2022 Shortlist | Little Lives UK
Little Lives UK
Shortlist – Improving Impact: Charities with 4-30 paid staff
About the Charity
Little Lives UK aims to provide support to children across the country who are living with disability or are from disadvantaged backgrounds. The charity works heavily with local councils, schools and projects to provide funding to enhance the lives of those in its community who are at risk of exclusion or do not have the same opportunities as children from more privileged areas or backgrounds. The charity has worked with partners across a wide range of disciplines, from horse riding to dance, martial arts to painting and from theatre to sport. It aims to support any discipline that has a direct impact on the lives of children within the UK.
Charity number: 1171884 | littlelives.org.uk
Disability Services | England – South West| 11-25 paid staff | 4-10 volunteers
What the Board Achieved
Since 2017, Little LIves UK has funded children’s activities, theatre groups, sports clubs, support sessions and more. However, the charity had the biggest impact on its community following the first national lockdown in 2020. Little Lives responded to the Covid-19 crisis by distribution 602 electronic devices to children across the UK who did not have the means to continue with their school work whilst working from home or isolating with their families. The charity also continued to produce community programmes to engage children in social activities, but adapted to digital delivery. It also began a programme to further support children’s mental wellbeing by sponsoring referrals of young people in need of support so that they could have access to a professional local counsellor.
Making use of digital promotion opportunities, the charity reached more online audiences by posting on grant sites and community forums, and using social media to alert potential beneficiaries of the support the charity could provide. The board of trustees took the lead in securing fundraising to help the charity adapt and expand its reach during the pandemic, and utilised data from referrals and requests as well as national statistics on deprived or under-priveliged communities to predict growing needs in different regions across the UK, and planned its outreach campaigns accordingly to try to engage with those who needed help the most.
What Inspired Our Judges
The judges saw evidence that Little Lives was looking at how it can increase its reach and how the board helped to channel funds – the charity used analytics to inform its decision making, demonstrating strength in the governance system. Judges were particularly impressed that trustees, instead of simply focusing on funding, were also engaged in exploring fundamental changes to service delivery that help the charity expand its services to combat mental health issues while transforming outreach and service delivery with the help of digital solutions.
