As we get to the end of the first full working week of the new year, there is a sense of looking both back and forward. The New Year is always a thoughtful time – a time for resolutions.
I’ve been wondering what 2024 might hold for Go Beyond.
There’s no doubt Go Beyond had a good year last year. As a team, we’ve been reflecting with pride on the successes of 2023, and we kick of 2024 with a renewed confidence that we have put the pandemic well behind us. Our strategy to consolidate and build a sustainable way forward is paying off and as we look to the year ahead, we know there is demand and space for 1,000 children who face serious challenges to have a break with us.
Life is going to be tough for those children. As the cost of living continues to bite, we know families are stressed and under pressure. A week of delicious, healthy home cooked food awaits those who don’t have enough to eat. We’ll continue to provide warm coats and dry boots, snuggly pyjamas, and new toothbrushes for the many who will come to us without the basics.
It’s so painfully obvious that their families are struggling to make ends meet.
That’s why we will continue to raise every penny we can to give them the best possible experience. While the winter is still with us there will be ice skating, indoor climbing, and warm mugs of hot chocolate. But we’ll still be wrapping up warm and getting outside because time in the fresh air with new friends is what really matters.
In a year when there is almost certainly going to be a General Election, I hope politicians of all persuasions give some genuine thought to the ways they can help alleviate child poverty. So many children in our communities shouldn’t be suffering the way they are.
The Telegraph Christmas appeal, which continues throughout this month, has been a wonderful opportunity to tell the world about the children we meet. The stories about young carers, children living in violent households, siblings separated in care, and children who have been bereaved are moving and truly humbling. Regardless of their circumstances, we treat them all the same: with a warm welcome, and with kindness. We give them a break to remember but we also give them space and listen without judgement as they put how they are feeling into their own words.
When they leave us they will take the things they have made and collected, the prizes they have won and the memories they have made, but I hope too, they will remember they were welcomed to a place where they could feel safe and they were treated with kindness
For me, this year, I wish for more kindness. The world would simply be a better place if there was more kindness. I know that in the Go Beyond family there will be kindness aplenty to share with all our children, our supporters, our colleagues and volunteers, not just because it’s New Year but always.
Michele
