Why I don't want to be the Chairman of a Children's Charity

Controversial, I know, right??

But let's get the clickbait out of the way first - I really enjoy the role within the Charity, what the Charity is achieving, and what our plans are for the future. What I don’t like is the fact the Charity needs to be here at all, in the first place, and even more so with what's going on in the UK, and abroad.

Now let's have a look at where we, as a Charity, have seen the biggest issues recently which, no doubt, won't come as a surprise as the impact they've had is not only on the Charity, but a wider societal impact too…?

Pandemic: how can we ever forget, and will we ever forget (let's look at China where lockdowns are still occurring today)??Many people were furloughed, even our staff didn't escape that one.?Some people lost all their income, devasting the financial standing of their households, causing families to come to Charities like River Kids.?Families had to adapt as schools closed and parents juggled working from home while being the teacher and were ill prepared to deal with that.?Children's homes were unable to continually switch up their toy offerings as lockdown showed no signs of easing. ?

When, just as it does every year, Christmas arrived, and boom, River Kids had a tough decision to make, one that we'd never thought we'd have to make; do we, or don't we offer the West Lothian Toy Appeal.?Thankfully we found a way, and Christmas 2020 saw a little over 2,000 parcels being distributed to children.?In 2021, just as we thought life was back to normal, boom, more lockdowns, more furlough, and continuing pressure on already struggling families.?All of that resulted in the demand for our Toy Appeal rise to over 2,600 parcels being distributed to children; by far our largest ever ask. ?

Economy: if I just say Trussonomics, I think that will suffice.?All, joking aside, just as we thought life was returning to normal, Putin decides to invade Ukraine.?Not only has the economy tanked since then, but families also fled Ukraine with many ending up in Scotland; many of these families needing the services of River Kids and other charities, driving up demand for an already squeezed third sector.?

Then, and for reasons only known to the few, the UK government has exacerbated matters within the last few months, and in particular Liz's 'small' budget update which sent shock waves through the UK; not only causing a small drop in the stock market but also causing banks and lenders to hike up their interest rates - let's not kid ourselves, those who use the services of charities are generally not eligible for prime/low-cost lending are they?? Any family already struggling is now going to see a bigger impact, and what a time for that to happen, just with Christmas around the corner.

Why does all this matter??Simple, really, based on what's been happening in the wider economy especially the Cost-of-Living crisis, already struggling families will have no hope of being able to get through Christmas without some support, and I fully expect that River Kids will surpass distributing 3,000 parcels this year.

That has its own problems - the only way we can continue to support all these families is by the kind and generous donations of both toys and money which allows us to set up and distribute all these parcels.?What is in a parcel, I hear you ask, it's bound to just be a toy, right.?Wrong, a typical parcel for a young child is 1 large item, two small items, a cuddly toy, a book, a stocking filler, and a selection box - we try as best we can to ensure that toys are practically, if not, brand new.?Now for the hard truth, the estimated running costs of the Toy Appeal is more than ￡100,000 per year - and that's barely getting into the fact we now offer birthday parcels too.

The impact that both the pandemic and ongoing Cost of Living crisis is having, means only one thing - everyone is feeling the pinch, everyone has less disposable income and the niceties get put to the side.?Those niceties are what keep the Charity going, the small things like donating ￡20/￡30 worth of toys to River Kids each year may need to be put on the back burner, because quite frankly, when it costs substantially more to cover your bills, charities like ours, suffer.

Unsurprisingly, it's Christmas just around the corner, and River Kids isn't going to let the children, or their families down, nor are we going to ruin our reputation by giving out inadequate or smaller parcels (I mean can a child really understand 'shrinkflation' or will that already deprived child think that they did something wrong?).

So, let's get back to my opening statement of why I don’t want to be the Chairman of a Children's Charity.?Realistically, I'd love to live in a world where child poverty is the thing of the past; likewise, I am sure anyone working for a homeless charity would give their weight in gold to be out of a job, not because the charity collapsed, but because homelessness was eradicated.?That's how I, and likely my staff feel - they'd rather not be working for a Charity where there shouldn't even be an issue.?

Whilst the title may have been clickbait, and no doubt evocative (I shall await the comments!), I truly wish that child poverty was a thing of the past and I wasn't Chairman of this fantastic, small, and local Charity.?It really would stop my stress levels rising as I think about the long-term future of the Charity, not only on how we keep raising the money we need to deliver on our promises but keeping staff in their job and generally trying to keep the place on the right tracks; and what's more, that's without even talking about the plans we have for the future (more on that next time).

As we get closer to Christmas, and I, like most of you, think about spending time with friends and family, arranging Christmas dinner and what you're going to be eating, just know there are children out there, through no fault of their own, who won't have the type of Christmas you and I will have…that, is a sorry state of affairs, and brings much sadness to me, and is reasons like that that not only keep me up at night, but give me the drive and determination to help the children and their families.

I am not here asking for money, or support, as I know everyone has their own thing going on, all I ask is that you like, share or comment on this so that the word can be spread, or speak to your local MP/MSP about what action THEY are taking to end child poverty.?Just remember, our youth today will be the ones looking after us in the future, I'd very much like for that future not to be filled with further depravity because we cannot fix a problem which shouldn't even be there in the first place.

My final comment - River Kids is here to deliver on our objectives and come hell or high water, we will thrive, grow and help end child poverty.

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