Children’s charity founder awarded MBE

The founder and CEO of Wokingham-based First Days Children’s Charity, Emma Cantrell, has been made an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours list. Emma received the honour for her services to vulnerable children.

She founded First Days in 2013 to help local families who were struggling to provide everyday essentials, making it her personal mission to ensure no child in the area goes without.

Over the last decade, the charity has grown from a baby bank to provide everything from the moment a baby is born to the moment a child leaves school, alongside specialist support for parents so that they may never need to use charitable services again. Under Emma’s leadership, First Days has helped over 25,000 children, and distributed over 500 tonnes of donated goods.

In an affluent area like Berkshire, it can surprise people to hear that First Days supports more than 8,000 chil- dren every year, despite most having parents in work.

However due to the cost-of-living crisis, in Berkshire more than 45,000 children in Berkshire live below the poverty line. After the cost of housing and utilities, their parents have less than £19 a day to live on for food, clothes, fuel, transport and everyday basics, despite their best efforts.

During the Covid 19 Pandemic, Emma led the Borough’s emergency response to food provision, setting up and running a food hub, which, with the help of 120 volunteers, distributed more than 8,000 food parcels to vulnerable residents.

In the last 10 years Emma has raised over £1.5m to support the local children and families and supported many other women by mentoring them to start their own charities in their area.

Emma said: “This is an incredible honour, which I am humbled to receive. This work has been a labour of love for a decade of my life and I never fail to be utterly blown away by the incredible families we support. It is an honour to be able to play a part in restoring dignity, choice and power to our local community through the work of First Days Children’s Charity.

“We don’t do this work for recognition, but if more people like me - rebellious Do Gooders - can be recognised in this way then that would be brilliant for the communities we serve. I am privileged to be surrounded by a fantastic team of staff and volunteers who work tirelessly to support families. Despite the very difficult circumstances we find ourselves in during a costof-living crisis and a funding crisis for the small charity sector, we continue to work hard to help as many families as we can. I hope that this honour will show more people the fantastic work that First Days’ does so we can carry on supporting families for as long as they need us.”

Honoured

Vickie Robertson of Kaleidoscopic UK has been awarded the British Empire Medal for service to victims of domestic violence and also refugees.

The Wokingham organisation was started in January 2019 after her experience of childhood and adult domestic abuse. Experiencing first-hand the gaps in current support and services available, combined with a general lack of training or understanding of domestic abuse, Vickie was inspired to help others in similar situations to find the support they need by delivering a range of specialist services for all individuals in our community through Kaleidoscopic UK.

Her story is one of overcoming and shows all other child and adult victims of abuse that anything is possible.

“It’s an honour to support victim-survivors of abuse and refugees along any part of their journey,” Ms Robertson said. “To see them go from surviving to thriving is the biggest reward ever. The medal is definitely an added bonus.”

A spokesman for the organisation added:

“We are totally thrilled to announce that our founder and CEO Vickie Robertson has been awarded the Brit ish Empire Medal in the Kings birthday honours list, for service to victims of domes tic violence and refugees. Her story is one of overcoming and shows all other child and adult victims of abuse that anything is possible. As Vick ie always says: ‘Abuse may impact/ change us but it doesn’t define us’.”

Kaleidoscopic UK’s objectives are the relief of need and the promotion of good health for children and adults in England and Wales who have been subjected to or exposed to domestic abuse through survivor-led support services and by educating and informing voluntary and statutory services, as well as the public at large, about all forms of domestic abuse and its harmful effects.

They support children and adults who have been exposed to domestic abuse through free support services. Our services will be available throughout the victim/survivor journey, providing an open-ended network.

Prue Bray, deputy leader of Wokingham Borough Council, was awarded an MBE for her services to politics, both locally and nationally.

In her local area of Winnersh, Prue works hard for her community as a councillor, volunteer and campaigner. And she has been a longtime party volunteer. Her roles in the Liberal Democrats range from Chair of the party’s English Candidates Committee, where she oversaw the selection and approval of parliamentary candidates, to Vice Chair for the English Party.

Since 2020, Prue has served as the Chair of the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners (ALDC), which supports councillors and campaigners across the country. There, she has helped revolutionise the party’s campaign capacity, culminating in a strong set of local election results.

Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey MP commented: “Prue has always gone above and beyond for the Liberal Democrats, dedicating herself to voluntary service with little recognition or personal benefit herself.

They aim to advance the education of the voluntary and statutory services about all forms of domestic abuse and its harmful effects through the eyes of survivors and work collaboratively to enhance prevention and recovery for families, children and adults.

Their services currently operate in

“Always willing to pitch in where needed, her wealth of knowledge has made a significant difference to our party. I am so thrilled she is getting the recognition she deserves.” the Wokingham Borough, Thames Valley and they provide support services throughout England and Wales, employing fellow survivors of domestic abuse and enabling empowerment plus employment that can be flexible all whilst providing further survivor-led support for others.

She is a school governor, parish councillor, Neighbourhood Action Group member and trustee of a local charity. She has lived in Winnersh for more than 25 years, with her husband and three children.

For more information, visit https:// www.kaleidoscopic.uk/