KidsOut is a medium sized charity based in Leighton Buzzard which provides a range of services to bring about positive change to thousands of underprivileged and vulnerable children around the UK. They position themselves as "a charity based on actions rather than words”.^[1] Every year they help over 80,000 disadvantaged children, including over 25,000 children who with their mothers, have had to flee from their homes to escape domestic abuse. These children will have witnessed or experienced, mental, physical or sexual abuse and often arrive in refuge traumatised and with no more than the clothes they are wearing. KidsOut provides each child with a box of new toys and books to help make the children feel welcome. In addition to toy boxes the charity takes the children, plus thousands of other disadvantaged children on fun days out, including trips to the seaside, theme parks, zoos, and the cinema. Up to December 2023, KidsOut have taken nearly 1.1 million children out on fun days. Children may have come from difficult backgrounds, have been excluded from school, have a life-limiting disability or have been socially or rurally isolated. The charity is currently looking to develop arts, music, and sports programmes as part of its wider care services. ^{[2][3][4][5] [6] [7]}

The current interim CEO of KidsOut is Sara Williams. The charity is governed by a board of 12 Trustees^[8] and is also supported by 18 Ambassadors and 2 Patrons, John Parrott and John Peters.

History

In 1989, John Moores, who was the founder of the Littlewoods Organization, developed an event which he called “The Liverpool Annual Motorists Outing for Disabled Children.” This was organized by staff at the Littlewoods head office in Liverpool. To expand this event out across the U.K Littlewoods needed to link in with a suitable organization. His daughter, Lady Grantchester, spoke with Peter Jarvis, a Rotarian of Kingston, to meet with John Moores. John Moores agreed to organise a trail day out in Kingston June 1990, if successful Littlewoods would support the rollout across the country. The event proved to be a great success and the rollout of Days Out soon followed. On 9 June 1992, 34 Rotary Clubs throughout England, Wales and Scotland had successful and enjoyable outings. Peter coined the name “KidsOut” and devised a logo. In time, the Moores family sold Littlewoods and the link with KidsOut was lost. In 1999, KidsOut was registered as a charity and Rotarian Peter Jarvis became one of the founding trustees.^[7][9]

Services

KidsOut delivers 5 major U.K services to disadvantaged children with the support of dozens of companies. They also organize Fun Days, where children are taken on a Fun Day out to different attractions, and Workshops, aimed at engaging and developing a child in a particular way, throughout the year.^[10][11]

In 2023 KidsOut provided; 115,946 Toys and Christmas Presents to Disadvantaged Children (excludes toy boxes) 57,774 Fun Days 20,174 National KidsOut Rotary Days Out (308 Clubs, 620 Schools, 100 attractions) 15,159 World Stories sign-ups (13,392 Teachers 1,767 Non-Teachers 76,528 in total) 11,203 Toy Boxes for children in Refuge (112,030 toys in total) 5,593 Food Vouchers for Summer, Christmas, Easter holidays when no free meal access 1,000 School uniforms 191 Laptops to help children with their schoolwork at their refuge 175 World Story Books (now 175 in total) 85 Tablet computers

References