Today we focus on Harry's Rainbow.
''Our vision is to provide bereaved children with the support they need today, for a brighter tomorrow.''
So, what does Harry's Rainbow do?
Harry's Rainbow support children and young people in Milton Keynes and surrounding areas who have been bereaved of a family member. This is done in many ways including:- providing memory boxes with books and information relevant to each child’s circumstances. We hold a Rainbow group once a month which provides the children the opportunity to spend time with others going through similar circumstances thus helping them feel less isolated and lonely. We also include activities that can help build self-esteem and confidence as well as instilling that it’s okay to have fun and smile. The families are also able to have holidays in our Rainbow home based in Camber Sands free of charge and we also organise adhoc trips in the school holidays, all trips that we provide are free to both the children and families.
Success story / project recently worked on:
How Harry’s Rainbow have adapted their services in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. We have converted our face to face groups to online groups. The groups are designed to provide a space for bereaved children to meet one another and undertake small online activities. Once registered to access our services further details of the groups are sent by email and shared within our private online Facebook community. We have launched a buddy programme to provide a one to one person contact service to those beneficiaries who sign up. The purpose is discuss, share, signpost and help with any concerns, as well as share information about the Covid-19 programmes we’ve implemented. We are also working with Arthur Ellis: Mental Health Support to offer a mentoring and emotional support service to those who need it. This can include monthly support session for families, individuals, children or couples and is provided by mentors within Arthur Ellis. We are also working with them to ensure our volunteers who are aiding our services are offered suitable supervision during these difficult times. We have created a private online community page on Facebook to aid with communication with and between our beneficiaries.
We have created a Distant Activity Support Pack - The activity packs created during the first wave were received really well by at least 38 beneficiary children. With face to face groups not returning as soon as we had liked, we launched a distanced support pack. The packs are sent out on a monthly basis and contain a craft activity to complete at home. We’re in the very early stages of planning a young adult support group for the 18-25’s. A small pilot group of existing beneficiaries are helping with the planning, alongside our Youth Ambassador Jessica, Family Liaison Officer Odette and YiS.
Where can the public go to donate to you? https://www.justgiving.com/harrysrainbowchaaritabletrust
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