i's Christmas Appeal for Become
Thank you for supporting the iNews Christmas Appeal for Become. Together, we can ensure children in care and care-experienced young people receive the love, stability and support they urgently need.
We’re proud to be the i Newspaper’s 2023 Christmas charity of the year.
There are over 107,000 children in care in the UK, more than ever before. There’s a crisis in the availability of suitable local placements, and that’s having a harmful impact on children. Many young people are moved miles from everything they know, creating feelings of isolation and loneliness which can hit hardest around the Christmas period.
“I usually dread Christmas and I think it exacerbates the grief of missing something I never really had.”
Children are taken into care when it’s not safe for them to stay at home. Whatever a young person has dealt with beforehand, being taken into care is itself traumatic – especially at Christmas. Many young people come through the care system and flourish, but far too many don’t get the stability, love and support they need to heal and to thrive.
Your support is needed more than ever before:
107,317
record numbers of children in care in the UK.
82%
of care-experienced young people struggled to afford food last year.
1 in 4
people experiencing homelessness are care-experienced.
Your donation will help to provide care-experienced young people with vital advice, community, and practical support this Christmas.
- £5 could help a child in care stay in touch with brothers or sisters living apart from them.
- £12 could give Christmas dinner to a young person who recently left care.
- £32 could provide an isolated young care leaver with regular phone calls over the Christmas period.
- £50 could pay for employment coaching to help someone leaving care find a job.
- £75 could provide one-to-one guidance for a young person applying to university.
My favourite Christmas memory was when I attended Become's Christmas Link-Up… it's rare to have so many people, who have been through a lot, being happy together at the same time.
Please donate, and together we can help more children in care to have a happy Christmas.
Other ways to donate
To donate over the phone, please call Will in our fundraising team on 07951 155 297.
Please note that we’re a small team so may not be able to answer every call. If you’re able to donate a different way, that’d be appreciated. If your call isn’t answered, please leave a voicemail and we’ll respond to you as soon as possible to accept your donation over the phone.
Articles in iNews
Featuring young people we work with, our team & supporters of Become. Read what they have to say about care.
Lucinda's article
"I wouldn’t have been able to get to university if it wasn’t for my foster parents"
Read more
Matt's article
"It felt like I didn’t matter and that as soon as I was 18, I couldn’t be there anymore."
Read more
Kim's article
“For me, being introduced to other care-experienced people has been a big thing."
Read more
Kane's article
"I’m proud that we have that bond. We fought for it when we shouldn’t have had to. We were just kids, we were twins, and all we had was each other."
Ream more
Jade's article
"If you are constantly around people who don’t look like you, you are going to start questioning yourself as to whether your hair is good enough or your skin is good enough.”
Read more
Duncan's article
"There is only so much you can do as a young person to try and cope on your own."
Read more
