When a family feels alone... Help reduce
their isolation
A parent is alone and scared. It’s the loneliest time of their lives.
When a child receives a life limiting or life threatening diagnosis, a family’s world is turned upside down. It’s terrifying and isolating, but you can help.
You can make sure that no family feels alone in caring for a sick child. You can help Acorns give them the support they need and answers to all their questions.
We change lives by guiding families throughout their child’s life and beyond, by providing care in our hospices, by reaching out into family homes and into the community.
Going directly to them means they get care beyond our hospice hometowns and cities of Birmingham, Walsall and Worcester - and into the farthest reaches of our region, in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Coventry, Warwickshire, Shropshire and South Staffordshire.
Your support will enable us to help the family where they need us most.
By going out into the home and their community we can help change a family’s life; and ultimately that’s what we want to do.
Some families, for many different reasons, don’t want or don’t feel that the hospice building itself is what they want; so the fact we can go to them and still offer that amazing care is absolutely essential.
- Ruth Davis, Outreach Nurse
Ruth is an Outreach Nurse at Acorns
Help us be there - no matter the distance
Our Outreach service gives a family greater choice on how and where they want our help.
This means we can not only provide care at our three hospices, but also reach hundreds more children and families, providing support in their hour of need at home, in hospital and in their local community.
By going directly to families, we support those who can’t come to us. It reduces their isolation when they desperately need help and ensures that they know we are here for them whenever and wherever they need us.
Without us, families would be facing unimaginable struggles completely alone.
Acorns Outreach service gives mum Liga peace of mind
When you get help from Outreach, they come to your home and you don’t need to worry. It’s amazing. I have the confidence to do other things, when before I couldn’t even leave Laila’s side.
We couldn’t be without Acorns. There is literally no-one else that can offer this kind of support. Thanks to them, Laila is planning to go to school for the very first time.
- Laila’s mum, Liga
Help us create support communities
We reach even further out into the community – with the important message that ‘you’re not the only one’.
At Acorns, for every one child we care for, we support as many as five other family members. Our support groups enable mums, dads, grandparents and their children to come together, share experiences and chat in a safe and relaxed environment.
We also run groups at a play area called SNAP (Special Needs Adventure Playground). It’s an amazing space for children and their siblings to play together and allows families to ask questions and create support networks with people who understand their thoughts, feelings and worries - improving the mental health of those we support.
Your support means we connect more families through dedicated community support groups and play sessions, helping them to feel less alone.
Parents and children get together at the Special Needs Adventure Playground (SNAP)
Our families cherish the support they get from Acorns, and it gives them reassurance they’re not going through things alone.
Within our support groups, we embed therapeutic intervention, which enhances self-care, mindfulness and good mental health. They have that time to pause and reflect and to feel, for want of a better word, normal.
- Fiona Small, Family Practitioner
The growing need
In the past year, we have seen significant and unexpected growth in the level of support we provide for children and families.
In the past year...
> We supported more than 170 children through Outreach services
> There have been more than 15,000 instances of emotional and practical support delivered by the Acorns Family Services team
> It has cost us £350,000 to maintain our Outreach
> We have cared for more than 750 children across the West Midlands, and supported almost 1,000 families
> In total, Acorns needs around £30,000 each day to provide its children’s hospice care
Only with your support can we grow our vital Outreach services by 15% and bring more of our lifeline care and support directly to families in need by creating vital community hubs in Warwickshire and Gloucestershire.
Bluebell and her family benefit from Acorns Outreach service
A nurse will visit our home and look after Bluebell, and I can step away to catch up and do a bit of cleaning.
To provide constant care can be quite a toll on you so it’s priceless having someone who you can trust to look after your child.
- Bluebell’s mum, Stella
How you can help
Your support ensures no family feels alone in caring for a sick child. You can help Acorns give families the vital care they need, wherever they need it.
> £5,000 would fund the role of an Outreach Lead Nurse for a month, a role which is responsible for the development of individual care plans for children and their care in the family home.
> £10,000 will cover the cost of running care services within one hospice and in family homes, for one day.
> £30,000 would cover the cost of running care services across three hospices and within family homes for one day.
> £50,000 would fund the role of an Acorns Outreach lead nurse for one year.
> £100,000 would fund the role of an Acorns Outreach lead nurse for two years.
> £500,000 would help cover the annual cost of providing vital end-of-life care to children whose families choose to receive this service in their own home.
Your support, will enable us to grow this vital service and make sure families caring for life limited and life threatened children are never alone.
Help us support every step and beyond
Without our help in the home, community and lifeline network of support groups, families would be navigating this unimaginable journey alone. With your help, we can continue to bring people together, to meet new people, to make precious memories, talk about worries and share things that only families on similar journeys would understand. Your support will ensure this never stops.
The need to support families in their homes and community is greater than ever. We cannot sustain this lifeline without you.
If you would like to know more about Acorns and how you can help, please contact us.
Get in touch Watch
philanthropy@acorns.org.uk
our video about Outreach services
Registered charity no: 700859 Registered in England company no. 2036103.
Registered office: Drakes Court, Alcester Road, Wythall, Birmingham B47 6JR.
