Paula Ashfield: Kids Inspire

The distinction of being the first external speaker at one of our online meetings fell to Paula Ashfield, the Fund Raising Manager of Kids Inspire. Kids Inspire works with children who are recovering from traumatic experiences or have emerging mental difficulties.

Obviously during the current lockdown they have had to stop all physical activities and physical meetings and sessions. They are offering online therapy sessions instead. Last week they ran 417 online sessions. Their target is 500 a week, which they should soon reach.

The lockdown has increased the need for their services as any problems children face at home have intensified. For some school is their “safe place”. Others are happier to be learning at home, either because it means they are free of bullying or because it is simply their preferred way of learning. Kids Inspire is having to deal with some problems children are having that it has not encountered before.

The younger children have been provided with “therapy bags” containing books and other items they can look at or talk about during the online sessions. It has turned out that the teenagers prefer online sessions with their therapists because that is the way they normally communicate with their friends.

Like many other charities, Kids Inspire is facing a massive reduction in donations and other income because of the lockdown.

On the positive side, the experience gained through operating online has made the charity start thinking about making greater use of online facilities once things are back to normal. It would enable them, for example, to extend their geographical reach beyond Essex and use the help of therapists and other professionals based elsewhere.