Warwickshire County Cricket Club brought The LV County Championship Trophy. Jasper Corporate Finance reasserted themselves at the top of European football in the Question of Sport quiz.

Special sporting guests included members of Birchfield Harriers; Paralympian wheelchair athlete, Mickey Bushell MBE, Olympian high jumper, Tom Parsons, and international 110m hurdler Edi Okoro, Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Heptathlon Gold Medallist Louise Hazel and a table of former Aston Villa players.

Kidsout works closely with Birmingham City Council supporting children who find themselves in 10 Women’s Refuges in the City. The Toy Box Service provides for these children and has sent out 361 toy boxes in the area to children who have fled domestic abuse with their mothers with nothing but the clothes on their backs. KidsOut also provides summer day trips to the seaside.

Birmingham Crisis Centre Manager, Anna Freeman spoke on the night about domestic abuse affecting thousands of children seeking refuge every year. Ms Freeman expressed a 14 year olds experience having gone through the trauma.

‘We had to start all over again, we had left the few things my dad hadn’t smashed up behind, we had nothing really, we had no friends and had to leave our school. Toy boxes were delivered to us from KidsOut with presents for me and my little brothers. I couldn’t believe it. I was given some vouchers and was able to go and buy myself some little treats that normal teenage girls take for granted like a hairdryer. I knew then that we hadn’t been forgotten about, people actually cared about me and other children scarred by domestic violence.’

Thanks to the generosity of guests on the night – this work can continue to happen.

Special thanks to Andrew Griffin and the Birmingham Committee for making the event the success it was.

A total of £91,300 was raised through the generosity of companies and individuals attending. With a history of 12 years of KidsOut’s Question of Sport event, this is the most ever raised to date.

Amongst the guests supporting the cause on the night were boxer, Anthony Joshua, Olympic Gold Medallist and horse racing pundit, John McCririck.

We were pleased to welcome Refuge worker, Tammy Mckillop who spoke of the affects of domestic violence and working closely with KidsOut.

"Kids Out provides us with numerous toys for our playroom and toys for us to give our children at Christmas and Birthdays, trips out for our clients over half terms and the Summer holidays when children cannot have trips home to Family members and toy boxes for every child at the point of resettlement or those families in outreach whose children are deprived."

Mother of four, Tanya, also spoke on the night about domestic violence and how it affected her and her family.

“I left everything apart from the necessities I managed to pack. I only had the space in my small car, which was difficult to fit in everything we needed.”

“The toy boxes were a wonderful surprise. I didn’t know the extent of the toys, one box would have done!  It was so generous and magical.”

“It took the stress off me especially because my budget was stretched with 4 young children.”

A massive thanks to the London Committee, Neil Smith, the volunteers from Barclays, Navigant and Keating Chambers.

KidsOut held another successful Question of Sport event on Thursday 7th March in Leeds. The night at Ellond Road Stadium was compared by KidsOut Patron and snooker star, John Parrott and radio presenter and auctioneer, Darren Proctor. Over 500 people attended and helped to raise, a staggering £41,309 in total.

Amongst the guests supporting the cause on the night was former Leeds United defender Dominic Matteo. See the article in the Morley Observer here. The main auction saw bids for a range of sporting items including a signed Lennox Lewis print and VIP Challenge Cup tickets. The silent auction prizes included Wayne Rooney's boots and a signed Rooney shirt.

The winners of the Question of Sport Quiz were Blackpool FC otherwise known as Savills (L8P) Limited.

The KidsOut Toy Box Service’s largest ever packing day took place on Saturday 2nd March at FedEx’s UK Headquarters, Stansted Airport. Many employees gave up their time and expertise to organise and pack tens of thousands of toys that are then distributed across the UK to children that have been rehoused to an unfamiliar area, as a result of fleeing domestic abuse to a Women’s Refuge. Often children, from the ages of 0 – 14 have had to leave with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

A team of 40 volunteers gathered including KidsOut staff, FedEx employees and other charity partners, Aurora and Polk. The day was friendly and upbeat and lunchtime pizza was ordered in. Will Martin, Managing Director, FedEx Express, thanked everyone and spoke about his passion for the charity. Gordon Moulds, KidsOut CEO praised the in kind support of the company.

