Support families of ill children: Charity of the Year

Members of the University of Reading community are being called upon to help support families caring for a child with a life-threatening or terminal illness by donating some basic arts and crafts items to support family visits.

The activity packs will be distributed to families supported by Rainbow Trust, the University’s inaugural Charity of the Year for 2024/25.

These packs will help Rainbow Trust’s Family Support Workers to provide vital practical and emotional support to families. The crafts will offer a quiet opportunity for Family Support Workers to connect with healthy siblings, who may be feeling left out and alone; respite for parents, as they are assured their child is safely preoccupied with their Family Support Worker; and will provide joy to seriously-ill children, creating happy memories for families to cherish.

From today, Tuesday 22 October, collection points will be set up at five locations across the University campuses and people will be able to contribute the following items for the activity packs:

• Pencils
• Felt tip pens
• Crayons
• Glue
• Coloured paper (A5 only)
• Card (A5 only)
• Stickers
• Pompoms / pipe cleaners
• Other similar craft items

All items should be unused. Small packs of pens/pencils/crayons only.

Natalie Whitby-Lear, the Thames Valley Family Support Manager at Rainbow Trust, said: “By donating arts and crafts materials, you are helping us to provide some simple, yet meaningful, joy to families caring for a seriously ill child.

By providing activities for healthy siblings and seriously ill children to get stuck into, they are given a safe space to discuss worries and concerns with their Family Support Worker. All the while, parents are given time to relax, knowing that their child is safely cared for.”

• Read this case study about James and Bella to learn more about why arts and crafts materials can be so vital to families caring for a seriously ill child.

Collection points

Collection point locations include:

• Whiteknights House reception – Whiteknights campus
• Library foyer – Whiteknights campus
• Agriculture building (SAPD), Room 305 – Earley Gate
• The Museum of English Rural Life – London Road Campus
• Henley Business School Library – Greenlands Campus

Collection points will remain open for three weeks and close on Thursday 14 November.

If people would like to organise collections in their own Departments/Schools, then that is fine. Simply contact charityoftheyear@reading.ac.uk to arrange collection.

The collected items will be placed into activity packs by University volunteers, and then distributed by Rainbow Trust to families they support.

Rainbow Trust will be on campus on Thursday 24 October and will have a stall in the Whiteknights Library Foyer, 12-2pm. People are welcome to come along and find out more about the charity, as well as and other fundraising and volunteering opportunities.

Other ways we’re supporting Rainbow Trust

Online donation: If people would prefer to donate to Rainbow Trust via an online donation, a JustGiving page has been set up to collect contributions from the University community.

Santa Run: The University of Reading will once again host the Reading Rotary Santa Run on Sunday 1 December. Rainbow Trust is one of two local charities that will receive funds raised from the event.

Volunteer opportunity: University colleagues are invited to help run a Rainbow Trust fundraising and gift-wrapping stall at The Malls shopping centre in Basingstoke, on Monday 2 and Tuesday 3 December.

This opportunity could be taken as part of the University’s new volunteering policy, Time to Make a Difference, where staff can take up to two days of additional leave (pro rata) for volunteering in the community.

If anyone is interested in this volunteering opportunity, please contact the Charity of the Year team: charityoftheyear@reading.ac.uk