogers, Ellie Ward, Jenni Regan, Vicci-Jo, and Yemi
Russell Dunphy at Waltham Forest Mutual Hub for creating our Christmas campaign webpage
Our local business partners; Bailey & Ash, Grace & Albert, Oh My Coffee, The Craft Cabin and Ziggys
Steve Mootoosamy at Moo Creative - for creative support across voucher design/social media assets and personally funding 20 vouchers through pro bono work
Matt Hopkins at Ruddocks for mail-merging, printing and delivery on a tight time schedule
Riley Ramone at Ding Digital - for developing the software to enable the voucher scheme to work in store and online.
Driving with the brakes on
I was recently commissioned by a Charitable Trust and St James Street Big Local, to work on a research project looking at the Digital Support Needs of small Charities and Community Interest Companies across the borough during and post Covid-19.
The findings are of course vital to the final report - ultimately, we’re hopeful of building a case for core funding to support future digital roadmap plans. But the essence of this message is that I have been genuinely blown away by the positivity, passion, commitment, and creativity from each and every representative of these organisations - from CEOs and Directors to Community Managers and Volunteers - during the most challenging time in their history.
I’m a West London girl. Brought up in Fulham with a five minute walk to the River Thames and the towpath to Bishops Park which became my playground as a child. It wasn’t until my early twenties that my partner and I at the time, (now husband), wanted to buy a place together that we moved North of the river. We settled on Chingford. The draw was the incredible Epping Forest on our doorstep, the vibrant High Streets and markets in the local area (Walthamstow still a massive attraction as Europe’s longest outdoor market) and the fact we could still be in central London within 40 minutes.
I’ve been an active member of the community over the last 20 years. Supporting local events and independents, keeping up to date with developments, and helping to run my local Scout Group in a number of different roles from an occasional helper to now, an Assistant Scout Leader. Our community work has seen us support the elderly by making friends in care homes, raising funds for our local church, working with a homeless charity giving out food and clothes during the winter and more recently taking donations to local food banks.
But it has only been over the last few weeks that I’ve truly appreciated just how brilliant the Borough of Waltham Forest is. Aside from its space (one of the greenest boroughs North of the river), diversity (*62% of residents are from minority ethnic backgrounds) and culture (home to Britain's most exciting designer William Morris and Borough of Culture 2019), it is its people working to connect the community that shines through the most.
I was recently commissioned by a Charitable Trust and St James Street Big Local, to work on a research project looking at the Digital support needs of small Charities and Community Interest Companies (CICs) across the borough during and post Covid-19.
The context to this, following a decade of council and social sector funding cuts many third sector organisations have emerged to fill the gap in addressing social advantage, particularly for children (**almost 36% of Waltham Forest’s children live in poverty after housing costs). This level was already rising before the pandemic and is now only likely to dramatically increase placing immense strain on already stretched resources providing such valuable support.
I have interviewed around 30 organisations across social sectors - young people, mental health, gangs, domestic violence - (and many more will be involved in the research), with a focus on how much, if any, service provision they have been able to transition online since Covid-19 forced us into lockdown. Their mission of course, has always been to reach those most vulnerable but the pandemic compounded the need for an emergency response to connect with those most isolated from a new, unknown and largely unwelcome reality of social distance.
The findings are of course vital to the final report - ultimately, we’re hopeful of building a case for core funding to support future digital roadmap plans. But the essence of this message is that I have been genuinely blown away by the positivity, passion, commitment, and creativity from each and every representative of these organisations - from CEOs and Directors to Community Managers and Volunteers - during the most challenging time in their history.
There has been a very loud and powerful collective, ‘we can’ message. They have never faltered with a dialogue suggesting that they just ‘couldn’t’ or that it was ‘too difficult’. Despite the very real challenges of the virus, these Charities and CICs have balanced managing their businesses, with the additional wellbeing needs of staff and volunteers, as well as finding new ways to reach their users and offer an alternative programme against a backdrop of reduced resource, time and funding to do so.
Although there has been an unfortunate overall decline in the number of users engaging with the Charities and CICs during Covid-19, in a few cases, the successes have seen increased numbers and new audiences across social media platforms, particularly Youtube and Facebook. Examples include Joy Riders London who have produced a number of interactive cycle route videos supporting key workers on their journeys to work and The Mill on Coppermill Lane Walthamstow and Lloyd Park Children’s Charity who have transitioned online producing some excellent resources. The Blair Academy have just produced a 3 part video series designed to keep older adults active at home during lockdown combatting loneliness through Hip Hop.
And addressing, without doubt, the biggest common challenge all our Charities and CICs faced, The Salaam Peace were quick to devise a Community Response to Covid-19 - supplying a number of tablets and laptops to families who just didn’t have devices at home - as well as providing a wide range of Sports equipment to enable their communities to access the new tutorials, videos and infomercials they produced and launched on YouTube.
There are many more examples of triumph over adversity - a result of the shear hard work and creativity of these incredible organisations who are connecting our community.
A big thank you to everyone who has taken part in the project so far and for your continued work to support our most vulnerable. Your work is more important than ever and we are so very grateful for all that you do.
If you work for or represent a Charity or Community Interest Company within the London Borough of Waltham Forest, and would like to be involved in the research, please complete the survey https://bit.ly/digital-support-needs. A final Research Report will be published at the end of August and available from the Waltham Forest Connected website https://wfconnected.org.
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