Chair’s report 2016-2017
Introduction
2016-17 has seen some fantastic achievements for Aching Arms for which everyone involved with the charity should be delighted.We have seen record growth in terms of numbers of hospitals working with us, numbers of bears that we have distributed and the amount of income generated through all branches of fundraising.
It has been an extremely successful year and I, along with all the trustees, am very proud of how we have grown. The unwavering support of our volunteers, the enthusiasm of our fundraisers and the dedication of the trustees has ensured Aching Arms continues to bring comfort to the hundreds of parents who face the devastation of babyloss.
Participating Hospitals
As of September 1 2017, we have 83 hospitals working with Aching Arms to offer our comfort bears to bereaved parents.
This is compared to 48 hospitals on board at this time last year – an increase of 35 hospitals, a 72% increase.
This graph shows the rapid increase that we have seen over the last four years.
Sept 2014 Sept 2015Sept 2016 Sept 2017
This is an endorsement of the work that we are doing, showing that more hospitals are coming on board and that our work is having a positive impact and bringing comfort to bereaved parents. As a result of these figures, we are setting ambitious targets for the number of hospitals that we would like to be working with by September 2018.
Bears
We have distributed more bears than ever this year with 552 being posted and 2,675 taken to hospitals. This has increased from 468 posted last year and 1,255 delivered to hospitals – an overall increase of 1,504 bears (87%). This is a vital part of our charity’s work and we are extremely lucky to have a dedicated team of hospital and postal volunteers who ensure that our comfort bears are dressed, dedicated and delivered to bereaved families.
Funding
The increase in the number of hospitals we are working with combined with increased awareness of our charity has led to a huge rise in the amount of funds raised in aid of Aching Arms this year – we have an income of more than £102,000. This has gone a long way to ensuring that we can continue to provide our comfort bears free of charge to hospitals and continue to post bears to bereaved families.
The funds have predominantly come from our fantastic supporters who have raised funds by taking part in our fundraising campaigns Miles in Memory and Forget Me Not Tea Party. They have also undertaken their own events to raise money in aid of Aching Arms. We have been lucky enough to secure some grant funding and received donations through the Asda Green Token Scheme. Our merchandise has continued to sell well and the new lines that have been introduced have been popular.
We have been honoured to have a song written exclusively for us called Dawn of the Aching Arms by Lancashire singer/songwriter Katy Bradley and all proceeds from the sales of the record are being donated to Aching Arms.
Our budget for the next year will reflect greatly increased reserves as we need to ensure that we have funds to continue to supply our hospitals and pay freelance staff. It also demonstrates a need for the charity to work hard in continuing to secure funding to ensure that we can continue to provide the service and have room to grow.
Awareness Training
The awareness training we provide is very important in terms of our objectives of promoting awareness, improving the care of bereaved parents and developing and improving our relationships with hospital teams. Leanne Turner has delivered 9 sessions during this period with very good feedback. The scheme to encourage fundraisers to allocate funds for training has also been very successful.
Babylosscharities and healthcare communities
We have continued to secure our links with bereavement professionals and work with other bereavement charities. Leanne Turner has worked hard to develop and maintain relationships with various charities and healthcare professionals. Aching Arms was delighted to be invited to and attend the launch of Beyond Awareness to Action: Tackling Baby Loss in the UK at the House of Commons during Babyloss Awareness Week last October and Leanne continues to attend the All Party Parliamentary Group on Baby Loss and participates in the National Bereavement Care Pathway workshops.
Impact
Feedback has been positive from bereaved families and also from healthcare professionals. One of Leanne’s objectives this year was to formalise the feedback we get from volunteers and the hospital professionals with whom we workand she has completed this. The feedback helps us to evaluate the impact that the charity has and identifies areas for future focus.We continue to have many active supporters and fundraisers who provide anecdotal evidence of how important Aching Arms is to them.
People
Charity Co-ordinator
We have continued to have pay Leanne Turner as charity co-ordinator on a freelance basis and increased her hours to 16 per week. The role has been an asset to the charity this year. As we have grown so much, it has been vital to have a central point of contact who can co-ordinate the administrative side of the charity and support our volunteers as well as develop relationships within the babyloss community and play a key role in national initiatives in combating the high numbers of stillbirth and miscarriage.
Fundraising Co-ordinator
This year, as previously mentioned, we saw a huge increase in the numbers of fundraisers engaging with Aching Arms. This has led the trustees to agree that this vital role should no longer be held by a volunteer as the volume of work has become too great. We will be trialling a paid fundraising co-ordinator role in the early part of the next financial year on a freelance basis.
Trustees and Volunteers
We have a very committed team of 66 volunteers, who are vital to the charity. Our volunteer base continues to grow and we have identified areas where we would like to have a more secure skill base. We also continue to have a consistent team of trustees who oversee the running of the charity and make key decisions. Trustees had some excellent training this year and have worked hard to ensure that processes and procedures are in place to take the charity forward as it continues to grow.We have agreed that we would like to recruit more trustees – including a new chair person with experience of the charity sector.
Our Year Ahead
The charity has experienced rapid growth and it is wonderful that we are able to bring so much support to parents who are grieving the loss of their baby. The year ahead will see us build on this success and underpin the excellent work that has been achieved this year.
We hope that this will be facilitated by welcoming new trustees onto our board, who will bring with them fresh perspectives and ideas. We feel this is important as research demonstrates that “fresh” input from charity members enables charities to improve strategy and ultimately their effectiveness in terms of fulfilling their objectives successfully.
The trustees are also keen to develop the fundraising side of the charity, to ensure that we have a more secure income stream, which will allow us to more confidently plan for the future. We have sought assistant from a consultancy firm to ensure that we can create an effective fundraising strategy for the coming years.
We are also looking forward to finalising and beginning to distribute our bespoke Aching Arms bears. These bears will help us build the charity’s brand and simplify pre-distribution bear preparation.
Over the past year there has been much discussion and enthusiasm about training for our trustees and some volunteers. In the year ahead, we will be pursuing this. We are confident that this will improve ability to further develop a knowledgeable and effective team.