Improving young carers’ happiness and day to day life through our Wellbeing Fund
Last year, we launched the Honeypot Wellbeing Fund under the umbrella of our Wrap-Round service to provide young carers with a grant for life’s essential items. Through this grant (of up to £250) we want to give the children and families from financially disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to purchase items that make their day to day life at home easier, support children with their education, and improve their physical and mental wellbeing through a hobby or class they could otherwise not afford.
We spoke to Jenny Ray, Director of Strategic Development, about the application process for a grant, examples of the different things families request, and the impact our new service has made on their lives.
In a nutshell, what is the wellbeing fund about?
The fund is part of the Wrap-Round service, a set of services we launched last year as a direct response to the pandemic, aiming to tackle the complex needs of young carers. The Wellbeing Fund aims to directly support financially disadvantaged families through either household essentials, school material, or classes and equipment for hobbies these families could otherwise not afford. Indirectly, we are hoping to help children overcome social isolation and anxiety, support their emotional wellbeing and mental health, and make their caring roles at home both easier and more effective.
What’s the application process?
We launched the Fund earlier last year and first worked with a few families directly together to get a feeling for what items would be requested, and how to best coordinate purchases with the families. In December 2021, our Operations team promoted the Wellbeing Fund to our beneficiaries through a mailshot. As a result of this, we were delighted to receive an influx of applications for our new service. All eligible applications which have been received are currently being carefully considered by the Wellbeing Fund Administration Board ahead of the Operations team beginning the task of sourcing and purchasing requested items.
Successful applications lead to an approved product or service being purchased by Honeypot and supplied to the child’s family directly.
What type of requests do you receive?
the majority of applications we receive are eligible, and they cover a wide variety of goods and services. Items requested by families mainly fit into the following categories:
Technology items (tablets, laptops)
Beds/mattresses
White good (Washing machines, tumble dryers, cookers)
Extra-curricular clubs/fees (football, cubs, gymnastics, drama, horse riding, music lessons)
Entry fees for theme parks or the zoo
Bicycles
Musical instruments (keyboard, drum set)
Other (furniture, school trips, cameras, bus passes, art materials, school uniform)
How has the Wellbeing Fund made a positive impact so far?
We have been extremely pleased with the feedback our fund has received and are proud of the impact it has already had on the young carers we support. One young carer, Ellie (age 8,) has had the opportunity to enjoy and benefit from the use of a tablet to help her attend our digital workshops and complete school tasks online. Ellie’s mum stated that she was ‘over the moon’ upon receiving her new gadget.
Another application received was from a family, who due to shielding during the pandemic, have had to home school their son. They applied for a grant to enable them to purchase a laptop for him to access online eLearning on offer from the school. We were so pleased that we were able to purchase this appliance for them, and were delighted to hear back from his family:
“Our laptop arrived yesterday. Thank you so much. And bless you all for this wonderful gift. You are amazing, we are forever in your debt. You really have helped us out so much. Thank you to infinity.”
When does the application process re-open?
Unfortunately, applications are now closed until the beginning of the new financial year (April 2022) to enable full processing to be completed of current applications. Once re-opened, the Operations team will continue to promote the fund to our beneficiaries alongside referring organisations.