Wellingborough charity running online raffle with popular YouTube creator Dan TDM as it launches fundraiser to stay afloat

A Wellingborough charity is in desperate need of funding to help it continue to support families in need, and is enlisting the help of a popular YouTube creator.

Home Start has been around for 27 years and assists local parents with at least one child under five.

As financial support from a range of sources is set to run out in September, the charity is looking to other means of fundraising.

Tracey Witham of Home Start said: "Every few years we have to apply for funding to different opportunities because you always have to get to a point where you don’t have much money before you can apply for some more.

“We had some money during Covid because there were a lot of grant offers about then, now that money has come to an end so we’re now looking to fund ourselves into the next three years, but unfortunately since Covid there’s less money about now with the grants and more people need that support, so more charities are applying for that money.

"It’s a very difficult situation where you’re all fighting each other for funding.

“We’ve had quite a few returned [including from the Postcode Lottery] for different reasons, not because of the work we do, but generally it’s ‘we’ve already funded people in that area’, that type of thing, which doesn’t help us.

“We are applying for a lot of bids, it’s just a case of whether we can get them.”

The charity supports families with issues including isolation, mental health, disability, behavioral issues, general parenting and budgeting.

Home Start has applied for funding from BBC’s Children in Need, but is still awaiting a response, and in the past it has been funded by the National Lottery, Garfield Weston, Comic Relief and North Northamptonshire Council.

Tracy added: "We recruit and train volunteers who then support families with young children.

"The volunteer goes in weekly to visit the family in their own home, and then we tailor-make the support they require at the time, and the volunteer helps as we do in the office depending on what the issues are to support that family for a short length of time.

“Right now we just need to exist beyond September, because that’s where we’re at.

“September is our deadline, if we don’t get anything by September we won’t be around.”

One of the ways Home Start is raising funds is with an online raffle, with the winner getting an exclusive 15-minute one-to-one Zoom call with Dan TDM, as well as a signed copy of his graphic novel ‘Trayaurus and the Enchanted Crystal’, a New York Times bestseller that released in 2016.

The draw will take place on May 29.

Dan TDM is a YouTube creator with a following of 26.8 million subscribers to his gaming content, quickly becoming one of the most watched UK accounts on the video sharing platform.

Tracey added: “For £1 a ticket, kids from non-affluent families can get the chance to meet him, whereas to try to pay to meet him is very expensive.

“We’re trying to raise funds at the same time as allowing children from less-affluent families to have a chance at something they would like to do.”