I think I've just had a good idea, but I have absolutely no idea.

[Gingernaut]

Levelling up.

It takes a village to raise a child

Education! Education! Education!

Yes.

However, I live in a deprived shit hole, with poverty and dysfunctional family set ups all across the area.

There are many children with chronic conditions whose family set up means they are missing essential hospital appointments.

Crucial scans and diagnostic tests have had to be rescheduled because the parent or guardian cannot believe the child is that ill (even if the condition is hereditary, they've seen it kill and/or they have complications from it themselves), they went on holiday at the last minute, knowing full well that the appointment was pending and thought they could rebook after the appointment had passed, a sibling is playing up or they can't afford the bus fare.

Children are missing out on consultant, dentist or eye appointments because mum is phobic and can't gather herself to bring the child and there is no one else she can rely on.

There are children who aren't into their teens, already suffering life limiting effects of health conditions and whose prospects of employment are lowered as a result.

Children missing out on scholarships or extracurricular classes because the family can't afford the uniforms, kit, instruments, books or can't get their act together to get them to classes.

Children not progressing because the family are dependent on short term lets, B&B, private landlords and are moving on a biannual or more basis.

Children who have a talent but who can't practice, because there's no space, it's too noisy or time consuming for someone to get them to practice.

What if there was a 'collective' of volunteers?

DBS checked volunteers, who could spare a couple of hours a day/week/weekend, who could help out.

Some with resources, some with cars and free time, some with experience of teaching, mentoring, coaching and some with maybe £5 a month to spare.

What if there was an organisation which could coordinate these volunteers?

Send an email to the volunteers each month asking when they were free and what resources they could make available.

People could make referrals to this organisation.

Teachers, social workers, parents, grandparents and a child's needs assessed as a whole.

So a child who needed to practice an instrument, could be paired up with someone in a detached house or who had a piano that they could practice on for an hour a day.

A child who needed space, peace and quiet to study could be paired up with someone who had a dining table and wifi out of library hours

A child who needed someone to pick them up and take them to appointments could be paired up with someone with the right car seat who could take them - I can see that would require patient confidentiality - so social worker? Nurse? The child and a trusted relative?

Applications could be made to the organisation for funds.

For educational, psychiatric and medical assessments, instruments, kit, supplement a scholarship, books, uniform etc.

Anything and everything required to intervene as early as possible and give any child as much help as possible.

The Tories brought in Student Loans

Labour brought in tuition fees

Both of these hit students from the poorest backgrounds disproportionately.

Clearly, there's no government or legislation that can be relied upon to help the least academically able, the disadvantaged and the victims of dysfunctional and abusive parenting.

A collective fund, a central hub of second hand uniforms, with volunteers to mend, clean and iron them, an organising committee, a fundraising committee and a squadron of volunteers across the area, committed to helping the next generation level up and better than the last.

Is this being done already?

Am I talking out of my arse?

Is this a good idea?

I'm thinking it is too big a remit as a starting point. Maybe start with just one aspect of it. So the school uniforms, or the advocacy. See how it goes and then add more.

Perhaps an existing local charity type organisation could help? Are there any multi-faith church groups. Locally we have a kind of united churches of (this area) group. Or maybe something like a local community centre if such things still exist. Maybe they would allow an additional service to be added to their existing services and the benefit of that is that they already likely reach a big audience. Local school might be good too.

I googled "what's the difference between a charity and a non-profit?" and I'm none the wiser on what you need :)

Good Luck. It sounds really good.

Billy Elliot types at a loss to know what to do with their kid??

It's more a case of not having enough money to spend on hobbies and interests. Every single issue that you describe has it's roots in POVERTY.
I get where you're coming from in that you have good intentions but nobody especially children, want to feel like a 'charity case' and that's before you start thinking about the safeguarding. It's a different time and few parents would be happy about their child going off with a stranger.
There's also the long-term commitment needed, it would be heartbreaking for little Billy Elliot to start dancing class and then have to stop because the volunteer taking him and buying his ballet shoes can't do it anymore.

I think this is essentially a charity. I've worked in third sector and this is what YMCA, salvation army, church army and other small, local mental health/youth work charities do. It would be what small community hubs used to offer too, but like you said you won't get the funding for that from the govt.

It’s all about money. Any problem can be resolved/help bought with money. It’s all about the money.

Sounds a little like Big Brother/ Big Sister programme in the States.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brothers_Big_Sisters_of_America

Could work well with a local Multi Academy Trust of nearby schools.

Have a look at Harlem Children’s Zone which a few projects in the U.K. are based on. They cover education/ medical/ opportunities / extra curricular.

hcz.org/

I live very close to an area that could benifit massively from something like this.
The trouble is the pockets of people who would have the time, facilities and inclination to do this dont overlap with the areas that would benifit from it most.
So it would work if the volunteers lived in the next street along, but not so much if they live the other side of the river (or duel carriageway in our case).

TLG are a Christian nfp who deal with some of the things you mention. It stands for Transforming Lives for Good.

Absolutely a charity, with the aims of relief of poverty. You only need to register if income over 5k. Charity Commission website has all docs needed. It would be easier to fundraise with a registered charity number as it gives transparency. Once you have your aims and activites defined you'll
be able to pull together a 'business plan' need to really focus on safeguarding, insurance and not replicating work done by others. As activities go they are quite risky and so you'd need watertight policies and procedures. Quite an undertaking. You need to reach out to local services you could work with, gain advice from or support, if there are any. I love the idea, what a vision.