FedEx have been partnered with the KidsOut charity for just over a year and in that time their support has been outstanding. Last year over 1200 children received a box of toys thanks to Fedex. Each toy box contains a range of brand new, age and gender specific toys which are quite often the only possessions a child has at this stage of their life. The joy and surprise experienced, when children open their personally delivered box of toys, would not happen without the commitment and generosity of FedEx.

If you work within a Women’s Refuge register for the Toy Box service here or email us at Toyboxes@kidsout.org.uk. Toy Boxes are ordered directly through a secure online area of the KidsOut website. Refuge workers simply state how many boxes are required when a family is moving on, provide a delivery address and the box is dispatched, ready for the child when they are settled into their new home.

Special thanks to Fedex and thanks to Aurora and Polk for giving their support. If you would like to see photographs from the day please click here.

We invited children and young people from Refuges in the London and Manchester areas to get involved and contribute to World Stories and spend a day with the BBC staff in various fun activities.

This took place at the historic BBC Television Centre, London, on Monday 18th February, where 15 children, from ages 11 – 16 took part in a creative workshop. A similar day was repeated on Wednesday 20th February at Media City, Salford Keys.

The children recorded stories, had a tour around the TV studios and worked with the BBC staff. 

The feedback from the Refuge Workers was;

‘The recording sessions were brill. The young people we brought truly enjoyed themselves. It was great to see their confidence grow as the day progressed.’

‘One young person in particular, who has very low self-esteem and was a reluctant participant at the start of the day, was especially pleased with herself when she managed to record her part of the story.’

‘It’s great to be able to take the children out of refuge for some much needed fun and time away from their troubles.’

The Story Box CD is going to Women's Refuges across the country and into toy boxes that are sent out to children who have been rehoused after fleeing domestic abuse to a Women's Refuge.

BBC Outreach and KidsOut are currently working together to provide confidence boosting workshops for children living in Women's Refuges. The first in the series took place at BBC Studio's, Glasgow and was a big hit with the children.

The group had a go at recording stories and even got to meet children's TV character Nina and the Neurons. There are more workshops scheduled to happen in Manchester and in London later this month.

The Golf Classic 2013, hosted by KidsOut Patron and snooker legend, John Parrott MBE, is set to be a fantastic day on 13th May.

Features on the day include;

The day is £500 for a team of 4 and you could even make a weekend of it and book yourself into the stunning accomodation available. Bids for the pleasure of having John Parrott on your team, are now open! For more information please contact events@kidsout.org.uk and click here to download the flyer.

You don’t have to be an Olympic athlete to enter. The London to Brighton Bike Ride on 30th June has a selection of routes to suit your abilities and personal goals;

This cycle challenge is available to everyone who wants to have a great day out, there is no pressure to finish the race in a certain time, there are free refreshments and mechanical assistance along the way and the route has been specially designed to ensure everyone has an enjoyable day.

Please do not hesitate to get in contact our Head of Fundraising, adam.stevens@kidsout.org.uk for more information.

Proceeds from sales of the very plush ‘YooHoo’, a range of endangered animals designed and produced in soft toy format by Aurora, will go to KidsOut in 2013. KidsOut also benefits from free toy donations from Aurora which go into the Toy Box Service which provides children who have been rehoused after fleeing domestic abuse, a box of toys.

The Kindness Offensive is a small organisation with just three members who with the help of a team of volunteers perform ‘random acts of Kindness’ in and around London. They have secured more support than ever before in 2012 and as a result approached KidsOut.

With the support of FedEx the toys have been collected and are now in storage ready for the next toy box packing day scheduled for February.

Following an appeal sent out to churches in the local area, six churches organised a Christmas toy collection for the Toy Box service. All of the brand new toys have now been collected and the estimated KidsOut value of the items is £1,800.

Feeding His People sourced significant toys and clothes for KidsOut this Christmas. The toys are generally more suited for Refuge games room than in our Toy boxes. The charity also provided volunteers to pack the refuge Toy boxes.

Birmingham Christmas Party

On Tuesday, 18th December 35 children from the Birmingham Refuge enjoyed a Christmas Party in Aston.    

