This year, they came up with a unique idea for an exciting challenge that hoped to raise more money and involved more companies and individuals than ever before. So on Saturday 11th May, twelve teams in cars, plus one team who were travelling only public transport, held a 15-hour Manor Royal to Monaco race.

All the teams involved did really well to complete the challenge in good time. But special mention has to be made for Jeremy Taylor, CEO of Gatwick Diamond Business, who made the whole journey on public transport while dressed as Kermit the Frog!

The teams have raised over £16,000 so far, which will be divided between all the charities, including Home-Start CHAMS.

Aimee Wiggins, Fundraising Manager at Home-Start CHAMS commented on the great help that this money will be:

Home-Start CHAMS would like to express our gratitude to all who took part in the Manor Royal to Monaco Challenge recently. There is currently a higher demand for the services we offer than we are able to meet. This amount of money will have a significant impact on working towards meeting these needs, and helping local families build better lives for their children.

These are being organized as very informal gatherings where the volunteers have the chance to meet staff and other volunteers in order to:

• talk about their volunteering experiences
• ask any questions and receive advice
• meet old friends and make new ones
• hear more about ‘What’s On’ at Home-Start CHAMS, including upcoming events

Plus, of course, enjoy a drink and cake!

One of the home-visiting volunteers who came along commented that it was good to talk with volunteers who they’d never met before and to have the chance to learn from them.

There will also be a more ‘formal’ talk from representatives of the staff team. At this session, Aimee Wiggins, the Fundraising Manager, talked about some of the things that will be happening in the next few months.  In return, she was pleased to receive many ideas for the future too!

It’s hoped that the sessions might also include a guest speaker on occasions.  And if you have any other suggestions of ways they could be used to help meet volunteer needs, we would love to hear from you.

The next drop-in session will be on Tuesday 28th May, from 10 am.

This new training was inspired by a ‘healthy eating’ pack created by Home-Start UK, but was specially created for Home-Start CHAMS by a volunteer who has experience of working in the ‘Early Years’ environment.

The ‘Eating Well’ training helps volunteers working with families to pass on the understanding of what a good diet is for children up to 4 years old. It includes information on portion sizes, nutrition, fighting infections, vitamins and minerals.

Topics covered on the day included:

•  Making sure children eat regular meals and nutrious snacks
•  Do children under 5 need extra vitamins?
•  What should children aged 1-4 drink?
•  How much milk should toddlers drink?
•  What about fussy eaters?
•  Good hygiene and safety

An integral part of the course is also the supply of easy-to-use recipe cards, which detail recipes for each mealtime, across different age groups. They will be available for volunteers and supported families to use on a loan basis. We are grateful to Cardinus Risk Management Ltd, who produced all the recipe cards for us to use in this initiative.

The course is a fantastic addition to our training programme and this should be the first of many sessions to deliver the information to our volunteers.

Please contact the Home-Start CHAMS office if you would like more information about the ‘Eating Well’ training.

We were thrilled to have 8 runners raising money on our behalf in this year’s Brighton Marathon, which took place on Sunday 15th April.

All eight took on this challenge after months of training and managed to complete the 26.2 mile route in good times, finishing on the Brighton seafront.  We would like send our congratulations for this fabulous achievement to:

• Ben Redman
• Tim Smith
• Doug Wright
• Geoff O’Connell
• Alex Smith
• Mark Hope
• Dion Guntley
• Ben Daniels

Our thanks go to them and their sponsors for the generous support they have given us.  Already they have raised over £4,000.  Donations can still be made on the runners’ BT MyDonate pages.

You can see the number of eggs we were given in this photo, from when we had just received them at our offices.

All the eggs were given out to families for their children, by our Home Visiting Volunteers and their Co-ordinators, during visits in the days leading up to Easter.

The Council recently set up this new fund for their staff to run and to make nominations for local not-for-profit voluntary or community groups which they consider a ‘good cause’ and which benefit residents in West Sussex. Michelle Neale, who is a Home-Start CHAMS Volunteer, put forward an application on our behalf and as a result we received the funding in March.

Michelle came into the office to present the cheque in person, to Sarah O’Connell, Office Manager.

The first group of abseilers!

On Sunday 3rd March over 45 brave participants challenged themselves by taking part in our abseil. They all came down 110 feet from the top floor of the Sofitel hotel, Gatwick Airport. Some not in the conventional manner!

We especially want to say a huge ‘Thank you’ to all those who took part in the abseil and raised money for their bravery from sponsors. We have already received over £5,850. You are all helping us continue helping families build better lives for their children.

A team of experts from Over The Edge were on hand throughout, showing the abseilers what to do and keeping everyone safe. Thanks to them, the abseilers and all the others who supported the challenge in so many ways, the day was a great success.

To see more details of the day, including pictures, just go to our Abseil Challenge page.

On Saturday 11th May, 12 cars will set off from Manor Royal, starting at 5am. Their challenge will be to make it all the way down to Monaco by that evening, with the earliest arrivals expected before 8 pm.

As an added twist, there will also be another challenging team, headed up by Jeremy Taylor, the CEO at gdb, who will be undertaking the same challenge by public transport!

The annual gdb Challenge has raised thousands for local charities in previous years and this year, as a member of Gatwick Diamond, we will be one of the 14 charities receiving a share of the money raised.

It promises to be an exciting time for all those involved!

If you would like to find out more about it, or make a donation, you can visit the JustGiving gdb Challenge page.

We are delighted to report that we will be running another Preparation Course for new Home Visiting Volunteers, starting on Wednesday 16th January 2013.

Following the success of our Autumn Preparation course, which has just come to an end, we are keen to hear from people with parenting experience who are looking for a new opportunity in the New Year. The free training will take place in our offices at Broadfield, Crawley, every Wednesday for 10 weeks, term time only.

There are a number of families who are already on our waiting list, desperate for a volunteer who can offer them the support they need.

You may have seen recent coverage of our drive to find new Home Visiting Volunteers in the local press. We are particularly grateful to the West Sussex County Times, who included an article in their paper’s Charity section last week (6th December) and the Crawley Observer.

If you, or anyone you know, would be interested in attending the course, please contact us on 01293 416327.  You can also see our Home Visting page for more information.

Every year we try to help make Christmas a special time for the children of the families we are supporting. Thanks to kind donations such as that from Holy Trinity Church, we are able to give many of them a gift.

The toys we received from the Church are now available for our Home Visiting volunteers to make a selection specific to the family they are visiting.