Wood Street Mission

It's time!!!! Yes, Halloween has gone, the fireworks have finished (well mostly) and it's time to prepare for our biggest project of the year.......Christmas. In a couple of weeks time, we'll be packing up our Family Basics project and turning Wood Street into what looks like a Christmas Toy Store. Families will start to visit our Christmas project from the first week in December and we must have plenty of toys and gifts on the shelves so they have plenty of choice. That's why we start early. We're already preparing to distribute thousands of toys and gifts to local children living in poverty so that they can have a happy Christmas. You can find details of our Appeal and exactly what we need over on our website, we've included the link below. There are plenty of ways to get involved and support our Christmas Appeal. Whilst we very much appreciate your donations of new toys, books and gifts, unwrapped for children aged 0-14 years, you can also help us by making a financial donation or by fundraising. this allows us to purchase items quickly when we run out of a particular item. We've also put together some helpful fundraising ideas that you could take on with your work colleagues, friends, family or as a group, please take a look. Whatever you’d like to get involved with, please do get in touch and tell us about your fundraising plans, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact fundraise@woodstreetmission.org.uk to find out more. Any funds raised for our Christmas Appeal will give us the flexibility to ensure that we have a good stock and a great variety of toys for each age group throughout the project. No matter how much money you raise, you’ll have made a real, positive difference to local children and their families, who are dealing with the impact of poverty. Thanks so much for your support everyone - let's do this! https://lnkd.in/drQj2F7

Our Childhood Experiences project introduces children to experiences they might not otherwise have. Thanks to the generosity of PZ Cussons, we recently took a group of children from Active Communities to The Children's Adventure Farm Trust (CAFT) for a day of reconnecting with nature. The children took on obstacle courses, made sandcastles, built incredible dens, took part in outdoor cooking sessions and toasted marshmallows on an open fire. As if this wasn’t enough, they also got to meet all of the animals including donkeys, sheep, pigs, alpacas, goats, ducks, guinea pigs and birds. The children were so excited to be able to run freely and enjoy the outdoor activities whilst learning so much about nature and animals. Our Childhood Experience days are all about creating lasting memories for children from low income families and thanks to CAFT and the support of PZ Cussons and their fantastic team there on the day it was mission accomplished.

Could you be the perfect person to join our fundraising team? We're looking for a part time Grants and Trusts Fundraiser join our growing team, as we take Wood Street Mission to the next level. You will be responsible for managing and delivering our Grants and Trusts income stream, developing long-term relationships with funders, and building on our small but successful track record. You will be responsible for securing grants of varying sizes, translating the charity’s work across our five projects into compelling, high quality applications for a range of audiences. Working collaboratively with the wider charity team, you will have a hands-on role in understanding our projects to ensure you can authentically convey our mission and our impact to funders. You will provide excellent care to existing and new supporters, ensuring reporting requirements are met and that funders are kept informed of how their support has enabled the charity to continue its work. If you think you're 'our person' then take a look at the full JD over on our website where you'll also find the application form. Good luck! https://lnkd.in/dc5PVXu #recruitment #fundraising #fundraiser #charity #manchester

Huge thanks to everyone involved in making our Smart Start Back 2 School Quiz 2024 another great success on Wednesday night! We are delighted to share we raised over £10,200 to support children from low income families in Manchester and Salford with school uniform – helping them to fit in and concentrate on their learning. We are very grateful to our inaugural sponsors Kings Chambers and Mills & Reeve for your generous support and your teams for joining us, and Spinningfields Business Group for their continued support. Congratulations to our winners Legal HD Ltd and all the other teams that brought so much enthusiasm and fun to the evening: The Parently Group, Kuits, JMW Solicitors LLP, The Park Royallers, WH Ireland, Evolution Money, Farrat, CG Professional, PZ Cussons, Farleys Solicitors LLP, One Education and LF Europe. Thank you to Manchester Hall for supporting the event with a fantastic venue and welcome drinks and Josh from Sync Production who made sure everything ran smoothly on the night. Our very kind raffle prize donors who provided some amazing prizes to help boost the total: Club de Padel; Flat Iron; Foley's Café; Hawksmoor; Hey Little Cupcake!; Schofield's Bar; Fazenda Rodizio Bar & Grill; Maray Restaurant Group; GAIL's; Tast Cuina Catalana; Hotel Football - A Tribute Portfolio Hotel; David Wayman Flowers; B for Butterfly Books; Nell's Pizza; Hilton Manchester Deansgate; Open Kitchen; including Kate who so generously donated our star prize of 4 Wicked tickets! Adam for all your support and for being so open in sharing your story with our guests. Our team and volunteers – Sam, Andrew, Anais and Arlene from St Kentigern’s who see every day the positive impact that Smart Start has on the children they work with. And last but by no means least the wonderful Jonathan Holling, our Quiz/Head Master for the evening who brought it all together for us and made it such a fun and entertaining evening. Thank you all so so much, we couldn’t have done it without you

