Co-op Membership Card used to raise funds while shopping Pic: Co-op
A project to help low-income families who are struggling with the high costs of private nurseries and babysitters in Camberwell was given over £10,000 by the Co-operative Local Community Fund.
The Co-op branch in Denmark Hill gave a cheque of £10,562.35 to Camberwell After School Project (CASP) to help fund childcare. The money was raised through the Co-op’s Local Community Fund, which gives five per cent reward to Co-op members and a one per cent extra goes to local causes, when they buy own-brand products by swiping the Co-op membership card to raise funds while shopping.
Spokesperson Craig Brownsell, said: “The Local Community Fund has been running since September 2016, and in that time we have paid out just under £40million to 12,000 causes throughout the country”.
The CASP project helps parents who are working or studying, and need help to provide for childcare, out of school. The charity currently works with over 80 children every week.
Most of those children are from low-income parents who are not able to afford private nurseries or babysitters, or even do not have family members who are available to help out.
Chief Executive of the charity, Carmen Lindsay, has thanked Co-op and their staff for their ‘amazing efforts’ to raise the money for the charity, as it helps with costs for the children needs and charity costs. She also said since the charity was founded, they have helped more than five thousand children, and three thousand families.
Lindsay told the Southwark News: “this practical support allows parents and carers to secure and sustain employment or access education and training, helping them to escape the cycle of poverty”.
“The project provides our parents with peace and a sound mind knowing their child is being looked after and not roaming the streets unsupervised”.
CASP has been around for quite a long time, but it first started operating from Crawford Primary School in Camberwell using the school’s unused dining hall collecting children, after school, from three other schools. They moved to an established building in 1991.
The charity has said that since 2012, Southwark Council has ‘significantly reduced’ their funding to the project due to the high costs.
The charity is now looking to raise £30,000 by March 2019 to make up a shortage in their yearly budget.
