PT campaign: Help child victims get a gift at Christmas

Retail lighting supplier Shoplight Ltd is showing its support for Dear Santa 2021 - with a £3,500 donation.

The Peterborough-based company heard about our Christmas appeal to buy gifts of choice for children harmed by crime and wanted to get involved.

We have teamed up with Peterborough-based charity Embrace Child Victims of Crime to support its Dear Santa 2021 appeal to buy gifts of choice for children suffering trauma because of crimes they have experienced or have been affected by.

Mel Shortland, director of Shoplight Ltd, based in Fengate, Peterborough said: “We know that Christmas can be a difficult time for many and so each year we look for a charity to support In the past we have supported vulnerable women and charities supporting the homeless . This year we have decided to support children.

“We contacted Embrace CV0C and have been really interested in the work they are doing to help children and young people recover from the horrible crimes they have experienced. We hope our donation will enable Embrace to support even more children this year and we would like to continue to support them after Dear Santa is over.”

Shoplight’s donation will buy at least 100 gifts for children harmed by crime.

Shoplight works with many of the UK and the world’s biggest retailers and high street names from Lego, Skechers and Mountain Warehouse to Hotel Chocolat and Starbucks.

Anne Campbell, chief executive of Embrace Child Victims of Crime (Embrace CVoC), said: “We are really grateful to Mel and the team at Shoplight for their incredibly generous donation. “Their actions will ensure some of our community’s most vulnerable children have a reason to smile and believe in Santa this year.”

Embrace CVoC is the only organisation in the UK that focuses all its work on supporting children and young people suffering trauma because of crime.

Some of the children are grieving the loss of a parent or sibling - killed by serious crime. Some of them have experienced sexual, physical or emotional abuse or have suffered years of neglect. Others have been living in homes torn apart by domestic violence.

These children have dealt with often unimaginable trauma in their young lives and police officers, teachers or others who work in safeguarding roles refer them to Embrace CVoC to get the help and support they need.

Embrace CVoC offers emotional support, counselling, practical support and theme park days out.

How you can help the appeal

Every child who is referred to Dear Santa 2021 chooses at least one gift they’d really like to receive from Santa this Christmas up to the value of £35.

Embrace CVoC makes these gifts available for you to buy through its website.

Santa’s elves will then gift wrap it for you and ensure it gets to the child who wished for it in time for Christmas.

You can purchase a gift for a child harmed by crime directly from our Dear Santa Wish List at www.embracecvoc.org.uk/dear-santa-2021.

The Dear Santa Wish-list is an on-line shop of gifts from dolls and Lego to gift vouchers and fidget toys.

Each item is listed with the recipient’s age, region they come from and the crime that has harmed them.

If you cannot find a gift you’d like to buy you can also donate any amount to the appeal and we will then buy gifts for you.

We are also looking for businesses to support our appeal

If your company would like to support our campaign contact [email protected].