Richmond Voluntary Fund chosen charities
The focused area for fundraising in 2024/25 will be charities providing support for children and young people's wellbeing.
Richmond upon Thames Voluntary Fund have selected the charities Dose of Nature, Skylarks and the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation.
Dose of Nature is a registered charity (No. 1181216) that promotes the mental health benefits of engaging with the natural world.
Dose of Nature offers a number of opportunities, presentations and programmes, appropriate for children and young people of all ages. Its workshops combine classroom-based learning about the mental health benefits of spending more time in nature, with practical outdoor nature-based activities. The charity also provides one to one nature prescriptions to support young people struggling with diverse mental health difficulties.
Skylarks is a registered charity (No. 1148114) that provides activities and therapies for children with disabilities and additional needs. It also supports and provides therapies, courses and information for whole families.
Funding will help Skylarks to support children and young people with holiday activities and outings, specific programmes like Pedal Project (learning to ride a bike) and the All Aboard Club, online activities, karate sessions, stay and play sessions, drama sessions, music and drumming sessions, hairdressing, osteopathy sessions, cooking sessions, and developmental yoga.
The Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation is a registered charity (No. 1158921) focused on drug and alcohol education. It was set up by Tim and Fiona Spargo-Mabbs in response to the death of their 16-year-old son from an unintentional overdose, in order to prevent any other family having to experience the loss of a child, or harm of any sort, from substance use. The DSM Foundation aims to support young people to make safe choices and reduce harm, through increasing their understanding of the effects and risks of drugs and alcohol and improving their life skills and resilience.
The Foundation provides drug education workshops and Theatre in Education play performances for young people in both state and private schools in Richmond upon Thames, as well as workshops for parents, and training for professionals working in the borough. Additional funding will help the Foundation to maintain and expand the programmes of support for young people, schools, colleges and families in Richmond.
Young people's wellbeing in Richmond
If you are concerned about a young person’s mental health, you can find out more information on how to get support by contacting the Single Point of Access team on 020 8547 5008 or use the SPA referral form. If you need to speak to someone urgently after hours or at the weekend, call the Out of Hours team on 020 8770 5000.
For more information visit the AfC website.
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