About us
Momentum Children’s Charity was founded by our current Chief Executive and two parents, whose children had cancer, when they identified many gaps in support for the emotional and practical needs of the whole family. Today, we partner with 9 local NHS hospitals in London, Surrey and Sussex who refer families to us following a child’s (0-18 years) diagnosis of cancer or a life-challenging condition. Through our Family Support Workers, we work with children, siblings, and parents to understand their individual needs, offering them personally tailored support both in hospital and at home to help them cope more easily, improve their mental wellbeing and access practical help.
Our support services include counselling, creative therapies (play, music, art), respite breaks to our holiday homes or on board our riverboat, peer-to-peer support, and special experiences to ease some of the stresses that come with a gruelling treatment plan. If the unthinkable happens, and a child dies, we offer specialist bereavement support. We’re there whatever the outcome, for as long as we’re needed, so that no family has to cope alone.
“I love that you support the whole family, not just the sick child. Few charities do this and without the family being made whole it would have been even harder to look after my child.” Parent
Annually we support around 1500 seriously ill children, siblings and parents from 430 families.
Strategy
For the next three years our focus will be on:
Enhanced family support resources in our hospitals to meet existing and anticipated future demand, particularly in Sussex
Evolving the family support model to provide separate hospital and community focussed teams
Collaboration with other charities to take over the provision of in hospital distraction activities
Growing specialist social work support and bereavement services
Increase growth of volunteer pool to support the community including manned helplines
With input from our team, children and families, our network of therapy providers, our partners in local NHS hospitals, and the wider community, we have identified six key strategic goals:
Improve Accessibility
Develop Our Specialist Services
Demonstrate Impact
Collaborate and Consolidate
Build our Team
Substantial growth in income generated from Individuals, Corporate Donations and Trusts
Each of these goals is supported by a detailed operational plan. We will regularly evaluate and measure our work, communicating updates in our Impact Report and Trustees Annual Report. Children and families are at the heart of all we do, and we will continue to listen to their voices to maximise our impact.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Statement
Momentum Children’s Charity actively supports diversity and inclusion to ensure that everyone is valued and treated with respect. We recognise that every person is an individual with different needs, preferences and abilities and we aim to reflect this diversity in everything we do, including making services inclusive and accessible to children with cancer or a life-challenging condition in all areas that we operate in, and attracting and retaining a diverse workforce.
We believe that harnessing different life experiences, attributes and contributions from employees, consultants, volunteers and service users will make Momentum a more effective and inclusive organisation and a better place to work.