Birmingham Hospice’s Children’s Healing and Therapeutic Support (CHATS) Team have been given a grant of £1,500 from Tipton and Coseley Building Society Charitable Foundation, which will help them provide confidential emotional support for young people.
CHATS will use the money for resources which will ensure children who have lost a loved one or have been affected by their relative’s life-limiting illness, will get the help they need.
The team guide young people through one-to-one sessions in our children’s room and in peer groups where they receive mutual support to help them work through their emotions.
The grant will also ensure they can purchase items to support their work, such as arts and crafts, books and the special materials used to create a hand cast of the child and their family member – a lasting memory of a lost loved one for young people to treasure.
CHATS Senior Practitioner Mo Sasuru said: “All of our resources help children open up and talk; when their creativity is ignited it’s easier for them to have some really challenging conversations.
“We also run peer support groups, where they come together and make arts and crafts and take part in lots of different activities, which we couldn’t do without the help of grants and donations.”
The Charitable Foundation provides grants to health and education charities in the West Midlands and first supported Birmingham Hospice in 2002. It has awarded the hospice a grant annually since 2019, with CHATS receiving it for the last three years.
Julie O’Toole, Birmingham Hospice’s Trusts and Grants Manager, said: “Thank you to Tipton and Coseley Building Society Charitable Foundation Trust, grants such as these make all the difference to support our CHATS Team, which provides an invaluable service for young people and their families.”
