Bakers are the leading UK trade label manufacturer with 50 years’ experience of printing every type of label and the company is based just across the railway line from our charity headquarters.
We’ve been delighted that Bakers not only provide all our postage labels for our postal bears free of charge, they have also kindly included us in their Christmas Giving campaigns in 2021 and 2022. The Bakers team now wish to take this further and have chosen us as one of their charities to partner with for 2023. Bakers are passionate about men’s mental health and the company is helping to fund our Guide for Bereaved Dads and workshops with dads. We’ll also be holding training for their staff on supporting bereaved parents in their workplace. It is wonderful to have their support locally and we are looking forward to working with them and fundraising with them in the year ahead.
Pulse is a leading health and social care provider placing quality therapists, doctors, nurses and allied health professionals in temporary and permanent jobs in the UK and abroad. It is an approved supplier to the NHS and holds contracts with NHS trusts, private hospitals, social service departments and local authorities nationwide. The company has also been ranked in the top 50 of the Sunday Times ‘100 Best Companies to work for’ four times in the last six years.
After receiving support from our Supporting Arms Service during the Covid-19 lockdown, Executive Recruitment Consultant, Steve wanted to give something back to Aching Arms. He nominated us as charity of the year at Pulse and we were chosen! The company now has lots of fun fundraising events lined up. ‘Fit Feb’ has been and gone and raised a handsome amount toward their fundraising goals. Pulse also participated in a charity football match where over 100 people attended, they raised in excess £500 and have an additional three matches lined up throughout the course of the year. We are very much looking forward to finding out what else they have planned for the year ahead.
The owners of the Chicken and Frog independent bookshop in Brentwood, Essex have supported Aching Arms for three years. They give us space in their storeroom and shop to safely keep all the things we need for volunteers, fundraisers and staff to fulfil their commitments. They also allow us to use their classroom/activity space for team meetings, at no charge, plus they make us tea and coffee too! These simple acts of kindness save the charity money that we can put into buying bears and running our support services. This support is a perfect example of how businesses can help us and how every penny saved helps a small charity like ours.
For 10 years Claire Stoneman, partner at Enable Law, has generously volunteered her time to provide the charity professional and legal advice, as well as training on medical negligence procedures and introducing us to health professionals and charities working in the South West of England. Claire nominated us to benefit from funds raised at Enable Law's annual Quiz Night in 2019 which raised an incredible total as well as awareness of the work we do to support bereaved families. Claire and her team also prepare our comfort bears for the hospital local to the firm's Taunton office and regularly liaise with the midwife on our behalf. In 2022, we collaborated with Claire’s team to facilitate training for midwives in the South West. Throughout the 10 years of support, we have benefited from the use of Enable Law and the Foot Anstey Group's London office to host numerous Aching Arms staff meetings. As a remote working charity, this means we save significant funds that would have been spent on renting meeting spaces. This is one of the small but impactful ways businesses can support our work.
Matt and the team at IT 4 Offices look after all the IT needs of the charity. They are a helpful voice at the end of the phone for all our remote working staff team. Not only are they patient, supportive and find IT solutions for us, they do it at a significantly discounted price, because they want to support the work we do. Having an affordable solution for the very confusing and ever-changing IT landscape, is a gift for a small charity like ours.
Four years ago, Kelly Bater stepped up to lift the stress and worry of looking after the growing team of staff from the charity’s founder, Leanne.
As the charity grew, we needed to ensure we had all our policies and contracts in place and up to date to make sure we met all our legal responsibilities. Kelly came to the rescue. She was so struck by our work, that she offered an affordable monthly cost for her help and she continues to go above and beyond for Aching Arms.
Louisa partners with Aching Arms to provide expert graphic design work. We started working with Louisa during the midst of the pandemic and we were so impressed with her work that we continue to work with her today. She very generously gives us a charity discounted rate for her work that ensures we keep our costs down.
Pop Connect and ScreenPop are networking companies with multiple groups offering a fresh friendly and supportive networking opportunity for businesses. They believe in small businesses building relationships with each other for productive networking to be maximised.
Pop Connect offers face to face groups and ScreenPop is mostly online with a few face to face groups. They are passionate about supporting charities within our networks.
We started working with Sarah from 181 Digital in early 2020 when we engaged her to create our new website. We could not have been more delighted with the result - the site looks gorgeous and was a truly collaborative piece of work, created with compassion, understanding and utterly expert and trustworthy advice. We continue to work with Sarah on building and developing the site and she does this at a special charity rate for us. We now know that as the charity grows, our lovely website will continue to grow with us. Additionally, Sarah has pledged that each time she gets a new client, she will make a donation to the charity.
Launched in 1984, Atrium Underwriters is one of the top performing Lloyd’s of London Managing Agents which is based within the heart of the City of London. The company prides itself on creating an environment where people learn, grow, and follow what they are passionate about. Atrium has a very strong CSR culture and has chosen Aching Arms as their charity of the year for 2022/2023.
We are working with Atrium’s CSR team to focus on charity fundraising and raising awareness of the impact of pregnancy and baby loss in the workplace. This has included staff attending a volunteering experience session at their office where they prepared bears for St Mary’s hospital and met with the hospital’s bereavement midwife. Our CEO Leanne is also working with their HR department on the development of their Pregnancy and Baby Loss Policy and she will lead training for managers on acknowledging, understanding and supporting bereaved parents in the workplace.
The fundraising effort at Atrium has been stellar, with teams completing the London to Brighton cycle ride, participation in our Miles in Memory campaign and of course funds were raised on Christmas Jumper Day. There are a number of further events planned for the rest of the year.
07464 508994 support@achingarms.co.uk
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