Our Strategy Plan For 2024-27
Introduction
CWCF was introduced to the world in July 1998 by a small group of family and friends, who had two main things they were passionate about. They were Children and Cancer so they were married together to form ‘Children With Cancer Fund’. Seventeen years later, in 2015, we were honoured to be presented with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.
Welcome to Children with Cancer Fund’s (CWCF) strategy plan for 2024-27.
This plan will guide us for the next three years and the goals we set will allow us to measure our success in our quest to improve the lives of families in East Sussex, Brighton & Hove who have a child with cancer. We are a small charity which receives no regular government funding.
As a fairly small/medium charity that is predominantly volunteer-led, run by passion, with limited resources at free reserve level, it can be difficult to focus on anything other than constantly reacting on clients’ needs and fire fighting to stay where we are with the level of support we give to the families. This is why our strategy plan is so important, it will ensure we focus on our overall vision and keep our activities in line with our key aims and strategic objectives.
Our Purpose
Is to put the smile back on the faces of children who have/ have had cancer in East Sussex/Brighton & Hove, but not just the poorly child of the family, but all the family, as we know how the siblings and parents are affected during treatment and ongoing hospital visits.
To do this, we provide wishes, give them holiday breaks, invite them to group events and even take the Mums or Dads out for a treat with other parents ‘who get it’, but who don’t normally have the chance to talk to others that do. Basically, doing things that are fun, which the families would perhaps not be able to afford to do due to financial restraints.
Our Purpose Strategy
- We are about children and their families in East Sussex, Brighton and Hove,
- We help families with a child or children with cancer,
- The support we give is driven by the income we have, services can and will be adjusted in light of income variations,
- The underlying principle is sustainability so that we will be here today, tomorrow and for as long as we are needed by children with cancer and their families.
Our strategy is driven by our Mission, Vision. Values and Aims.
Our Mission
Is a simple one; for the families we support, to have the sort of lives we all have or hope to have, and for the hospitals/hospices who support them, to have the equipment they need.
Our Mission Strategy
Our strategy is built on 5 pillars:
- Family Support
- Fundraising
- Volunteers
- Marketing
- Staff, Premises and daily operation
Family Support
- Provide respite- need quality time together.
- Reduce isolation- Meeting other people on the same journey will allow families to share their experiences and realise they are not on their own.
- Build community- creating opportunities for families to connect.
How we will achieve this:
- Host a minimum of two social events per month.
- Provide a £10k hardship fund each year, so that it becomes a long-term service that families can access but not rely upon.
- Provide a £6k therapy fund for families each year.
- Wishes for each member of a family within first six months of joining the charity.
- Provide 45 breaks across all three caravans each year.
- Provide a Trip to the Isle of Wight for 10 families once per year.
Fundraising
- Achieve sustainable services – we aim to secure funding from a variety of sources to ensure longevity of CWCF.
How we will achieve this:
- At least two community events per month.
- One sponsored challenge event per year e.g. Climb The O2
- Annual fun run event each year
- Raise £50k annually through independent fundraisers using online platforms including JustGiving, GoFundMe, Enthuse.
- Secure £100k in grants each year.
Volunteers
- Deliver services in line with the strategy and ethos of CWCF.
How we will achieve this:
- Annual volunteers’ celebration event/social.
- Volunteers e-newsletter sent out each quarter.
- At least 25 new additions to our fundraising volunteers database each year.
Marketing
- To drive referrals to contact us
- The foundation for fundraising and sustainability
- To recruit and retain volunteers.
- To raise awareness and increase CWCF’s profile.
- Sign up 25 new ‘Dream Makers’ each year, donating £25 each per month.
- Raise £3k through Facebook donations each year.
- Raise £1.5k through online lottery donations in year one and increase by £250 each year after.
- Raise £500 through easy fundraising in year one and increase by £250 each year after.
- Grow Facebook following to 4k by June 2025.
- Grow our Instagram following by 500 each year.
Staff, Premises & Daily Operation
- Makes the operation of running CWCF possible
- Improve storage
- Make our data secure and accessible
How we will achieve this:
- Maintain employment of our current six part time and one full time members of staff.
- Employ an additional two members of staff to meet the growing demand.
- Build a brick building instead of the wooden structure at the rear of the property.
- By putting CWCF into the cloud, it will add to our security levels and make hot desking/working from home more accessible.
Our Vision: For the Families
To give and allow families who have a child with cancer in East Sussex, Brighton & Hove, some normality through:
Activities & Holidays they wouldn’t be able to afford, due to leaving their job, spending the money they have on hospital visits / petrol, etc.
Meetings in a fun or relaxed environment with other families who ‘understand’ what they are going through.
And phone support with someone that can point them in the right direction and listen.
Our Vision: Professionals
For all levels of professional (from consultant to ward staff) to realise there are simple referral systems in place to give the families all the above support.
To support the professionals with things that they don’t have the budget for, but which would make the families’ stay in hospital nicer.
To support the community team with equipment which would enable the child to have treatment at home, removing the stress of traveling.
Our Values
Being a very personal and passionate based charity, we are committed to putting the needs of the families first. Actively seeking their feedback and involving them in our work and decision making.
Openness:
We are committed to integrity and honesty, being transparent and only acting in the best interest of our families, staff & volunteers at all times.
Accountability:
We are committed to being held accountable for our actions and the decisions we make, the way in which we regulate and how we use the charity’s funds.
Quality:
We aim to provide accessibility, a high-quality service and support to all our beneficiaries.
Support outside the families:
This will be for the use of families under our remit only, to ease the workload of the nursing staff using it and benefit the quality of life for the families involved, for instance, we do treat boxes for the cancer children (bribery for having injections, etc).
Our Aims
Children with Cancer Fund (CWCF) pledges:
- To increase awareness of CWCF and the work we do in its community and surrounding area.
- To improve the physical and emotional health of the children and their family affected by cancer.
- To promote access for short and long term management/rehabilitation of people living with childhood cancer and their families.
We are the only charity supporting these families in the way we do and believe working together with others to raise awareness is the route to long term support/wellbeing of all involved.
