2021 Charity Update

Since 2017, Young People and Children First have been a charity that Foundation IT has worked with closely and each year we offer them some form of support; finance and otherwise. 

Young People and Children First provide young care leavers and homeless aged 16-25 with a safe and comfortable home. All their young residents are provided with personalised support in a family environment, helping them to develop life skills such as cooking on a budget and money management, as well as recreational activities with other residents and support getting into education, training or work. YPACF currently rent three houses in West Berkshire, but with the demand for their services exceeding capacity, Young People and Children First have ambitious plans to rent more and be able to offer help to more vulnerable young people.

They are seeking funding to raise £25,000 which will contribute to this increased growth of renting more houses, the costs of associated bills including gas, electricity, water, council tax and insurance. Also, it covers the cost of experienced bank/agency staff to stand in for support workers during periods of absences such as sickness or holidays. This funding goes towards enabling young people to live happy, fulfilling independent lives.

Each year we work hard to fundraise as much as possible as one way to support this local charity. Throughout 2021 we completed multiple events; the first being a sponsored 5km run. Here at FIT, we are keen to work on our health and there was no better way than to combine that with a fundraising event! Then in June, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to get a sweepstake going for the Euro’s. Half of the sweepstake went to the winner and then the other half went towards the donation for YPACF. 

Within the second half of the year, we ran a Fifa tournament in the office, playing against each other. Ryan won the overall competition! Then finally we held our annual Christmas raffle which all the money raised goes to YPACF. Overall, throughout the year we raised £2,441.25 from these events!

We also socialised with the charity throughout the year, in the summer we had a BBQ at our office and we invited Young People and Children First along. This was an opportunity for FIT to chat with the staff and some of their young people, we had great food as well. We also invite the staff to our Christmas party, again this is a great opportunity for us to keep building on our partnership. It’s a wonderful opportunity for YPACF to see our fundraising with the raffle.

The other non-fundraising ways we support the charity are through mentoring. Throughout 2021, members of FIT’s leadership team have provided coaching for YPACF’s leadership team, this was completed twice a quarter. Going into 2022 we are planning on starting the mentoring for the young people as well. We also provide them with ongoing support for their IT, through running daily checks on their IT systems every weekday and offering ad-hoc support where needed. There's been a couple of laptops set up for them over the year and James has helped them move some furniture into their new house. So overall, it has been a busy year! 

Looking at our 2022 plan and what we want to contribute towards the charity is ambitious but something we believe we'll achieve! As mentioned above we are going to start extending our coaching to the young people as well as their leadership team, we are aiming for this to happen twice a quarter. We will be completing a sponsored 5km run again, this is happening in March so keep your eyes peeled for an update! Then going further into the year we will be hosting family and friends sports day for YPACF as well as an Arts and crafts day. Looking at the end of the year, of course, we will be hosting our annual raffle that all money raised goes to the charity. So again, another busy year ahead!