CHARITY RECEIVES £10,000 GRANT TO HELP BEREAVED WILTSHIRE CHILDREN

A Swindon based child bereavement charity is celebrating a £10,000 grant from the Wiltshire Community Foundation. The money will help set up new bereavement support programmes in Wiltshire over the next 2 years.

Wiltshire Treehouse, which marks its 5th anniversary this year, helps children and young people who have experienced the death of a loved one. To date its programmes have only been run in Swindon, but they are now ready to set up further afield.

Darren chose to travel an 80mile round trip with his child in order to get to a Treehouse group. “Before Treehouse we’d never met any other children who were dealing with bereavement. For us the power of being in a room of likeminded people was simply invaluable. Our little boy still speaks about Treehouse now; the stories that he read with the group and the arts and crafts that he still has stuck up on his wall which are a reminder of the skills he learnt to process his grief.” says Darren.

“This grant will really help us to support more children.” says Katherine Brownlee, Bereavement Service Lead. “Our programmes have helped so many Swindon families and we are now ready to set up projects in Wiltshire, closer to the families who need us.”

In order to succeed the charity are now looking for companies who could provide corporate assistance either through employee volunteering, charity partnerships or skills sharing. The charity also needs individual members of the community who are able to volunteer directly with children and young people and/or fundraise.

If you can help, or for more information, please contact [email protected]