Norwich City are proud to announce Nelson’s Journey as our chosen charity matchday partner.
The club invited applications from local charities to apply to be our Charity Matchday Partner and we received 26 applications. These were put to our charity steering group, who drew up a shortlist of four, and then our staff, those based at the Lotus Training Centre and Carrow Road, were given the chance to vote for their favourite cause.
Nelson’s Journey was the overwhelming winner. The charity’s funding and marketing officer Rebecca Bushell gave the following explanation about Nelson’s Journey’s work: “Nelson’s Journey provides bereavement support to children and young people living in Norfolk who have experienced the death of a significant person.
“We ensure that bereaved children and young people are better able to experience positive life outcomes, we do this by supporting their mental and emotional wellbeing through a range of services which are delivered by our small team of trained Child Bereavement Support Workers. Our services include telephone and email guidance through our Support Line and one to one support sessions either face to face or via video calls. We also provide group sessions, including our activity days and residential weekends, where children meet others with similar bereavement needs and take part in a number of positive therapeutic activities.
“In response to the Covid-19 pandemic we launched a new service called Early Support which provides support to families in the early days and weeks following the death of an important person in the child/young person’s life.
“We are proud to facilitate a Youth Panel and Young Volunteers scheme, allowing young people (including service users) to meet regularly to discuss our work and help develop our projects. These have included our Smiles and Tears gift boxes, which are a specially designed to give as a thoughtful, supportive gift for a bereaved child, and our award-winning Smiles and Tears phone app.
“Towards the end of this year, Nelson’s Journey will be celebrating our 25th anniversary and this wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible support that we’ve received from the local community. It’s allowed us to support thousands of bereaved children and young people throughout Norfolk, enabling them to move forward with their lives in a more positive way.”
If you’d like to learn more about the services we provide or would like to support us in some way, please visit our website for more details www.nelsonsjourney.org.uk.