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Thinking of sharing your family story with us? Discover how Family Fund uses your stories to help other families.
The power of stories
If you have had a grant from us, or if you have used our information and support services, we will often ask you to share your family story with us. Family stories paint a picture of families’ lived experience of disability and serious illness. They help us show how accessing a grant or service at the right time can make a big difference to people’s lives.
Family stories are vital to the work we do, and we use your stories in lots of different ways. Here are some examples.
Seeking new funding
Family Fund’s Fundraising Team is always on the look-out for new sources of funding to support our work. When we write a bid for funding, we include family stories to show funders what we do, and why it is important for families. We also use family stories to encourage people to donate to Family Fund, or fundraise for us.
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Stories in action: Sharing stories from families who attended one of our parent/carer online workshops helped us make the case for more funding for digital skills. With the extra funding, we’ve been able to double the size of our workshop programme!
Spreading the word…
Working with the media helps us to raise awareness of Family Fund and the support we provide. We use family stories in press releases, articles and interviews to publicize our programmes and let people know they can apply.
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Stories in action: Mum Tania talked about the difference a laptop has made to Charlotte, who has Down syndrome. The media coverage on her story helped us tell more people about the Your Opportunity programme for disabled young people. We received a record number of applications for Your Opportunity that same year.
Influencing for a better future
Our Public Affairs Team works with policy-makers in all four UK parliaments. We use stories to help politicians understand the experiences and needs of families raising disabled and seriously ill children. We use your stories to show-case lived experience, challenge policies that are failing families, and make the case for change.
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Stories in action: Julieann, Jackline and Julia spoke to us about the challenges of raising a disabled child on a low income. We used their powerful stories at four parliamentary events that gave politicians a shocking picture of the real cost of caring. Thanks to those stories, we can have a deeper conversation about child poverty and how to tackle it.
