Following the success of last year’s Family Action Toy Appeal the Leonard Design team have come together to support the amazing charity for a second year. In 2018, we donated a car full of presents to the cause and this year has been even better.
Since 2009 Family Action have organised a Christmas Toy Appeal to give gifts to children from disadvantaged backgrounds across the UK. For some of these children these donations will be their only present for the year. The charity, Family Action, have been supporting families for over 150 years and today work with 45,000 families across over 140 community-based services. With an aim to transform lives by providing practical, emotional and financial support the charity performs vital work for those in need.
Last year we ditched one of our fondest Christmas traditions, Secret Santa. An event held in many offices; this secretive gift giving is very entertaining but ultimately can be very wasteful. With most gifts being used once and discarded soon after, as an ethically minded company we knew we could do better. Therefore, the Family Action Toy Appeal was a perfect replacement for us to enjoy the gift of giving but to a much more worthy cause.
Helping our community
This year the Nottingham and London offices took part in the event and were partnered with multiple local services. Our headquarters in Nottingham was paired with NCFP Sherwood East and West Children’s Centre and the Ladybrook Children’s Centre. The London office was paired with Wandsworth WellFamily.
The NCFP Sherwood East and West Children’s Centre work with under-fives and their families who live in deprived areas and are often unemployed, in low income households or experiencing crises around debt, domestic violence and mental health.
The Ladybrook Children’s Centre work with vulnerable families in their local area, supporting them within groups or via a targeted intervention, usually within their homes. They therefore get to see what home conditions are like and how little some of them have. Many of them have very little toys for their children to play with, and those that they have aren’t always suitable or age appropriate.
The Wandsworth WellFamily are an adult mental service which support children and families through their work. The gifts send out a message of how much the organisation value their clients and also help those who are experiencing financial difficulties.
We’re very proud to say that as a team we have donated 64 presents to this amazing cause.
How it works
You can sign up for the appeal as an individual or an organisation. Once registered, the Leonard Design were partnered with local services and were given a list of children’s ages and genders. The team then picked gift tags, with these details on, out of a hat to get their randomly selected recipient. Our gifts were dropped off at the local services this week in time for Christmas.
If you are interested in taking part in the Toy Appeal or want to know more information about the great work that Family Action do, click the link below.
