Today’s speaker was Katharine Loveday, a full-time fund raiser for Chelmsford-based charity Kids Inspire, which aims to “give children back their future”.
Kids Inspire works with children who have mental health problems or are at risk of developing mental health problems. It was started by Sue Bell, a drama teacher who went on to train as a drama therapist after realising some of the children she saw needed such help. She went on to found Kids Inspire in order to bring in other therapy specialists and provide a wider service.
Today funding mainly comes from contracts with local authorities to provide services and through private donations. Very little comes through grants.
Children may suffer mental health problems because of a difficult home environment, family or other trauma or abuse. Kids Inspire offers a variety of therapies and early intervention in the case of children who might go on to develop mental health problems. They always seek the consent of the parents or carers and in some cases may help the whole family.
In addition, Kids Inspire now runs “Kids Who Lunch”, providing lunches during school holidays for children who receive free school meals during term time.
Katharine showed us a short animated film illustrating the sort of children the charity has been able to help and told us the stories of some others. We agreed with the charity’s title: Kids do inspire!