Thame Children’ Centre asks businesses for help

CELEBRITY Chef Raymond Blanc led a delegation of over eighty local business leaders, gathered at his Black Horse Pub Brasserie in Thame, in order to show support for the now community-run Oxfordshire charity, the Red Kite Family Centre.

Red Kite Children’s Centre Leader, Amy Spicer

The Centre provides a wide range of activities, support and advice services to all parents with children up to four years old in the Thame and Chinnor area. It also helps young children and their parents prepare for their school years which follow. Well over 80% of parents in the area make regular use of the Centre and the trustees are determined to ensure that the £70,000 a year needed to fund its upkeep is secured for the coming years.

Image: Courtesy of Paul Wilkinson Photographt – Raymond Blanc cooking with a pupil from Haddenham St Mary’s school

Speaking during the event on Tuesday, November 20, Raymond Blanc offered his personal endorsement for the centre’s work and encouraged everyone present to show their support through practical and financial means. Mr Blanc said: “The family centre is heavily relied upon within the local area. Therefore it’s critical that the centre retains the help and assistance of all of us in this room and throughout our wider community.”

Amy Spicer, the family centre’s Leader, provided a number of striking examples of the real difference that the centre is making to the lives of many families with young children in the area, ranging from children with disabilities through to a new mother with postnatal depression. Amy ended by saying: “We want to be there for every family.”

Tony Stratton, Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire also attended the event and gave his support before thanking Amy and her team for the invaluable work that they are doing.

John Hulett, the centre’s Chair of Trustees further added: “With support from local business and the wider community we can ensure that the centre continues to provide this vital lifeline to families in our area.”

As part of the evening, a new ‘Friends of the Red Kite Family Centre’ scheme was launched, with ‘a menu’ of sponsoring and support options, for providing support. The scheme is open to everyone and details can be found on the Red Kite Family Centre website. LINK HERE

The importance of early years ‘building blocks

John Hulett welcomed everyone to the Black Horse, and thanked particularly the Family Centre’s main sponsor of the evening, and the staff of the Black Horse. He told guests how he was inspired to help the Red Kite Family Centre, after retiring as Head of Barley Hill School in Thame, where he came to notice how good ‘building blocks’ during children’s early lives gave them a flying start. For those not fortunate enough to have those early advantages, there were issues they had to deal with. “So please,” he asked. “Do take the opportunity to help, because we know that the early years of a child’s life are so vital.”

Raymond Blanc, who had just flown in from Bankok on his way back from China, spoke of his own early life and joked about how he had taken on English characteriseltics like waiting in queues and that most English of things, being able to laugh at himself, after 46 years living in Great Milton. Now he was a publican, he proudly declared, and a hotelier, working ethically and responsibly, and importantly, training young people!

‘With success comes reponsibilities’

“I’m a business man,” he said, “..a papa; just a guy who has had the benefits of success. But with that comes a responsibility that people like us should all get involved and give back to the community. To be able to taken on the extraordinary role of helping kids who may not have had the best start in life is both a duty and privalege.

“So much has been taken away for support and development of these young people, so as I see it, it is the responsibility of us all to help. We must be active players in ensuring that Red Kite Family Centre is successful and able to get to those kids and help to give them the very best start in life.”

A supporter, Iain, added his praise and thanks to the Trustees and staff of the Centre who do so much to provide ‘a huge service’ that is no longer supported by Government, and ‘are adding enormously to the communtiy we all live in’.

Still here thanks to a great team!

Centre Leader, Amy Spicer, recalled how, two years ago, she took a call from Oxfordshire County Council telling her that she would have to tell all the staff and families that early intervention services were going! “Two years on, and we are still here!” she said to loud clapping and cheers. “Behind what we do is an amazing group of Trustees who have done so much to get funding fron here, there and everywhere to enable us to keep going and make such a difference to so many lives. This team works tirelessly,” she said, “And I can tell you that the team would do anything to help our families.”

TV drama mirrors life

Amy then mentioned the recent TV drama, The Cry, where we see a beautiful, high-flying young couple, who on the outside, have perfect lives. Then a baby comes into their lives. Mum, with no support with a crying baby, begins to crumble. “Red Kite is here too,” she explained, “for those people who look like they have it all but need help. We are also there for the more vulnerable in our community and work with partner agencies to make sure we reach all families.”

Amy spoke movingly of one mum who fled a violent relationship; she had four kids under six, had no carpet, no trumble drier etc. “We helped her find the agencies to help, we got her food parcels, some carpet and other things she needed,” recalled Amy. “one month after that, she had gained enough confidence to come in to the centre. Now, that same mum comes to the centre three times a week and has now started as a volunteer! That’s what we are about – making sure that those sorts of families have a chance.”

Over a thousand children helped in two year!

More than 1,600 children have registerd with the centre since it became a charity, and over the last year, 942 children have been seen – 74 of them have come from the most vulnerable part of Thame. As well as thinking of the needs of children, the centre supports young families; it has helped 35 unemployed parents, 30 lone parents and 300 fathers through the men’s Breakfast events.

Feedback reported by Amy

“Its made a massive difference to myself and my son who is autistic. The girls who work there are lovely and my son has settled. It’s nice not feeling judged or stared up; it makes me more confident.”

“I have made so many new friends since I started coming here.”

” The staff alway have beaming smiles on their faces!”

“I suffer fron anxiety and low self-esteem, but going to a group of others similar to me, I have been blown away by the level of professionislm and I’m learning new skills.”

The centre closing would be a ‘tragedy’

Tony Stratton, the Deputy Leiutenant of Oxfordshire, said of Amy: “What a little Star!” Those of us who can should support this organisation. It would be a tragedy for children and families and the town it couldn’t carry on.” He then called for a toast to Amy and the her team and John Hulett presented her with a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

The Red Kite Family Centre is a former Oxfordshire County Council children’s centre. OCC ceased funding this and many other centres across the county in March 2017 as part of budget savings. Since April 2017 the Centre has been run by a community-based charity. Its Mission statement – To be there for every child – and it does all that on £70,000 per year. It’s three-year business plan ends in 2020 when it expects to run out of money which is why the Red Kite Centre is now reaching out to the business community for their support and working together.