A Support Worker has made sure families in need of a little cheer receive Christmas gifts.
Harley Creear, who works for LiveWest, applied for presents with the Christmas appeal through Pirate FM’s Mission Christmas Toy Appeal.
We support young families aged 16-24 who are living in supported accommodation due to finding themselves in a vulnerable situation or facing homelessness.
Harley wanted to make sure residents, who may not be able to afford to buy their own toys, had gifts to give to their children.
Harley Creear, our Support Worker for Supported Housing, said: “Many of the families we support have little to no family, are care leavers, experience mental health issues and struggling with the ever-rising cost of living so would struggle to provide their children with presents this year.
“It will make such a difference to the families we support as it takes the strain off them having to provide as many presents for their children. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of people this time of year when many people throughout Cornwall are also struggling. The families were so grateful for all the donations we received.”
Sarah Kempster, our Team Leader for Supported Housing, collected the gifts on behalf of Harley, from Pirate FM's Lucy Start, at its distribution centre in Truro and families will give the presents to their children on Christmas day.
Harley arranged and set up a Christmas party for residents at Carthew House, St Ives, and the team sourced and wrapped up Christmas presents for each of the children ready for Father Christmas to attend and hand out to the children.
Harley said: “We decided to have a Christmas party in the house to bring everyone together and had a visit from Father Christmas who handed out some toy donations we had received separately from Pirate FM.
“We had a selection of party food and Christmas music and games such as pass the parcel. It was important to do this because most of the Christmas events are quite pricey and can be quite daunting for our residents to do alone.
“It was also important to bring everyone together and create a sense of Christmas spirit, lots of the parents we support have little to no family and some even spend Christmas day alone, giving them the opportunity to be part of something and celebrate was really important to me and all the staff at Carthew house.”
Our Support Worker, Becky Chappell, has also gone the extra mile and made herself available on Christmas Day to visit two of our customers who would otherwise not see anyone at all on Christmas Day.
Sarah Kempster, Team Leader for Supported Housing for LiveWest, said: “It was lovely to collect the toy appeal from Lucy this year and we appreciate Pirate FM supporting our residents in this way.
“Both the Carthew House and New Horizons teams have really gone above and beyond to ensure that everyone we support has everything that they need over the next couple of weeks. Thank you to everyone for their hard work.”