Member Article

Making An Impact On Your Employees Saves Lives

Be Aware And Save Lives

Impact Family Services has launched a new campaign designed to reach out to employers and the corporate world.

The only kind of its type of charity in the UK, Impact Family Services supports the entire family through family breakdown and domestic violence and now it needs the help of employers in the region!

In fact, it is the only organisation (charitable, public or private) to offer all the services it does, catering to every member of the family affected by domestic violence and break up.

And now the charity needs the help of employers in the region to keep an eye out, notice differences in the behavior of their team and be aware if someone, be it male or female, is likely to be experiencing family breakdown and/or domestic abuse.

CEO of Impact, Nikki Turnbull, explains where the role of the employer can help and what they should do:

“As an employer you see your team members every day. If you see changes, it is likely that something is happening at home. We are not asking you tackle it or to pry into employees home life. All it needs is a gentle nudge – send an email around all employees bringing our service to their attention. Ask us for a poster to display or leaflets to have around, and talk about us openly in the office mentioning our services. That person who is struggling will pick up on it and hopefully contact us.”

The other way that the corporate world can help is by choosing Impact family Services as their charity of choice, so that any fundraising efforts benefits us or any CSR contributions are made into the charity. Those donations will assist grow and sustain the services massively, and the charity is always looking for partners to fund specific projects…that could be any company out there willing to help.

Over the last few years Impact FS has developed some innovative partnerships to allow delivery of a whole of host of services and unique programs. Programs that the charity runs are growing constantly and currently include:

Domestic Violence services – for adults Domestic Violence support group focusing on children Perpetrator services (stopping reoffending) Mediation Child contact Centres Womens’ services Separated Parents support and information Counseling Helplines Respect Young People program (Adolescent to Parent Violence)

All the services are designed to improve the lives of families from the North East and North Yorkshire.

Having started as a small South Shields organisation the charity now offers services in Sunderland, South Tyneside, Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Scarborough, York and Harrogate and has permanent basis in Sunderland, South Shields and Scarborough. The team now needs to reach out further and to do that new funds are needed.

Nikki concluded:

“Every member of the family needs to know there is somewhere to turn – in the North East and North Yorkshire that place to turn is Impact Family Services.

“We would welcome the opportunity to be more involved in the corporate world of our regions. We can present to your team for a small donation for example, positioning you as a caring employer. We can send you packs to encourage your fundraising efforts and we can provide leaflets and posters to advise of our service. We also have a new website which all employers are welcome to share on an internal email with their staff.

“We need, as a region, to take a stand and help those in family crisis or in danger from violence and abuse – it is all our responsibility, and we would love to hear from any companies that would like to build a relationship and assist us in expanding further, helping more people.”

If you want to be involved, need more information or want to make a donation visit www.impactfs.co.uk for all the contact details.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Antonia Brindle .