Family Support Work (FSW) Supporters Newsletter and Prayer Requests

December 2023

Dear Friends,

With so much going on recently in the busyness of the Christmas season, we sometimes lose track of the core focus of our work. We are still supporting families with multiple challenging situations, and these unfortunately seem only to be increasing. Although we do as much as we can to make Christmas fun and less stressful for them, it can only be a temporary break from their daily challenges, so our intensive home-based support is vital. We are making between 250 and 300 home visits a month currently, and families are so grateful for this regular, personal contact. One parent said: “Your visit is the best thing about my week, I am so glad when you come to see me and I can talk to someone I know can help me.”

We said goodbye to Jude, our Hastings practitioner, at the end of November – our longest-serving practitioner with 20 years’ service at FSW. We are currently looking at how this gap can best be filled to serve the needs of that community.

We are so grateful to all of you who supported us with toys, food and financial donations over the Christmas period. It is such a huge help to our families and really helps to make things a bit more special for them.

We are looking ahead to events in 2024, including a Skydive in April. I attach a flyer about this and we’d love to hear from anybody who thinks they might like to get involved.

With huge thanks to all our supporters for all that you continue to do for us.

November’s work in numbers

·       258 individual visits and 1241 calls with families supporting 305 adults and 239 children

·       49 supported meetings with other agencies

·       57 group sessions held supporting 855 parents and 346 children

·       108 food deliveries made

Prayer points

·       Give thanks for a well-deserved rest for our staff over the Christmas period

·       Pray that the right decisions will be made about important strategic matters currently in discussion

·       Give thanks for the generosity of so many over the Christmas period from churches, companies, schools and individuals

Nikki Kerr, FSW Director of Fundraising and Marketing