At the end of March we turned 5 – from starting in the back of a hall with 3 shelf units and tubs of baby clothes, we now have a fully functioning warehouse, ordering system for case workers and a wonderful community who donate items to us so we can continue to help local disadvantaged children. We marked the occasion with a lunch for our volunteer team at Wallarah Bay RSL – kindly hosted for us the Roos Foundation; and we held an Afternoon Tea at our warehouse with a group of our wonderful community supporters.
5 lessons from the last 5 years
When we started out, we weren’t too sure how what We Care would become. We were motivated by the knowledge that there’s 10,000 kids living in poverty on the Central Coast and we wanted to respond to this need in a really practical, direct way. How do we do this? We asked We Care CEO Derryck Klarkowski the 5 reasons that have been invaluable over the last 5 years: our community, our volunteers, our experience, our professional interface and our funders.
Our community – we connect a community of people who want to help, with children who desperately need it. For people who want to reach out, and help local vulnerable kids we enable them to do this by donating their no-longer needed children’s items. And we just can’t believe how much this community has embraced us, thank you.
Our volunteers – They’re the powerhouse behind everything we do. It’s much more than just the physical work – and there’s heaps of that. It is the inspiration, commitment, the drive, the emotion that volunteers bring to focus. We have truly amazing volunteers.
Our experience – We have five years of operational knowledge and we know our patch. We are continuously improving, but we have a 1001 skills within We Care – large and small, all invaluable and all essential.
Our Case Workers – We established a professional network of support agencies that are qualified and skilled to provide a total package of care. It isn’t our decision who we help, we leave that up to the experts.
Our Funders – Community donations make up 95% of what we give out, but we have to purchase the 5% gaps. We also have core costs – we are dependent on warehouse space, we need electricity, fuel, insurance and non of this would be possible without our funders.
Thank you all.
Your invitation to join us at our inaugural Mother’s Day High Tea
We are aiming to host 100 We Care friends to join us to raise funds to support our goal to give access to practical everyday essentials to over 3,000 local children this year.
Location: The Beachie, Toukley // Date: Friday 7th May, 11.30am
Early bird tickets: $65 // Early bird finishes Friday 23rd April, 5pm
High Tea for 1: $75
We will be gathering our community of like-minded socially conscious, passionate and caring women to celebrate Mother’s Day, support We Care Connect and enjoy each other’s company over High Tea at the newly renovated The Beachie in Toukley.
Introducing our new look
To celebrate 5 wonderful years of helping local children, we have been working behind the scenes to update our logo and look. The wonderful team at Hours After has been incredibly generous to We Care, and provided our new look to us completely for free – we can’t thank you enough!
We love the new colours and the introduction of some characters, designed by Carissa Harris Art. The characters represent the village that We Care operates within: The children we support; the families who donate; our volunteers; and our community partners. The little girl we’ve named Penny – and more to come on the names of the other characters!
What we need next
We received a huge 83 requests from caseworkers supporting families in March, there are so many children needing help. What do we need? Our wish-list at the moment:
- Sheets, especially single sheets
- Waterproof mattress protectors – cots and single beds
- Cot blankets
- Capsules and car seats suitable for newborns (car restraints need to be under 7 yrs from date of manufacture
- Nappies/pull-ups size 5 & 6 (walker/Junior)
- Nappy bags
- Fold-up change tables
- Cots
- Double prams
See our drop-off points and list of things we can rehome here: www.wecareconnect/howtohelp
As we enter the cooler months, warmer items like cot blankets and warm clothing are desperately needed by the children we support.
We are so grateful to you as your support keeps us able to support more and more vulnerable children and families. We’d love to see you at the Mother’s Day High Tea event next month!
The We Care Team x
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