This year the Mayor is raising money for three local charities; 

Felixstowe Opportunity Group

Felixstowe Opportunity Group is a local charity which was founded in Trimley
in 1990 by a dedicated group of mums with children with special educational
needs. Our main aim is to advance the education and development of babies
and children with special need and to support their siblings and their
families.

The charity provides play sessions throughout the year, (we are open for 48
weeks). During term time these sessions are for children under school age
and their siblings. In the School holidays we continue to run these sessions
and also have sessions open to our school age children. The sessions offer
safe and supportive group play, provided by qualified staff and committed
voluntary helpers. Our aim is to have a high ratio of adults to children in order
for all the needs of the children to be met and to enable them to access a full
range of activities.

Parents and carers are also supported during each of the sessions, they can
enjoy some respite in our parents lounge/kitchen or the front garden. It is a
chance to have a tea or coffee and chat to other parents and carers and gain
mutual support. The Opportunity Group can listen, support and signpost to
other agencies, we also organise speakers and advisors to attend the group
to provide information and guidance as needed. We can offer help in
transitioning to other provisions and will continue to support them as needed.
The charity is organised and run by a voluntary management committee, still
mainly made up of parents and family members of children with special
educational needs. 

The Compass

The Compass is a Community Hub.

Our two main objectives are:

• To improve quality of life by providing families and individuals education, training, cultural, recreational and other appropriate services to anyone in need who resides in Felixstowe and the surrounding area
• The advancement of the Christian faith through prayer, care, compassion and relevant practical and spiritual help

We aim to provide holistic, (signposting and/or direct intervention) to individuals or families who have been referred or have self-referred, throughout Felixstowe and the local areas.

All the current existing services, even those such as the self-prescribing team where a more holistic approach is taken, centre on an individual, a specific issue or have a session number limit.  We believe families need to be looked at as a whole unit, and that addressing some of the lower-level issues (e.g poor literacy, money management, food or technical poverty) can alleviate some of the higher level problems that require professional expertise. By the time help is sought, the issues have been building for a long time.

We support:

Isolation, Loneliness, Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing by being a place for people to be able to pop in for a cuppa, piece of cake and a chat, signposting service.

Financial Hardship – Support for money management, help with budgeting, support for families with food poverty and fuel poverty.

Educational attainment – As part of our work we work with families and agencies/organisations to access where there are missing services in our area. For ex we are looking to run simple life skills courses which will include things like how to sew a button on, fix a bike puncture, simple cooking skills, family groups, how to use a search engine online, simple IT skills like how to write a letter or a CV and much more.

Felixstowe Community Hospital League of Friends

The Felixstowe Hospital League of Friends is a local based charity that seeks to support the Felixstowe Hospital and local health services.

We raise funds through local publicity and events, to find items that the NHS are not always able to easily provide themselves. Whilst this includes technical equipment, it also includes items that make any patient’s stay better and improves the working environment of staff. During the pandemic, whilst fundraising was restricted, we still managed to provide valuable items, such as ward furniture, wheelchairs, patient bed socks, daily newspapers and a staff kettle.

We also work closely with Hospital staff and the NHS Trust, petitioning to ensure that the Hospital retains the valuable healthcare services that our community and visitors to Felixstowe need.