Family Heroes Case Study: Jean Wilson, West Midlands Family Hero 2013

Jean Wilson won the West Midlands Family Hero in 2013 for her commitment and dedication to her charity New Hope. New Hope is an organisation, set up by Jean, which provides Saturday and holiday clubs for disabled children aged 6-19 together with continual support for parents and carers. We caught up with Jean to find out what winning a Family Hero meant to her.

Being nominated for an award felt very humbling in that someone thought me worthy enough to nominate. I was very excited when I was told I had won the West Midlands Region award.

Winning the Regional award was nice for New Hope as we were able to share our experience with our parents and they were so pleased to have the project recognized nationally.

Our aims going forward are to attract new families to our service and continue to grow. This summer we are having a chalet built in our garden, which will give us 2 more rooms from which to operate. In addition to this we are having a new playground, which the children are really excited about.

We have lots of exciting events coming up, I’m doing a sponsored walk on the 13th July and we have a charity ball on the 20th September, all monies raised goes towards days out for our children. Also this week we are running our Hands of Hope campaign please visit our Facebook page for more information

I would encourage people to nominate as it makes you feel special, makes you feel like people care and that all your hard work is appreciated. Yes it makes a difference, as all our supporters were impressed that we had been recognized nationally, all my parents were thrilled to read the story in Take A Break.

Don’t forget to support New Hope’s ‘Hands of Hope’ campaign by raising awareness and making a helping hand picture! (Draw a smiley face on your hand, take a picture of it and then share it on Facebook and or Twitter. This indicates you are “happy” to support their campaign. You can also donate to this fantastic charity here.