Thank you for supporting Poverty Action Week
Poverty Action Week, our fundraising and awareness week, took place from 22nd –28th January and encouraged everyone to join us in #GainingAGlimpse into what it is like to face hardship.
We were delighted that Jon Ashworth MP, Leicester South, Nicky Morgan MP, Loughborough and The Very Revd David Monteith, Dean of Leicester supported a joint letter by Charity Link Director, Susan McEniff and Trustee Professor Surinder Sharma to key decision makers throughout Leicestershire to highlight the week and to encourage them to support Wear a Funky Scarf Day on Friday 26th. Jon and Nicky also kindly wrote to schools in their area to encourage support.
We are very grateful to all the wonderful schools, pupils and staff who supported the day. We visited Charnwood Primary in Leicester and Woodcote Primary in Ashby ourselves to thank the children for their support which was fantastic.
Thanks to everyone else ‘getting funky’ including Rendall Primary School, Business Live Networking, Simon Cole, Chief Constable of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, Ian and the team at Corby Library, the team at Ashby Life, EHL Commercial Law, Leicester City Women’s Football Team, Humphrey Perkins School and Uplands Junior LEAD Academy.
We would also like to thank guests who joined us for our first ever sleepover on Saturday 27th. The idea of the sleepover was to raise sponsorship as part of our #GainingAGlimpse activity, thinking about what it is like to live in hardship and to go without some of the basics in life that many Charity Link clients have faced – such as being without a warm place to stay and a comfortable bed to sleep on.
Whilst the night was relatively mild for January, it was still very cold in the early hours (guests stayed from 8pm until 8am the next morning in the Charity Link courtyard in Leicester city centre). It was a tough night for all who took part, but eye opening and lots of interesting conversations took place around hardship, but plenty of laughter too. We believe that over £2,500 has been raised in sponsorship which is brilliant. Feedback has also been so positive that we plan to run the event again next year!
Special thanks to Cherizina Coffee, Matt Glover Photography, Leicester Media Online and everyone else who supported this event.
Lots of photos from Poverty Action Week can be found on our Facebook page.