Think you know a thing or two about history? Are you partial to an idiom? Well we might just have your ideal night out. Join us on Wednesday 25th September (6pm-9pm) for our Back-2-School Quiz. This is always an cracking night with plenty of laughs as well as some serious competition. The quiz will be held in the wonderful surroundings of Manchester Hall and guests will be treated to a welcome drink as well as a school dinner, only kidding, it'll be delicious pie and mash. So gather your friends, colleagues or family and book your tickets now, we've limited tables left but we'd love to see you there. To book your table, please email fundraise@woodstreetmission.org.uk

We're recruiting again and this time it's for a Development Worker. This is such a satisfying role where you'll support the development and improvement of referrer relationships, to organise Book Events and Childhood Experiences, and to support Family Basics from time to time. If you're interested in the role please take a good look at the Job Description and if it's for you, then you'll find the Application Form on the same page of our website. Link below and we look forward to hearing from you. We would be grateful for any shares throughout your networks. https://lnkd.in/dc5PVXu Thank you.

LEGO and Pizza? What a combo. Thanks to our good friends over at Nell's Pizza we're delighted to announce that every participant at our LEGO walk will receive a free slice of pizza. There's still time to sign up to this exciting challenge and here's a summary of what to expect. On Wednesday 11 September, between 5-7pm we'll be at Piccadilly Place (the Piazza) in Manchester and we'd love to see as many of you as possible take on the walk across a bed of thousands of LEGO pieces. This event will be great fun for you and your colleagues or why not come with your friends or family. Your ticket price includes a donation to the charity as well as a free slice of pizza, Wood Street Mission t-shirt and a goody bag to take home! Adult ticket £15.00 Child ticket £7.50 (age 5+) Family ticket (2 adults and 2 children) – £40.00 (saving £5!) Group ticket (4 adults) – £50.00 (saving £10!) Funds raised will support our Smart Start project, providing new school uniform and essentials to local children so they can fit in and focus on their learning. You can also set up a fundraising page to support our work even further. Join the fun and book your place here: https://lnkd.in/e3DSKG8i For more information contact our team on fundraise@woodstreetmission.org.uk or call 0161 834 3140. See you there!!

Want to be part of our small but perfectly formed fundraising team? We’re looking for a Fundraising Lead to join us on a 12 month contract (Maternity Cover) and the deadline of 25th July is fast approaching. All enquiries and applications are being managed by Charity People. Please do not contact us directly regarding this role. You can find all of the details here 👇🏻

On Saturday 3 of our teams entered the Salford Dragon Boat Challenge over at Salford Quays. The teams, our supporters, the weather, the atmosphere, everything was just brilliant. Thank you to our incredible rowers who have raised so much and did everyone proud. Wood Street staff and their families joined forces with our fabulous uniform partners David Luke Ltd, we had a great team from PZ Cussons and returning to fight for the title were our generous friends from DF Capital. You need to take a look at the video below for the result but everyone who rowed deserved so much praise. It was hot and the competition was tough. We never fail to be impressed by the lengths our corporate friends will go to for us and Saturday was no exception. Everyone threw their heart and soul into the day. Thank you never seems enough. Enjoy the video. https://lnkd.in/ec2b8956

We get very excited about all of our projects but there's something really special about our Childhood Experiences project. Every child deserves to have happy childhood memories but for far too many local children, days out or having access to exciting adventures is something they can only dream about. Our Childhood Experiences project exists to bring excitement, joy and of course bucketloads of memories to every child attending. We see first hand how much these days mean to the children and whenever we get the opportunity to work with other likeminded organisations, we grasp it with everything we've got. We're delighted to announce a wonderful new partnership with Chetham's School of Music for free workshops including songwriting, beatboxing, singing, rock band, DJing, and music journalism. 'Make Some Noise' will take place in the world-class facilities of The Stoller Hall and will be for children aged 11-15 from Manchester. We are very grateful to Mills & Reeve for helping to make this happen, as well as the children at 4CT Youth Club for their time in developing the programme. Our CEO, Des Lynch said “The tangible aspect of our work is vital, but we firmly believe that every child deserves to have happy childhood memories and experience activities that due to their personal circumstances, they will not otherwise have. To be able to form partnerships with organisations such as Chetham’s School of Music and Mills & Reeve means that local children will get to enjoy a summer of fun and creativity as well as forming lasting friendships.” https://lnkd.in/d2RZaMYy