Equal Chances Christmas Donations

When a plea for help came in to provide local young people of Stoke-on-Trent who are leaving the social care system with some Christmas joy, the Colleagues at Blakemans heard the call, donned their Santa hats and jumped into action.

Back at the beginning of November, a plea came from the local council on behalf of Equal Chances, the Lord Mayors Charity (charity number 238156). They had been donated 222 empty Christmas gift boxes.

The charity provides support for local young people, aged 16-21, who leave the care system to live independently. Many of these young people have no family of their own and the support that is given by Equal Chances is vital to them, as Councillor Lilian Dodd explained;

“Equal Chances was a trust that I set up with the help of the young people in care, when I was the Lord Mayor in 2018-2019, to support young people leaving care. I refer to the fund as “The Bank of Mum and Dad”. If the young people need anything that our own children take for granted, like phone top ups, bus passes to get to college, internet access or even a night out with friends, the fund can help.”

Upon hearing that there was a potential for many youngsters across our local area to not receive a Christmas gift, the colleagues at Blakemans jumped into action and managed to amass quite a number of gifts between them in just 4 weeks. Councillor Dodd was thrilled when she received the donations and sent a letter with the outcome of the plea, in which she said;

“Your kindness enabled us to get gifts out to over 400 Young Care Leavers, Young Carers and Young People in Care in supported accommodation. For many of these young people, this would be the only gift which they received.
The boxes contained gift sets, hats, gloves, socks and chocolates, along with a lovely Mug, Diffuser and Hand Sanitiser, and lots of other treats and Christmas goodies, thanks to the kindness and generosity of people like yourselves.”

Jane Selman, head of HR for Blakemans was thrilled with the response that the staff had to the plea, saying;

“A massive ‘thank you’ to all of you who donated items for the Equal Chances Christmas Plea, with special thanks to the person who brought in a huge bag of gifts and to the two colleagues who donated gift vouchers instead of buying each other a Christmas present! It’s a pleasure to work with such kind people”