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New Forest Young Carers awarded £86,000 by BBC Children in Need

Community First New Forest’s Young Carer Service has been awarded a three-year grant of £86,000 by BBC Children in Need.

This grant will fund Community First New Forest’s Young Carer support work and activities, helping make a difference to the lives of disadvantaged children and young people in the New Forest.

The New Forest Young Carers Service offers support to children from the ages of seven to 18 years old who have someone at home with a long-term illness or disability.

This could be anything from a Mum with MS, a Dad with bipolar or a brother on the autism spectrum.

Many young Carers miss out on a regular childhood because of their caring responsibilities.

This is where the service steps in, to provide Young Carers with the opportunity to have time to themselves and have fun.

Young Carers Coordinator Marie Shotbolt said: “Young Carers can suffer from stress and worry and are often quite lonely.

We offer them support both at home and in school, but more importantly for many of the young people we support, we offer them the chance to have fun.

This award is the most amazing news as it means we can continue our vital work for another three years.

We have wanted to develop the support we can offer to help Young Carers become better at coping and now, thanks to BBC Children in Need, we can.

This money will make a real difference.”

BBC Children in Need relies on the generosity and creativity of the thousands of supporters and fundraisers who raise millions of pounds for the charity every year.

To date the UK public has raised over £1 billion for children and young people facing disadvantage across the UK.

New Forest Nightstop - Service Closure

New Forest Nightstop, a service providing emergency accommodation for homeless people in the New Forest, is to close at the end of March.

New Forest District Council funding for the service has reduced year on year and this year was withdrawn entirely.

Although New Forest Nightstop has received many generous donations, these, on their own, are not sufficient to enable it to operate.

In addition recent applications to Trusts and Foundations have proved unsuccessful.

Its Board of Trustees have therefore, with great regret, come to the decision that they have no option but to close it.

New Forest Nightstop has operated successfully for over 16 years under the umbrella of Community First New Forest.

During this time it has touched the lives of hundreds of vulnerable people, in particular those in the 16 to 25 age bracket.

It has found them a safe place to sleep during a time of crisis, thus giving them time to get their lives back on track.

This service would not have been possible without the incredible dedication and commitment of a team of outstanding and tireless volunteers, many of whom have happily opened their homes to help a vulnerable homeless person.

The service has also received a vast amount of support from the communities of the New Forest, a major factor in enabling the service to continue up until now.

Community First New Forest wishes to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all the volunteers and other supporters for their invaluable support of the service.

Community First New Forest

March 2019

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ISO 9001:2015

Community First New Forest is delighted to announce it has achieved ISO 9001:2015 certification, an internationally recognised standard of excellence. Achievement of this certification shows our commitment to customer satisfaction, high quality and continuous improvement.

Jackie Hartless, Acting Chief Executive said “For any company, the road to certification requires time and commitment. Each employee has dedicated time and hard work to enable us to become certified and it shows just how much each employee here cares about the quality of what we do.

Our move from ISO 9001:2008 to the updated standard demonstrates our desire to always perform at the highest levels of quality and efficiency. We will continue to do everything we can to provide the best service to all of our clients into the future.”

Community First New Forest was certified to the ISO 9001:2015 standard by Certified Quality Systems Ltd (CQS), www.cqsltd.com

Welcome

Community First New Forest is a passionate charity that seeks to improve the quality of life for people and communities living in the New Forest District and surrounding districts.

Who we support:

Voluntary and community groups and volunteering
Older people and people with a disability
Children, young people and families

We do this by:

Providing support and advice to local voluntary and community groups
Helping people to volunteer
Delivering local services that help people with their needs

Our services include:

Community support and development
Volunteer Centre
Community Transport
Hire of mini buses to local voluntary and community groups
Moped loans for young people
Nightstop – helping homeless people
Young Carers

All of our services will put you at the centre – your needs are important to us and we are committed to providing the best possible service.

Many people have told us that we make a difference and they have said how much our help is appreciated. What you think and feel matters to us – we want to be sure that we are there for you and really helping you.

Please have a look at our services and see how they might be able to help you or someone you know.

Thank you to all our funders for their support; it is appreciated and is vital to our work and the difference we make together. Our key funders are Hampshire County Council, New Forest District Council and Big Lottery. A list of our funders can be found via this link.