Homestart is a little like that.

Fantastic charity doing amazing work, but funding is non existent.

My mum used to do a lot of this stuff with the old WRVS. I remember as a young teen (in the 1980s) helping out with a clothing bank that was widely used.

Then WRVS got ‘professionalised’ and lost its way. Many people were restricted from doing stuff that was actively helpful and lost heart and gave up. It’s sad.

Safeguarding nightmare.

This stuff used to be done more in schools. The dentist would come in, and the school nurse (and the nit nurse!) and kids would get checked over. There used to be showers on site and primary school kids who needed it would be showered and provided with a set of clean clothes after. Their clothes would be washed by staff (only the ones that were coming in filthy, mind).

But there's no money nowadays.

My DC miss out on extra curriculars/clubs etc because I’m a single parent. I’m currently at Uni, STEM degree, full time. Even once I’m qualified and working, they’ll still miss out - because I’m a single parent. I can’t work, and take DC to a club, and look after the other 2 at home at the same time.

It’s shit, and it’s not the life I planned for them, but my ex decided he’d have an affair and fuck off to the opposite side of the country with OW

@DobbyTheHouseElk

Homestart is a little like that.

Fantastic charity doing amazing work, but funding is non existent.

Yes, I was thinking Home Start/Sure Start / Flying Start or an extension of homework schools.

Poverty of time, money, knowledge, experience, friendship groups and support.

The ability to pick up the phone to call on someone to help out in a crisis is taken for granted by so many people.

Hugs @BurntTheFuckOut, that's shit.

@EllieQ

Are you thinking of something like Homestart, basically?

There isn't one in my area.

You've hit the nail on the head there OP!
Some people really don't have anyone to call for help.
It's a horrible situation to be in.
I do agree with a pp that you could pick one aim and build up.
Definitely talk to local church and community groups but you'll need funding to get off the ground.
Good luck!

@Gingernaut it really is. I don’t have family to help me out either. My friends all work full time, and at weekends spend time with their DC, husbands and extended family, me and my DC just have us. It’s fucking miserable.

Agree re medical appointments - my middle child is under CAMHS, has ASD/ADHD and because I’m (sort of!) educated, have ADHD myself and can spot bullshit a mile off, I’ve managed to navigate all of that relatively well, and I can easily see where others wouldn’t be able to. The system for the above has broken me at times.

My parents had no idea, I was only diagnosed with dyslexia at 21 and with ADHD at 49 and have no real hope of a 'career'. I've just 'bounced' from one random job to another.

I was musically talented, but again, my parents had no clue about lessons, had no contacts who could help or any idea about where to go for advice or help.

There was clearly something wrong, but we had no idea what.

Only after I started work, did someone notice and I was diagnosed.....

@Gingernaut

I'm not sure what I'm proposing, tbh.

Mentoring, support and practical help for parents, as well as children, I suppose.

I guessing this would have to be a charity?

Under 5 this is homestart. There are lots of charities doing the things they mention but not as far as I know a national thing in all areas in the same way homestart does (which is also desperate for volunteers right now btw!)

For over 5s I meant.

Thank you all.

I will write to my MP.

He's Labour.

@Gingernaut oddly enough, I did get a scholarship to a private school (a GDST one). Around an hours travel each way. My home was a chaotic one with 4 younger siblings, an alcoholic step Dad and a severely depressed, no clue about education mother. I was an “academically gifted” child who grew up in utter chaos, and had to leave a prestigious private school after 2 years because my step Dad had earned more money that year, meaning half the fees had to be paid and my mother refused to let my lovely paternal grandparents pay for it. My Dad was largely absent for my entire childhood, his parents were very much present and active.

I then left home at 16 (albeit with a string of A* GCSEs) because I couldn’t cope any more, lived in a bed sit and worked full time. Have had severe MH issues/undiagnosed ADHD.

I’m 35 now.

It’s still been an unrelenting shitshow, mostly due to things out of my control and partly because I wasn’t shown good choices as a child and so have no idea how to make them as an adult.

It’s exhausting, isn’t it?

My ADHD was picked up on by Uni.

I'm not sure if you would see this in the same vein

During the Blair/Brown era, I suggested to my large company employer that if anyone on benefits needed help learning new skills, we could set up a shadowing scheme, or even bits of training.

so if someone had to switch from a non-office environment, I'd be more than happy to show them the ropes and then they would get free training, the company would get goodwill etc. I was just thinking one person who might spend an afternoon with me and instead of being told they lacked office skills, I could show them some office skills and that might in turn help them get a job...

My employer had clearly heard it all before, said "we are on board, but it's the type of thing the government won't care about". So I tried to pair up with local job centres and other resources and no one took us up on it. HR helped out to see if we could get it going, but no.

if just a few people in a big company gave 2 hours a week to help someone reskill, then that person could get a whole week work experience that might help them find a job.

I think the reality is that volunteering in this way often does a bunch of bureaucrats out of a job? You'd think they could find a way to make money for themselves AND help people more?

Frustrating, I know.

by "on benefits" I mean anyone actively seeking a job and then being rejected for mad reasons

e.g. I've got a mate who struggled because she wanted to move from hospitality to office work due to a knee problem and kept being told "you have no office skills" but there's loads of us who would be happy to teach them!