 “I would like to thank you and your Organisation for the kindness and generosity; the children had an unforgettable Christmas party.  It was wonderful to see the joy and happy faces of all the children who were able to take part.

“The Wizard that Never Woz”

12 Children from the Renfrewshire Refuge age ranging from 7-14 attended the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow to enjoy “The Wizard that Never Woz” on Friday, 14th December with a lunch before they set off!

Autism Bedfordshire – Christmas Disco – 17th January

LOAF – Loads of Autistic Fun are a family support group for children with autism offering a range of fun activities.  Wanted Fun is a youth group with Aspergers/autism.  The group aims to promote social development and communication along with increasing independence.  Each group held a Christmas party with magicians, DJs, etc.   Wanted Fun will be having a New Year Disco on 17th January with over 35 children dancing away.

“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”

50 children from the Basingstoke Refuge saw “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” pantomime.

Dunstable Refuge Christmas Party – Thursday, 20th December

20 children from the Dunstable Refuge enjoyed a Christmas party with music, dance, food, face painting and a magician from Whirlwind Entertainment.

Motherwell Refuge

20 children from the refuge were taken to see Father Christmas.

Newham Refuge

Over 10 children, aged from 2 to 8 years had a Christmas party on the 13th December with a Magician Entertainer!

The day at Fallings Park Fire Station gave the group the opportunity to see first-hand the kind of work staff do and explore issues of safety. The young people were taken around the station and shown the B.A. (breathing apparatus) room, the dry room and a demonstration of how to use the drop pole. They were given a talk about life choices and one inspired young person commented that ‘in life you can decide to live a safe protected life, do what you want to do and get far. Or you can live life on the edge, taking a risk which is most likely going to have the worst consequence or outcome’.

A clear favourite part of the day was getting to go in the gym and try out ‘the circuit of steps, boxing, press ups and running for one minute’. ‘I liked it when we went in the gym, but I am still in pain though!’

Another hit with the group was being allowed to use the hose, ‘that was the best part of the day’.

The multi-media outreach project in Wolverhampton, The Switch Project, offers alternative education provision for young people in Key Stage 3 and 4, who are excluded, at risk of exclusion, on modified timetables or vulnerable to detaching from learning in the school environment.  The diverse range of stimulating learning opportunities successfully engages young people with the aim of them returning to mainstream education as confident individuals who can realise their full potential. Please go to the following link to find out more about multi media outreach.

Children enjoyed the Day Out 2012 so much they entered our KidsOut Picture Competition. We asked for drawings and photographs of their memorable Day Out. The response has been outstanding with lots of colourful and inspired art work. The best pictures are featured here. A winning school was chosen from 6 main regions of the UK and each school received £100. Ceara Special School in Northern Ireland were able to create some lovely costumes for their Christmas Nativity with their winnings. Click to see here.

St Barnabas Parish Church, of Waterloo Road, Leighton Buzzard invited special guest Andrew Selous MP who opened the festival on Friday 30th November. On Saturday a concert featured the South Beds Youth Voices, the U3A choir and a string quartet.

Dedicated and creative KidsOut volunteers, Pat and Pauline, designed and displayed a KidsOut Christmas Tree complete with fun children's quotes as decorations. Thank you to our volunteers for giving KidsOut a pride of place at the event.

The race was slightly shortened due to the icy conditions on the day and the number of young ones competing. All participants were greeted by the real Santa Clause at the end of the race and awarded a finishers medal.

The event was organised by the Leighton Fun Runners and thanks to them over £800 was raised which will go towards KidsOut’s 5 children’s services that supports young people across the country. If you were inspired by the run and would like to find out more about the Fun Runners click here for more information.

After their run everyone was welcomed to the Golden Bell for mince pies and mulled wine. KidsOut Chief Executive, Gordon Moulds, presented the Landlords of the Golden Bell a certificate to recognise them for being the best pub fundraisers in Leighton Buzzard. A Special thanks to the Golden Bell and the Fun Runners for making such a valuable difference to the charity.

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There was a large buffet, a main auction, a silent auction and raffles throughout. Our guest speaker, John Peters went down especially well. A fantastic total of £11,500 was raised from this, which goes directly into KidsOut children’s services, which you can find out more about here. Thank you to Janet Rubin and the rest of the committee for putting this event together.

