and beyond ...
A special edition on how we are managing our programmes through the crisis
Special edition May 2020
Grimsby & Hull Full Families
Living with lockdown
Lockdown families get very crafty! Life during lockdown has been hard for many, and especially challenging for some of the 75 families on our Full Families programme in Grimsby, and their counterparts on Hull’s Preston Road estate. But by working together and as a team, CatZero and our dedicated delivery officers have continued to offer support, advice and guidance. Whilst our visits have been impossible, as have preplanned meetings and social events, we have not stopped. Instead we have found a ‘new normal’, a fresh approach to assisting families in crisis, which has proved equally beneficial: • • •
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Families are spoken to weekly with a listening ear for those with little adult contact. Emails are sent with games and activities for children, and advice for adults. Weekly challenges have been delivered to families. As a result, children have been growing cress, cooking, having family picnics, making finger puppets, painting, colouring and working together. Regular advice is offered on schoolwork and more practical things, such as obtaining school and food bank vouchers. The team are also in regular contact over the telephone for one-to-one consultations offering guidance and coordination of support with other providers.
In Grimsby our successful Full Families programme is run in conjunction with CPO and supported by the
Big Lottery Reaching Communities Fund. In Hull, the CLLD Full Families programme is supported by the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF). Grimsby Full Families Delivery Officer, Sarah Coulson, says: “The situation has been unique and of course has brought with it unique challenges and issues. We have all had to adapt, and that is our teams just as much as our families. “However, we have done so and with pleasing results. To see the pictures of the children enjoying the activities we have sent them, with smiles on their faces, has been fantastic and I am sure we will be together again soon,” adds Sarah. Single mum, Moll, 22, and her toddler daughter Scarlet have been helped continually over the last three months. “They have been amazing,” Moll says of the Full Families team. “I speak to them every week, and the parcels and packages that have arrived have made our day. It has been such a help to have someone to talk to.”
Our success is their success Three years into our Grimsby Full Families and we are nearing the end of our initial funding, secured from the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Fund. As we work with our colleagues at CPO to look at future funding for this vital programme, let’s look at our success so far, which has seen us work with more than 75 families. By working from ‘top-to-bottom’ we engage all family members to understand the root causes of problems – helping to overcome significant, generational barriers to enable positive and lasting change. Our long-term approach builds trust and allows an openness and honestly rarely seen between
a troubled family and their support network. Two independent reports have identified the following success: • • • • • •
90 per cent of all the families invited to work with us have engaged. Family breakdown has been prevented. Improved school attendance is evidenced. Employment has been taken up. Family members have re-engaged with the relevant support agencies. In the 2020 Full Families assessment report, conducted by eminent social worker Lesley Wilkinson MBE, the Grimsby programme is described as ‘a benchmark for good practice’.
Chicks have plenty more to 'sprout' about! The Chick family - who raised a phenomenal £16,000 for CatZero during their pre-coronavirus 'Round the UK On A Tenner A Day' expedition - continue spreading joy with their new project, 'Sowing Seeds'. A fantastic new idea for a turbulent time in the world's history, jars of treats and seeds are sent to families in the hope of showing them that someone cares and that they are not alone - the result is undoubtedly smiling, happy faces! Working with community projects they met on their journey - including CatZero, anyone is welcome to sponsor a jar (or as many as you like!). Visit www. onelifeshareit.uk/sowing-seeds-the-project for info.
Little Leo is over the moon with the delivery of goodies his family received from the project.
Hull Office: 2B Humber Street, Hull Marina HU1 1TG Grimsby Office: The Business & Digital Hub, Freeman Street, Grimsby DN32 7DS Call: 01482 333303 for both offices
www.catzero.org CatZero thanks all supporters, past, present and future