This year I am really pleased to be running the London Marathon on behalf of an amazing charity called KidsOut.

KidsOut provides fun and positive experiences for children throughout the UK who are living in refuge, economic hardship or with other acute disadvantages.

They offer five main services which are provided throughout the UK and more
information on each of these services is set out below.

Thanks you so much for your support.

Big Day Out

Every June, the Rotary Organisation throughout Britain and Ireland together with KidsOut take over 25,000 disadvantaged children on a great big day out. The children visit the seaside, theme parks, adventure playgrounds & zoos giving them all wonderful memories to cherish for a lifetime.

The Big Day Out 2016 will take place on Wednesday 8th June and the first Rotary KidsOut Big Day Out took place in 1990.

The Big Day Out is delivered nationally in conjunction with Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland and provides the children with an experience that brings
both fun and happiness into their lives. The Big Day Out could be as simple as
visiting the seaside, zoo or theme park but for the children who attend this is
often a once in a lifetime experience. 

More than 100 venues and 10,000 Rotary volunteers make the Big Day Out the success that it is.

Toy Box

Working with Women's Aid Refuges across the UK, KidsOut provides children with a box of brand new toys when they leave with mum and move into their new home. This helps bring stability and fun into their lives when they need it most.

The statisticsaround domestic violence and especially the involvement of children are shocking and disturbing. For children living with domestic violence, home is a place of fear and terror rather than the safe and secure place it should be.

Almost 18,000 children escaped the abusive situation and stayed in a domestic violence refuge in 2009/10, usually with their mothers. Each Year, after a period of around 6-12 months over 8,000 children will eventually be relocated to a new home in an unfamiliar area.

Moving into a strange community can be particularly tough for children – who have usually left home with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.

KidsOut, in conjunction with the Women’s Aid Federation, provides them with a box of brand new toys to help bring stability and fun into their lives when they need it most. The majority of these children have either witnessed or personally
suffered serious abuse and/or violence.

Each ToyBox is filled with games to play, books to read and a teddy to cuddle which they can call their own. It gives children a sense of normality, making the world seem a kinder place where someone cares. It helps them settle in and make new friends, as they can invite other children home to play with their toys.

Fun Days

Fun Days is about supporting disadvantaged children and young people by providing positive experiences that they can take with them into the future. Some of the most vulnerable children we support are children that have had to flee domestic violence to the safety of a Women’s Refuge.

Since the start of the project, thousands of children have experienced a Fun Day. Most of these children have either personally experienced domestic abuse or have witnessed it in their home.

Building on the Toy Box Service and our Big Day Out, we are working with underprivileged children throughout the UK to give them more fun and happiness, improving their self-esteem and confidence. Children and young people are taking part in new activities and learning new skills to help them rebuild their lives and have fun on a regular basis – something many of them have missed out on.

Working in partnership with organisations such as BBC Outreach and Merlin’s Entertainment, KidsOut provides confidence boosting workshops, trips to the theatre, bowling, cinema and trips to the zoo to name a few.

Phyzzpod

At KidsOut we believe that all children can benefit from sensory learning and play,
especially those with learning and physical disabilities. Our Phyzzpod™
programme, named after our unique sensory tent, is designed to support the use
of multi-sensory environments for creative exploration and learning.

We co-fund a range of sensory equipment to help schools and other organisations incorporate sensory leaning environments into their buildings.

Not all schools can dedicate a room for a sensory environment, which is why we created the Phyzzpod – a semi-permanent sensory space that can be installed in schools and community settings without losing a room. The Phyzzpod incorporates coloured lighting, a bubble tube, effects projectors, sound and video projection. Most importantly, children can control all these elements and the 'theme' of the Phyzzpod can be changed by the host organisation.

Our first version was installed in Whitley Park School in Reading in 2007 where it was an immediate success. Since then we've developed the design and installed a further thirteen units across England and Scotland. Each Pod is custom made to suit the host organisation, but incorporates common sensory elements so that Pods can share ideas.

World Stories

1 in 7 children in the UK speaks English as their second language. World Stories is an online resource of over 100 stories in both their original language and in English and in written and audio format. The stories help children improve their literacy skills and learn about other cultures.

World Stories is a growing collection of traditional and new stories representing the 21 most commonly spoken languages by children across the UK.  These stories can be read, listened to and downloaded in English and their original language. Thanks to the wonderful support of writers, storytellers, translators, broadcasters and actors we are adding new stories, recordings and translations to the collection every week.

Our commitment is to support language skills and encourage cultural awareness whilst also aiming to inspire children to both discuss their responses and get creative. In fact, we have created a story map to support your children’s’ learning and a dedicated 'Your World' area to showcase and celebrate their writing and art
work.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.