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Leathersellers’ Review 2024–2025
The Early Years Programme is a joint initiative between The Leathersellers’ Foundation and Merchant Taylors’ Foundation. It provides grants to charities that support the early years development of children from low-income households in Lewisham, in areas which are often under- served by other charities. The programme has awarded the following five charities a total of £220,000 over two years, with services provided in 2024–2025 and 2025–2026.
The items provided by MammaKind enable parents to attend groups and activities that their children enjoy and that help their development. “I don’t mean to sound like an Instagram post, but our goal is that families don’t just ‘survive’; we want them to thrive,” says Kelly. “For example, parents who’ve received a package from MammaKind might think, ‘Now that I have the towel and the lovely swimsuit, maybe we’ll go to that free children’s swimming class that Home- Start is putting on.’” MammaKind provides high-quality items, tailored to a child’s needs, as well as gifts for mums such as high-end beauty products. Kelly says that this care and attention to detail can deepen the trust between a mother and the professionals who’ve referred them to MammaKind. These include health visitors, midwives, children’s centres, schools and charities. “Asking for help can be a very hard thing to do,” says Kelly. “We’ve created a service where we smash through those feelings of shame related to poverty. The feedback we get about our packages is always off the charts.” Kelly says that meeting and sharing with the other grantees has been “a wonderful experience”. Not only have they been able to share learnings, but everyone around the table now has a connection with MammaKind if they didn’t already. Kate Bird, Senior Project Manager at the National Literacy Trust, agrees and says that being part of this group of grantees has helped with signposting. “For example, we can make sure our nursery practitioners know about MammaKind and promote them to families,” she says. “Working with a mix of national charities, like ours, and local ones has really helped us to develop a detailed on-the-ground understanding of the borough, such as knowing where the pockets of deprivation are. This Early Years collaboration offers a unique opportunity that strengthens the services local families can access – and will have an even more powerful impact.”
Home-Start Southwark and Lewisham What do they do?
Early Years Alliance What do they do?
Home-Start provides high-quality support for families with babies and children under five, empowering them to create happier lives for their children. What’s their approach? They bring together a community-based team of trained peer volunteers and family support workers to assist parents in challenging circumstances. What will the grant fund? Expanding their core service across Lewisham.
Early Years Alliance is the largest early years membership organisation in England, working to support young children and their families, particularly in areas of disadvantage. What’s their approach? The work they do with Alliance members includes: – Advocating for children, families and all childcare and early education providers. – Encouraging safeguard-led practice and raising standards and quality of childcare and early education. – Providing high-quality training support and advice. What will the grant fund? A project in three deprived areas of Lewisham providing play opportunities with professional and peer support available targeted at families whose children have, or are suspected to have, special educational needs and disabilities. Specialist equipment and understanding provides an accessible and enabling environment to help their development. The Parent Village and St Mark’s and St Luke’s, Downham What do they do? The Parent Village provides services to support parents with their mental health, well-being and confidence. Their coaching- style course is provided in tandem with enriching weekly ‘stay and play’ sessions for children at the two churches. What’s their approach? They help relieve the pressure that parents experience by providing routes to join with other parents, and by offering tools and resources to take positive steps and build a network of support. What will the grant fund? Equipment and costs for the stay and play sessions in Downham, alongside group learning opportunities for parents.
Above: The MammaKind team
Collaborating for impact It’s the first time that the National Literacy Trust has worked in the Lewisham area, and being part of the Early Years Programme has introduced them to other local grantees. Thanks to a chat in the car park after one of the grant partners’ meetings, they now donate books and resources to a project for young mothers run by the MammaKind baby bank. MammaKind provides clothes, toys, baby equipment, essential hygiene items and baby food to families experiencing poverty in the London boroughs of Bromley, Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham. The majority of the families that they support are headed by a single mother, and many have experienced homelessness or violence, or are refugees with no recourse to public funds. “If your baby doesn’t have a safe place to sleep, or access to books and toys, that has a huge impact on their development,” explains Kelly Fort, MammaKind’s Head of Operations. “The clothes, the pram, the toys, they’re not just practical, they are an investment in that child’s future. We had one family where the older child missed over 100 lessons in primary school because mum didn’t have a pram and couldn’t take the baby on the school run. We heard about that on a Friday, the mum had a pram on the Monday. Things like this are vital to stopping the poverty trap. The midwives tell us all the time that MammaKind changes lives.”
MammaKind What do they do?
MammaKind is a baby bank and parent service. They provide a pack of essentials, including prams and carriers, clothes, toys and books, to help prevent and relieve poverty. What’s their approach? They work with a network of referral partners who connect them with families with young children in Lewisham who need support. What will the grant fund? Expanding their core service across Lewisham to enable access to educational opportunities for children from low income families. National Literacy Trust What do they do? This national charity empowers people with the literacy skills they need to succeed in life. What’s their approach? Their vision for early years is: “Every child starts school with language and communication skills ready to grow and learn at school.” What will the grant fund? First Words Together for nought to three-year-olds, which involves training and continued peer support of early years practitioners in the private, voluntary, and independent sector as well as resources for parents.
* Names have been changed to protect identities ** M odelling play, or observational learning, is a method where children learn by watching and imitating others, particularly adults.
Photography: Callum Toy
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