Northamptonshire community comes together to help Baby Basics, including a new donation point in Corby

Baby Basics Northampton has been supporting families across Northamptonshire for more than 10 years now, but this year they have seen a significant difference.

The charity has seen a huge increase in referrals, the most they have seen since they started 10 years ago and families who have both parents working are requiring their services more and more.

Sabrina Oakey, the charity co-ordinator, said: “We have not only seen our referrals increase by over 20 per cent already in the first five months but we are also seeing a lot of emergency referrals coming into us.

"These can happen for several reasons from disclosed pregnancies to families suddenly being in the position where they simply can’t afford to provide these essentials anymore.

"They may have lost their job or both families are still working but the rise in prices has pushed them into needing our services.”

Baby Basics packs not only provide babies with a safe place to sleep but their starter packs are filled with essentials for a new mum and baby up to three months.

It’s not all bad news though as ever the amazing community of Northamptonshire has been pulling together to help ensure that no baby is without a safe place to sleep.

During The Big Help Out’ run by one of the charity’s donation drop-off points, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Duston, the charity was blown away by the heartwarming efforts of the church and volunteers from across the county who in total completed 16 packs.

This included support from the Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire, James Saunders Watson, who also volunteered his time to create one of the packs.

The charity is also excited to announce the support and partnership of two new donation points.

Sabrina said: "We are so grateful to Abington church, who have kindly offered to support us through various projects throughout the year from donating items, raising money and holding this new donation point in St Peter and St Pauls parish rooms.

"Having a centralised location in Northampton town will be so beneficial to the charity.

"We are also really excited to announce the opening of our first ever Corby donation point.

"This is such a milestone for us as a small charity covering the entire county, it has been our aim to have more impact in the north of the county for some time now so feels so wonderful to finally be offering this point up to the community of Corby.

"We are looking forward to seeing the result from this.

"These donation points are the lifeline of the charity, feeding in all the items required for us to deliver our services.”

The charity has also been blessed with support with volunteers from businesses such as Simply business and Scott Bader and companies like Lush Northampton who are supporting the charity by providing eco-friendly toiletries to go inside the packs, the Delapre ladies golf who raised a huge £2310.29 as well as donating more than 500 items for the packs.

If you are interested in supporting in any way from volunteering, donating items, fundraising, applying for our new staff position or holding your own ‘make a pack day’ then get in touch via [email protected] or you can find out more information via https://linktr.ee/babybasicsnorthampton.