Baker Labels supports four local charities this Christmas
Baker Labels has been spreading festive cheer with four local charities, donating a total of £17,500. The money has been shared between SNAP (Special Needs and Parents), Kids Inspire, Aching Arms and Brentwood Foodbank. After another successful year producing labels and flexible packaging, the Brentwood Employers of the Year decided to make the donations in time for Christmas.
Kids Inspire, SNAP and Brentwood Foodbank have been chosen charities for Baker Labels for a number of years, benefitting as part of a total of £30,000 this year. In total £137,735 has been donated to charities and good causes in the last five years. Employees at Baker Labels have had opportunities to support these three charities directly, gaining a better understanding of what they do and how they help families. For SNAP we volunteered at their SIBS4FUN event, while at Kids Inspire we have wrapped Christmas presents and for the Foodbank we have helped deliver and unload huge loads of groceries.
Aching Arms has received a donation after first contacting Baker Labels earlier this year to order labels. The labels were for the packaging of the toy bears they send to families who have suffered the loss of a baby during pregnancy, at birth or soon after. These were printed and produced free of charge and Steve Baker wanted to do more and has donated £1500 to the charity this Christmas.
We have had another very successful and productive year here, so it feels good to be able to share that success with local charities. We couldn’t do it without the hard work from everyone here. They all contribute and it means a lot to them that we support good causes
£6500 donation to SNAP
SNAP – Special Needs And Parents – is an Essex charity for families with children and young people who have any special need or disability. SNAP’s aims are to inform, encourage and support parents and carers so that they can grow in strength and knowledge and become better equipped to give the best possible help to their children.
Thank you so much for your generous donation and continued support it really does mean a lot to us all. We will use the donation to go towards our counselling services at SNAP. We know how important mental health is to your organisation and your company ethos and it is a key service that we offer.
Thank you so much for always keeping SNAP in your thoughts and with such an amazing donation. Baker Labels are true charity champions and a very inspirational company to be part of.
Steve Baker presents a cheque to Karen Boath (right) and Michelle Andrews from SNAP
Karen Boath from SNAP was able to provide Baker Labels with more information on why they will use the donation they have received in this way.
“Children with additional needs face many difficulties including isolation, anxiety, depression and difficulty developing positive relationships. Often in response, they develop challenging behaviours such as meltdowns, violence, and aggressive language. This has been exacerbated by the pandemic. The Disabled Children’s Partnership’s Then There was Silence report (September 2021) found that the mental health and wellbeing of the whole family has deteriorated over the course of the pandemic.
Shockingly, there was a 60% increase in referrals to paediatric emergency mental health services. This not getting better even as restrictions are easing, more than 80% of parents surveyed continue to experience anxiety. Siblings are also feeling these effects, as well as isolation due to their unique circumstances.
In order to help families through these difficulties and provide additional emotional support, SNAP offers two professional counselling services:
- Family counselling, which focuses on the concerns the child with an additional need/disability or their sibling, such as being bullied or exhibiting challenging behaviour, and
- Parent counselling, which supports the problems parents face.
Professional counsellors work directly with children and/or parents in each session to offer emotional support, strategies and identify healthy coping mechanisms. Our professional counsellors have been working with SNAP for many years and have extensive experience supporting families and those with any special need. Their understanding enables them to provide specialised advice and strategies adapted for families of those with additional needs.
Through SNAP Counselling we aim to ensure that each family receives holistic support that helps them to cope with the challenges they face and lead a more fulfilling life.
By providing tailored support, we help families to: improve their self-esteem and confidence; reduce feelings of isolation; improve family dynamics, communication and relationships; empower vulnerable children/young people to change and manage their behaviours; and empower parents by providing resources/knowledge to better support their child’s needs. The Counsellors are highly trained and are able to focus on any of these outcomes depending on the parent, and the estimated data demonstrates the varied but personalised support counselling sessions provide”
£6,500 donation to Kids Inspire
Kids Inspire provide mental health and trauma recovery support for children, young people and their families.
Through a range of therapeutic and community activities we promote resilience, self-awareness, and relationship building to empower more positive life choices.
This fantastic donation from Baker Labels will allow us to top up our bereavement fund. We are currently receiving a high number of referrals for pre-bereavement as well as children who have lost a parent in the last few months. These children will need a higher level of support than some of our funded projects offer. This generous funding will allow us to provide the additional support these children and their families need to support their recovery from this trauma.
Recent Cases include children who have lost a parent in a RTA, sudden death through heart attack and terminal cancer.
We are so grateful for Baker Labels’ continued support that will allow us to offer help to the families with the greatest need.
Steve Baker presents a cheque to Paula Ashfield from Kids Inspire
£1,500 donation to Aching Arms
Aching Arms is there to help and support you when you’ve experienced the heartbreak of losing your baby, during pregnancy, at birth or soon after. They offer a beautiful comfort bear to fill your arms and a community to support you as you grieve. Each Aching Arms bear is given as a gift from one bereaved family to another, to let you know that you are not alone. When you need them, their Supporting Arms service is there for you. The service is run by bereaved parents and gives you the opportunity to talk to someone who has an understanding of what you’re going through.
Christmas has come early, thank you so much!
This year we have been exploring how to improve our support to Bereaved Dads and we are hoping to start a monthly men’s remote meet up group, to give Dads a chance to speak freely and support each other via the facilitation of a volunteer counsellor. Baker Labels’ kind donation means that we can extend this. The Dads we have spoken to have suggested creating a ‘men’s survival guide – Dads supporting other Dads’. The donation would fund the creation, production and circulation of this and may well be a lifeline to newly bereaved Fathers. The Dads also suggested face to face practical sessions, for example making memory boxes etc, an opportunity to bring Dads together with a common focus. Your donation would enable us to put several of these on at various locations and will be such a valuable time for all involved
Steve Baker presents a cheque to Leanne Turner and Tom Carpenter from Aching Arms
£3000 donation to Brentwood Foodbank
Brentwood Foodbank was established in 2011 as a partnership between Breakthru Church and Dodd Road Community Church. Brentwood Foodbank works with a number of frontline care agencies to provide food parcels to the most vulnerable members of our community. The agencies that they work with hold vouchers that they are able to issue to their clients. The vouchers can then be redeemed at the Foodbank for a food parcel.
Every day people in the UK go hungry for reasons ranging from redundancy to receiving an unexpected bill on a low income. A simple box of food makes a big difference, with foodbanks helping prevent crime, housing loss, family breakdown and mental health problems.
We would like to say a heartfelt and huge THANK YOU for your contribution of food and groceries, which you so kindly delivered to our warehouse and for the £2000 donation.
Your continued support of Brentwood foodbank is so appreciated, and I know that those who receive the food are so grateful at this difficult time. It is the kindness and generosity of people like yourselves that we can meet and assist those who are struggling.
Unfortunately, in view of the current situation we all find ourselves in, there are those in our community facing real hardships due to loss of jobs and income, and sadly we find that the need for food has doubled.
Steve Baker delivers £1000 of groceries and a £2000 cheque to the Brentwood Foodbank
Read more on Bakers charity work
Since 2011 when Bakers moved to new premises in Brentwood we have donated well in excess of £150,000 to charities and good causes.