Love CHRISTMAS
We love Christmas at Werb’s… and this year is no exception. Whilst we have lots going on with our various different services, what we love most about Christmas is being able to bless those who are struggling. We do this each year by partnering with Love Christmas - a national campaign run by Re-vitalise Trust - to provide bags of kindness to those in need.
This year we are running 3 activities which we would love to invite you to join in with.
Christmas Connection -
partnering with Derby City Mission
Derby City Mission will again be providing help to those parents, who will not be able to afford to buy their children Christmas presents, through their Christmas Connection project. This also helps families not to get further into financial difficulties in an effort to provide presents. Last year they were able to provide gift parcels for 801 children in need in our city. That was over 4000 gifts! Often they have a shortage of gifts for children in the 9-18 age range so we created our own Amazon Gift list to help meet this need.
Our gift list has now closed. We managed to raise £1500 worth of gifts which has been matched funded by Love Christmas.
Community Meals -
partnering with Derby food for thought alliance
The Derby Food 4 Thought Alliance supports people in Derby who are experiencing food insecurity, through food provision, signposting, support and advice.
They partner with 14 food-based projects, including 5 community shops, community pantries, and traditional food projects. They also work with 30 local community meal-based projects.
This year we are going to partner with them to provide a community meal for 15 - 20 families that live locally to St Werburgh’s Church. This will be taking place on Tuesday 17th December 4.30 - 6.30pm. We will need a team to help prepare and serve the food as well as a team of people to welcome and socialise with the families. If this is something you could help with then please click the link and drop Jenny an email.
A similar event will be happening at St Ed’s on Friday 13th December with their Family meal and movie night. They would love for some extra help. If you can support them please click the link below.
BAGS of KINDNESS
At the heart of the Love Christmas Campaign is the Bag of Kindness. An opportunity to promote kindness and connection over anxiety and isolation and reach those that are struggling or alone at Christmas.
A bag of kindness is a gift that can be given to someone who in need this Christmas. With the cost-of-living crisis, Love Christmas aims to bless those who may not otherwise receive a gift at Christmas. It is our hope that through our community meals we will be able to build relationships with families who we can then bless with one of these bags.
Our bags of kindness will include-
Fleece blanket
Woolly socks
a tub of hot chocolate and some biscuits
A card game - e.g. Uno, Top Trumps,
Colouring pens/pencils and a colouring books
We would love to partner with individuals and businesses to create these gifts. If you own, manage or work for a business who would like to donate either with items or financially to this then please get in touch with Alex on alex.dann@stwderby.org
