Spurgeons


Spurgeons is a large national children's charity in the United Kingdom, working with vulnerable families, children and young people. It is based in Rushden, with several offices in the UK, and is a registered charity.
Spurgeons currently delivers more than 81 projects reaching over 37,000 children and 78,000 parents or carers every year. It aims to find long-lasting solutions to the challenges they face – including poverty, abuse problems, offending, and other social issues.
The Christian charity works in partnership with local authorities, churches, charitable foundations and other supporters to bring about lasting change.

History

Spurgeons was founded in 1867 by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Charles Haddon Spurgeon was England's best known Baptist preacher. At 20 years old he became the pastor of London's famed New Park Street Church.
Spurgeons charity was founded in 1867 when Anne Hillyard donated £20,000 to Charles Spurgeon, to be used to open an orphanage for fatherless boys.
Spurgeons was founded as a compassionate and distinctively
Christian response to the plight of orphaned and vulnerable children in London.
Motivated by their faith, Charles Haddon Spurgeon and his associates sought to
provide shelter, education and a loving environment for the city's most
vulnerable children.
The original orphanage, in Stockwell, opened in 1869 for
fatherless boys until ten years later when girls were welcomed to the
orphanage. At this point there were 500 children living there.
In 1892 Charles Spurgeon died, however his work continued to
improve the lives of the children in the orphanage.
In 1939, when the Second World War was announced, the
children living in the Stockwell orphanage had to be evacuated. The majority of
the children were moved to St David's in Reigate, Surrey.
After the war the children briefly stayed at St David's as
they were unable to return to Stockwell Orphanage due to the bomb damage.
In 1951 the home in Birchington, Kent was opened and became
the new children's home for Spurgeons.
By 1953 all of the children had been relocated to the new home.
The children's home remained opened until 1979 when the
children were sent to smaller homes or foster families.
From 1991 Spurgeons carried out international work in
Romania, Kenya, Nigeria and Moldova. This international work was passed onto
other organisations in 2011.

Children's Centres

Spurgeons runs over 50 Children's Centres across the UK. Children's centres are a key resource in local communities.
The centres give Spurgeons the opportunity to work with children and families in the context of a local community and ensure they support all families regardless of background or situation.
Working with children in the early years of their life is the most effective way to ensure that those experiencing deprivation can still look forward to choices and opportunities.
Focusing on communities with high-levels of poverty, Spurgeons work with families at the pre-natal stage, through birth and up to the age of five.
Their services include:
Family circumstances mean that from an early age some
children and young people provide regular or ongoing care and support to
another family member as a result of them having a physical or mental illness,
a disability, or are struggling with substance misuse. Young carers often take
on practical and/or emotional caring responsibilities that would normally be
expected of an adult.
Spurgeons know that these children and young people need
help to overcome the challenges they face. They work in partnership with other
agencies to support young carers and young adult carers, individually
and within their families in a range of ways.
Their services include:
Many children, overwhelmed by their problems, act-up or act
out in a bid for attention or a cry for help. Children seen as 'trouble-makers'
may become isolated or be excluded from mainstream schooling. When this happens
the risk of them becoming involved in criminal activity grows. They face the
challenges of drugs, bullying, abuse, poverty and family breakdown alone - sometimes
because their own parents are in prison.
The impact a parent's imprisonment has on their children is
not fully known. But Spurgeons believes that it's crucial to help children to
address the root-causes of their problems, support children and their families
while they have a family member in prison and ensure they break the cycle of
imprisonment within families.
In partnership with the police, schools, social workers and
Youth Offending teams, Spurgeons supports families at times of crisis and provide
one-to-one mentoring and befriending for children.
Spurgeons run child focused visitors centres in a number of
prisons. These include:
The visitors centres ensure children have the most safe and
comfortable experience when they visit a parent in prison.
Spurgeons also offers targeted programmes for young
offenders or those at risk of offending – including mentoring for young people
in custody, through the gate, and family based intervention to prevent
offending and reoffending.

Invisible Walls

Spurgeons
also provide a project called ‘Invisible Walls’. Spurgeons’ Invisible Walls
family support service is based at HMP/YOI Winchester, a local Category B/C
prison. The service works in partnership with the prison and a range of
agencies to support fathers in custody and their families in a range of ways.
1. Support for visiting...
2. Support for fathers inside...
3. Work with agencies outside...

Family Support

Spurgeons is an experienced provider of services for families with
multiple needs. They deliver a range of programmes to achieve positive change
for families and clear outcomes for commissioners.
Spurgeons provide cost effective high quality planned programmes in order
to meet the needs of troubled families. They provide planned programmes to meet
the complex needs of troubled families including key issues such as substance
misuse, mental health and offending. Their programmes provide holistic support,
co-ordinating multi-agency work around the family unit.
They recognise
that one of the most effective ways to reach vulnerable young people is by
working with them in their own community. By establishing dialogue with
children and young people most at risk of deprivation, Spurgeons can better
understand them and better help their community to find solutions to the
challenges they face.
The aim is
to facilitate them in doing this through training, support and
skills-enhancement.
These
activities are designed to help people to deal with issues like
inter-generational breakdown and anti-social behaviour and can help to build
stronger families and healthier and more cohesive communities.
Spurgeons
provides activities such as parenting support, youth and children's activities,
community events and homework clubs.
They also
offer child contact services. Contact centres are meeting places where children
from separated families can enjoy contact with one parents and/or
other family members in a comfortable and safe environment. Visits are tailored
around the needs of each child. It is estimated that 2,000 children in the UK
use Child Contact Centres each week.
Independent
visitors services is another service Spurgeons provides through family support.
Children and young people being looked after by the local authority can benefit
from the friendship and advice offered by a Spurgeons volunteer. All volunteers
are fully trained to mentor and befriend a looked after child or young person.