CCI works with a wide range of partners, funders and sponsors to offer enriching creative experiences for children and their communities. They are all important to us and many are listed below.
It is particularly challenging for charities of our size to raise funds to cover our core costs so we were keen to understand from one recent donor, The Muller/Wimshurst Trust, why they had wanted to support our work in this way. The Trust made a generous donation to CCI in 2022 and specified that this was to boost our core capacity to focus on priorities set by us. We used this extra space and time to think more deeply about how we communicate the impact of our work to the wider world, build relationships with critical partners and develop some new tools. Really significantly, we were able, thanks also to the support of our long-term partner, Kiss Communications, to design and launch this website which enables us to both showcase our research and foreground some of the wealth of resources we’ve created over the years, and present the charity’s aims and unique offer more clearly.
We asked Tamsin, a Director of the Trust, to explain what had motivated them to support CCI in this way. We discovered that it’s all about building on strong foundations and finding fresh shoots of growth.
Tamsin started life as a teacher although she didn’t spend long in the traditional role. She is an educator at heart. ‘If you get education right, you get the rest of the person right. I believe education is a lifelong experience.’
She encountered CCI when she was working in museums education and was struck by the approach. ‘Creativity is really important for people’s well-being, it validates them. Using that side of the brain and using your hands is fundamental to a person’s well-being and health, and it’s fulfilling.’
Tamsin feels CCI allows people to express themselves without putting too many rules or rights and wrongs in the way. It’s all about exploring. Her view is that our greatest intelligence is not about learning knowledge to be able to regurgitate it, ‘it’s about being able to think for yourself and have faith in your beliefs. CCI helps to develop these qualities.’
Knowing that small charities like CCI often have a minimal leadership and management infrastructure and find it challenging to carve out time, space and capacity to do strategic thinking, Tamsin wanted to support CCI in being able to do this and to equip itself to grow and go through change.
Having seen the place of art in the curriculum change in recent years and become in many learning environments less present and more formulaic, Tamsin feels that ‘CCI’s approach gives time for everyone to appreciate what they can do and to appreciate themselves. CCI is a voice that, now more than ever, needs to be heard and not just locally but also nationally.’
We are grateful to all of our funders and our many individual donors some of who wish to remain anonymous.
Please contact us if you'd like to discuss supporting CCI.