The tickets provided the children access to endless rides and attractions and they particularly loved London’s largest outdoor ice rink, Zippos Circus, a Giant Observation Wheel, Funfair rides, exhilarating roller coasters and Santa Land. The children came from Women’s Refuges in the London Boroughs and a number of other children with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, Downs Syndrome and cerebral palsy. They ranged in age from 0 – 18.

A Refuge worker from Asian Women’s Aid said one child;

‘was so emotional about the day out she cried and said ‘I have never been to a theme park’.

‘I have never done anything fun like this before’.

‘The refuge worker told us she has ‘worked at Greenwich Women’s Project for 4 years and has never heard of any children being taken out’. Some were even dressed and ready to go at 11am even though it didn’t start until 5pm.

Another refuge worker said ‘Our children spend many hours indoors at the refuge so an outing like this really benefits them’.

All of these children had very recently fled domestic abuse. KidsOut received so much positive feedback from this day, including lots of inspired drawings and stories (see right):

‘Children had quality time with their mums’

‘Can we really, really go on all the rides!?’

‘Best day out ever’

‘Lovely memories to take away with them’

“It was the first time the children attended Winter Wonderland and the experience was a happy, exhilarating, entertaining and fun time”

“I saw Jade Ellis from X Factor, it was great” child aged 7.

“I will keep my wristband on for the next 3 years when I can go again” child aged 8.

Winter Wonderland Fun Days has definitely aided the KidsOut mission to help to transform the lives of disadvantaged children and young people by providing fun opportunities and positive experiences that work to significantly enhance their wellbeing and outlook for a happier future.

KidsOut CEO Gordon Moulds would like to thank Helen Pitcher for her efforts and support and Sue O’Brien for securing Winter Wonderland. This event would not have happened without the awareness and forward thinking approach of Sue who seized the opportunity for KidsOut and the total commitment of Helen which enabled the funding of the event.

Click here to see photographs taken by superb photographer, Paul Douglas.

This year’s Glasgow Question of Sport event took place once again in The Old Fruit Market. The event was a huge success and without a doubt this was down to the excellent support from the committee. Over £40,000 was raised for the charity, which was more than £10,000 compared to last year!

Grant Stott hosted the event and which again proved very popular with the guests. His skills were especially well shown during the main auction, which in itself raised over £16,000. The night was also the most successful silent auction to date and £12,000 was raised. The prizes included a Pete and Bobby Moore print and a signed Celtic Lisbon Lions shirt.

The funds raised feed directly into our 5 children’s services including the newest project ‘Fun Days’. 8 generous people's donations gave 50 more children, from Women's Refuges and those from Special Schools, the chance to experience the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, London.

Many thanks to the whole Glasgow committee for all the hard work they have put into the event and also to Alex Wilson for selling additional tables. Also massive thanks to Stephen Glancey and his family.

If you would like to see photographs from the night, click here.

A Refuge worker from Manchester said that the children were able to enjoy activities that they may otherwise not have been able to. The opportunity to spend quality time with their mothers at a venue that would normally be inaccessible to them due to cost was invaluable.

They were able to have fun and meet other children living in similar circumstances to them and it was particularly good for the older children aged 10.

“As our refuge spaces are spread across the city, they may not be living in a refuge with children of a similar age. Many of the children of a similar age but living in different refuges made friends with each other”.

A lifesize Lego model of Buzz Lightyear seemed to be a real hit. A boy (pictured below) is seen driving an off road lego vehicle in Lego City!

A Mum said "Everybody had such a fun time, the children have not stopped telling the staff about it!"

Children's responses;

“Awesome!” Child aged 10

“Buzz was my favourite!” Aged 7

“I loved playing Lego with my brother” Aged 12

“Brilliant! I want to go again”

The Merlin's team at Legoland especially enjoyed seeing the children enjoy themselves.

KidsOut would like to say a special thank you to the team at Legoland. They made they day extra special by arranging the birthday party room for the children and also a visit from 'Buddie' the LEGO character. We are pleased to say they are keen to host more visits like this in future.