Love Herts Day - Celebrating local charities
On Tuesday, 1 June 2022 a team from Hertfordshire Community Foundation (HCF) joined the High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, Sally Burton DL, for a very special road trip around Hertfordshire to celebrate ‘Love Herts Day’.
With visits to Hertford, Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield and Stevenage the group visited four inspiring charities in our county. The annual Love Herts Day highlights the essential work that local charities do to support vulnerable people across Hertfordshire.
Commenting on the day Sally Burton, High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, said; “Love Herts Day was a wonderful way to highlight some of the local charities who are behind so much of what is great about our county. We met some really extraordinary people and we want to showcase some of the excellent work going on in the county, particularly around my themes of supporting addiction recovery.”
The first stop of the day was Future Living a charity which supports help women, men and children to live full and complete lives after their experience of domestic abuse. Their specialist team of professionals offer a diverse range of holistic projects supporting people in a variety of ways, including group therapy, one to one counselling and creative therapy for children affected by domestic abuse. The Love Herts team joined a ‘Monica session’ – a programme of psycho-education to help abuse survivors heal through workshops, peer support and coping strategies.
The next stop on the trip was to Recover’s workshop in Welwyn Garden City. Their furniture up-cycling project supports the recovery of vulnerable, disadvantaged adults affected by ill health, mental health issues linked to substance abuse, domestic abuse or homelessness, who are excluded from society and furthest from employment. The group enjoyed a tour of the workshop and meeting The Resolve team and clients and seeing first hand some of their unique custom furniture pieces.
Back on the road the Love Herts Day Road trip continued to Resolve, a charity who work to stop the cycle of drug and alcohol misuse as well as provide services to people experiencing homelessness. After a tour of some of their facilities guests enjoyed lunch provided by Sparks Café – Resolve’s ‘pay what you can’ community hub that gives everyone in the community a place to gather and belong.
For the final visit the team travelled to The Living Room Stevenage where they joined a group of clients who shared how their lives have been changed through the support of this charity who provide counselling and group therapy for people recovering from addiction.
Commenting on Love Herts day Helen Gray, Foundation Director for Hertfordshire Community said; “Hertfordshire is very fortunate to have a vibrant and active local voluntary sector. The groups that we visited on Love Hearts Day are amazing examples of the passion, energy and commitment local people have to helping others. Local charities and groups work tirelessly to help local people when they are at their most vulnerable, they are the backbone of our communities. But it is a difficult financial climate for them and many struggle to raise the finances they need to continue to help people.
“HCF is a hub for those who want to support local charities but don’t know where to begin. Thanks to our supporters we are proud to have been able to support all of the charities we visited on Love Herts Day and hundreds more, either through our grant funding programmes or our training and development opportunities for the local charitable sector. Without local giving HCF would not be able to provide the grants and support that these organisations desperately need. Love Herts Day celebrates the incredible volunteers and staff who work tirelessly in the county to support local need and those that are in the fortunate position to be able to give where they live.
“It was a great privilege to visit so many amazing people who are all working so hard to improve the lives of local people.”