Acorns (North Tyneside)

Charity Details

History and Activities

ACORNS is a charity based in North Tyneside which provides free and confidential services for children and young people between 4-18 who have experienced or are experiencing domestic abuse. The charity also provides support to parents/carers and to professionals. The main services provided by ACORNS is a safe space for counselling and play therapy which allows children to express themselves through their own chosen medium. By processing their stories, and having someone to listen, children are empowered to take back ownership of their lives and begin to heal. ACORNS also provides an outreach programme in which support workers facilitate 1-2-1 sessions, advocacy support and educate groups around young people’s rights and services available to them.

ACORNS was established in 1999 by Cath Lawson. A visionary advocate for young people, who saw a need in North Tyneside for space where children could feel safe and receive counselling to empower self-healing. Lawson established a pilot study which received overwhelmingly positive feedback from both children who had experienced abuse and from their families. Last year, ACORNS provided 2,000 individual support sessions, provided ‘theraplay’ to 86 families and continued to collaborate with local charities such as Rape Crisis Tyneside to provide training and resources for community empowerment.

98.5% of ACORNS income is received from grant funding, only 38% of which is received from government funded grants, which demonstrates how vital philanthropic funding is to the charity. £113,720 was received from four grant-making bodies including; £89,354 from the Big Lottery Fund, £29,366 from Children in Need, £10,000 from the Sara Charlton Foundation and £5,000 from the Community Foundation.

Vital Statistics (year to 31/12/2017)

Website

http://www.acornsproject.org.uk/

References