Welcome To Community Kindness – Thanet

Hi, I’m Sonia – founder of Community Kindness – Thanet.

Having worked with vulnerable children and adults for many years, I have always known that I wanted to do more to offer support to those in our local community who are affected the most. I’ve seen first-hand how different circumstances can impact family life and I’m a firm believer that we have the opportunity to reattempt everything in life with the exception of childhood.

Working from home during lockdown gave me the opportunity to really think about what kind of support Community Kindness – Thanet could provide. It was important to me that the generosity and kindness of our donors never had the opportunity to be taken advantage of and therefore I decided that those who receive support would need to be referred by a professional organisation working with them. It was equally important that no stigma or judgement should ever be felt by those referred to the charity, and this is why those who receive support remain completely anonymous.

In November 2020 I launched Community Kindness – Thanet under the name “Community Christmas”. In five short weeks, both the outpouring of support and quantity of referrals received for Christmas gifts reaffirmed that such a service is desperately needed to ensure that children and adults do not miss out. From this point I knew that I needed to widen the offering of help, and recognised that many avenues of support are available at Christmastime but there are fewer to assist with providing gifts for birthdays, Easter and other special occasions.

As a result of different jobs I’ve held in both the education and children’s social care sectors, I also noted that many children who live in families experiencing poverty, hardship, or other difficulties which make them vulnerable may be familiar with receiving something that has been preloved but may never have experienced receiving a gift that has only ever been destined for them.

I am immensely proud of how far Community Kindness – Thanet has come and the number of vulnerable children and adults who have been supported. None of this would have been possible without the incredible generosity and kindness of the local community who have helped my vision become a reality and who really do make a huge difference.