Thank You For All Your Support In 2024

What A Busy Year It’s Been! And we want to thank you all for making it possible.

So much has happened and so many lives have been impacted positively.

We want to start this final blog and review of 2024 by thanking everyone who has contributed to the success of the work we’ve done throughout the year.

Whether you joined our Club 400 Lottery, simply shopped in one of our charity shops, volunteer or work for the charity, are part of our Ambassador scheme or a corporate partner, organised or participated in a fund raising event, every effort, large or small has contributed to us being able to help those in need across North East Lincs, victims and survivors of domestic abuse.

We have endeavoured to celebrate everyone in the messages below, not by name but by the deeds they have achieved on our behalf.

Our most important work, the reason we are here is to change the lives of women and children experiencing domestic abuse in the North East Lincs area and we are proud to say, that with your support, we have, without doubt, been able to do that.

We want to wish you all a safe and peaceful 2025.

We started the year, still thanking all those people, businesses and organisations who supported our Christmas Gift Appeal 2023, donating gifts and organising or attending events to raise money to donate to the appeal.

We are delighted and humbled to report that the appeal was a huge success and mums and children affected by domestic abuse across North East Lincs were supported to help make their Christmas more enjoyable.

January also saw us achieve a programme of refurbishment in our Women’s Refuge, refreshing the spaces and making them more comfortable for the women and children staying there.

We’re also grateful to the local businesses who chose Women’s Aid NEL to benefit from their Christmas campaigns or nominate us as charity of the year for 2024.

Your support means so much to us.

March saw the launch of our first ever book…

In Their Own Words… Domestic Abuse Survivor Stories & Self Help From Women’s Aid North East Lincs.

Comprising a collection of poems and short stories from the victims and survivors of domestic abuse, this book is more than just a collection of narratives; it’s a tool for healing and empowerment and is available to purchase from Amazon and any of our charity shops.

It was a great project for us and we’re so grateful to Geoff and Chris Peterson, regular supporters who sponsored our first edition.

We also supported International Women’s Day, when 32 women and 24 volunteers came together for a day of pampering, empowerment and connection.

Continuing this busy period, we celebrated the 1st birthday of our Willows charity shop, celebrating the huge success it’s been since opening and with Easter falling in March.

We also received lots of donations of Easter Eggs, as well as money raised by local people, businesses and organisations.

It was great to be able to invite our Ambassadors and Corporate partners to one of our regular business networking meetings to, where we could demonstrate our appreciation of the support they give us and bring them together to network and collaborate.

June saw National Volunteers Week, which we celebrate every year as we couldn’t do what we do without the continued support of our trusty volunteers.

We have around 150 volunteers, donating over 37,000 hours absolutely free, to keep our wheels turning, which would cost us over £385,000 each year, if we had to pay them, even at minimum wage!

We love our volunteers and try to let them know how much they mean to us at every opportunity.

June will also be remembered as the month when a group of ladies did something amazing for us!

The Grimsby and Cleethorpes Water Rats, Female Channel Swim Relay team swam the English Channel in support of us and raised a staggering £4603!

Thank you…

Over the summer, we continued to be grateful for the donations we received from many different groups and organisations, some from collections they had made in the workplace, others from events organised privately.

From Cake sales to afternoon tea parties. Some regular annual events and even enterprising children taking time out of their summer holidays to support our work.

One event, which has now become a staple in our fundraising calendar, is the Annual Charity Golf Day, held at Cleethorpes Golf Club and organised by Tony Diable, of T.Diable Roofing, Grimsby, one of our founder members and a great supporter of the charity.

The day was a great hit with all who took part and raised £2858.

Events like this take a lot of organising and we appreciate everything that goes into it and we hope everyone who took part had a great day too!

September saw our annual quiz night, held a Grimsby Golf Club, which raised over £1700.

Also the successful completion of The Three Peaks Challenge, by a brave young lady who had attended our Freedom Programme in 2023 and wanted to give something back in recognition of the massive changes it helped her make in her life.

Courtney raised over £2000 by completing the challenge in just over 16 hours!

October was a busy month, with the launch of The Charity Shop Gift Card, available online or from any of our shops, a great gift for anyone who uses charity shops, as it can be redeemed at any participating charity shop.

We also introduced the ‘Mystery Bag‘ sustainability project from our Willows shop, to help reduce waste and the amount of clothing sent to landfill each year.

Once again, thank you to everyone who supported us, either by raising money from events like organ recitals or donating gifts for the children we support.

We were excited to announce the launch of our new Domestic Abuse Services Hub in November, a fabulous multiagency space where professionals come together to support ANYONE experiencing controlling or abusive behaviour, signalling a huge expansion in the services we are able to offer.

We want to thank everyone involved in the planning and execution of these new services.

We also launched our annual Christmas Gift Appeal and were delighted and overwhelmed by the support we received once again, from all sectors of the community and local businesses.

The gifts went to mums and children affected by domestic abuse at Christmas and we want to thank everyone who supported the appeal.

For the first time, we also had a special fund raising evening put on by The Caxton Theatre, who performed an additional night of their play ‘One Man Two Guvnors’, donating all ticket proceeds to the charity.

This was a huge success and we want to thank The Caxton Theatre for their generous support, rounding off a busy year of growth and an exceptional year of fundraising by our wonderful supporters.

We want to thank you all, each and every one, for the support you show us and your generous acts.We made a difference to the lives of many women and children across North East Lincs.

And we couldn’t have done it without your help.

So as we head into 2025, we want to thank you for all your support during 2024 and wish you every success and happiness for 2025.