A big thank you from Barnardo’s

The partnership with Barnardo’s started on 1st May 2013 and in just one year employees of Shoosmiths raised a fantastic £74,993.35 against an original target of £60,000.

The money raised is helping to support Barnardo’s work with children who are the victims of sexual exploitation in the Midlands region. Child sexual exploitation is when children and young people receive something (such as food, accommodation, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, affection, gifts, or money) for engaging in sexual activities. Child sexual exploitation can occur through the use of the internet or on mobile phones. In all cases, those exploiting the child or young person have power over them because of their age, gender, intellect, physical strength and/or resources. For victims, the pain of their ordeal and fear means they are too often scared to come forward for help. With your help we can now reach even more children who desperately need our help and so a massive thank you to everyone at Shoosmiths who contributed and put in the time and effort to raise so much money.

A note from our CEO, Javed Khan..

“Despite only joining Barnardo’s towards the end of the Shoosmiths partnership, I was delighted to learn of its success. To raise £74,993.35 and smash the £60,000 target in the current climate is outstanding and I really appreciate all the hard work and effort of everyone involved. The money raised will make a tremendous difference to our Child Sexual Exploitation work in the Midlands region and will allow us to reach many more children who desperately need our help. Thank you so much and may I wish you every success with your future charity partnerships.” Javed Khan, CEO, Barnardo’s.

Project update

Our Space project in Birmingham supports 200 victims aged 10 – 17 to overcome the abuse they have suffered. The children we support are often very hard to reach as they’ve been caught up in a web of deceit for so long, that they no longer trust anyone. Our project workers put a lot of energy into gaining their trust. Our work has two main strands:

1. Protection – we offer intensive one-to-one support helping victims of exploitation to rebuild their self-esteem and confidence, and to lead safer lives. We also help them to repair family relationships and re-enter education. We do a lot of work to ensure young people understand the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships, and, where necessary, focus on problems with alcohol or drugs misuse.
2. Prevention – To stop this abuse from happening we also run awareness and education programmes in local schools, getting important messages across to hundreds of children. We warn children of the dangers, so they can avoid being targeted and stay safe.

Last year, Birmingham Space was able to extend their work in to the Warwickshire and Staffordshire areas funded by money raised from Shoosmiths. This included using an existing Project Worker from Birmingham to focus on Staffordshire and then employing a new Project Worker to cover Warwickshire. In the last two weeks, a further two Project Workers have been appointed to cover Warwickshire and they will be based at Leamington Spa Police Station. Future secured funding from other supporters has meant that Birmingham Space continues to extend in to other area’s so more and more children who are in desperate need of help can be reached. Without the vital funds raised from companies such as Shoosmiths, we wouldn’t be able to achieve this expansion of our CSE work and make such a difference to children’s lives.

Some wonderful memories..

With everything from a Fashion Show in Edinburgh, to extreme walks and tough guy challenges, teams taking part in the Three Peaks Challenge and graduates taking on the Trainee Challenge, we have seen it all and we hope everyone had some great fun along the way.

The Yorkshire Three Peaks was one of the last activities undertaken for Barnardo’s and as Pauline Simpson said “Well, what a challenge that was”! A huge amount of effort from the Manchester and Nottingham offices in completing this gruelling challenge and apparently a lot of water and flap jack consumed! In fact I think it will be fair to say a lot of cakes and buns have been consumed across all offices in a bid to raise as much money as possible for Barnardo’s!! But what about poor Jeremy Young who took on the Tough Guy Challenge, pictured above as he is just about to launch himself in to some very muddy water; all in a good cause!! Chris Metcalfe also took part in the biggest challenge she has ever faced – the Jurassic Trek over 24 miles in a weekend and raised nearly £1,000; a really fantastic achievement.

The Trainee Challenge was a fantastic success raising £4,480.96 through this one activity smashing their original target of £3,200! 20 people took part across offices and some really amazing innovative ideas led to some fabulous fundraising activities.

It has been a wonderfully exciting year working with Shoosmiths with too many activities to mention them all here. However I hope this gives some indication as to how much we have enjoyed the partnership here at Barnardo’s and the appreciation of all the money that has been raised; it will make such a difference to the vital work of Barnardo’s.

We wish you all the very best for the future and hope you have every success with you new charity partner Winston’s Wish.

With very best wishes from Trina Gable and everyone at Barnardo’s!