Rainbow Hub recipient of £10,000 SPAR Community Cashback grand prize

The charity, founded in 2008 and based in Mawdesley, has won the North of England £10,000 prize.

The team at Rainbow Hub, who support children with physical and neurological conditions, and their families, put in an outstanding application to be the winner of the grand prize.

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James Hall & Co. Ltd, SPAR UK’s primary wholesaler and distributor for Northern England, received 4,000 applications for a total of six prizes and a £20,000 prize pot, three times as many as the hugely successful inaugural year of SPAR Community Cashback in 2022.

Rainbow Hub’s main focus is conductive education which is therapy designed to increase independence in children. The charity also recently added a specialist nursery on-site enabling it to begin that journey to independence with children at an earlier age than previously.

There is also a significant family support arm to Rainbow Hub’s offer as well, and the charity has an ambition to reach even more children and improve their lives and those of their families.

“This will make a tremendous difference to us and the families that we support. Families describe Rainbow Hub as their lifeline and many of the children don’t access any other therapies other than the time they are with us," said Lyndsay Fahey, CEO of Rainbow Hub.

“We see small miracles happening every day at Rainbow Hub as many of the children who come here have been told they would never be able to walk or talk.

“One of our biggest challenges is fundraising. We’re a small local charity reliant on donations and we need to raise £700,000 every year. Hearing that we had got the £10,000 grant from SPAR was incredible. The whole team was so excited.”

Lyndsay first became involved with the organisation initially as a user of the service 12 years ago with her daughter who has a neurological condition.

She added: “I came along over a decade ago and benefited from the conductive education and saw the difference that it made to my daughter and our family. I had to quit my career and I first joined as a volunteer, it’s such an inspirational place.

“Our message to SPAR and the Community Cashback Scheme 2023 is thank you! We could not do it without the support we receive, and it really does mean the world to us.”

Volunteers play an important role in Rainbow Hub’s work. To find out more about giving back in the UK and how people help out local charities, SPAR commissioned a study of 2,000 adults and discovered that a huge 63 per cent of those in the North West have volunteered before.

On average, volunteers in the North West spend 8.1 hours giving back each month and 43 per cent would like to volunteer in 2023.

Reasons for giving back to the community vary, with 65% doing so to help others and 47% wanting to give back to local causes. Statistics for the North West show that 49% of volunteers feel an improvement to their wellbeing, 67% believe it’s good to contribute to society, and 44% gain a sense of belonging in the community.

Tom Murphy, Marketing Manager at James Hall & Co. Ltd, said: “We are delighted to hand over a huge SPAR Community Cashback cheque for £10,000 to Rainbow Hub.

“The nomination submitted by Rainbow Hub was outstanding, and having seen the work that the hub does, it truly brings the entry to life, so we are thrilled to support such a worthy cause.

“Providing help to small organisations like Rainbow Hub really does illustrate what the SPAR Community Cashback initiative is all about. We had an incredible number of entries for the North of England and congratulations to all who have received a grant.”

The other North of England SPAR Community Cashback winners were Dragonfly Cancer Trust (Newcastle, £5,000), Bury Speakeasy (Bury, £2,000), Wirral Wings (Birkenhead, £2,000) and Streetwise Young People’s Project (Newcastle, £1,000).