We are thrilled to announce that we have awarded a grant to Balloons, a small charity, working across Exeter, East and mid Devon.
They are a passionate, multi-skilled team of staff and trained volunteers, who provide support to children and young people aged 5-25, when someone significant in their lives dies, or is about to die. Balloons aims to help in this extremely difficult time by providing one-to-one support, telephone advice, sending care packages, running activity days and delivering training.
The grant will enable their team to digitise their library of wonderful resources that enable their Grief Support Workers to deliver sessions that are child-centred.
“We are so grateful to The Kenora Charitable Foundation for supporting our work with bereaved children and young people. This funding will enable us to develop a new library of online resources, for our Grief Support Workers and other professionals to access, to support children and young people with their grief. This will ensure a wide variety of session materials and activities are available to help in delivering our vital one-to-one grief support sessions.
In 2024, a few of the ways that Balloons supported communities included over 2000 hours of volunteering, delivering 424 one-to-one grief sessions, training 83 professionals and responding to 680 calls from families, schools and other professionals. Their approach to helping young people across a number of settings and the additional support they offer to families including parents and carers is a vital service that enables individuals to deal with incredibly challenging and difficult moments.
We are excited to see our partnership grow and develop.
If you or someone you know would like to find out more about their services or to donate to Balloons, you can read more at www.balloonscharity.co.uk
