Charity is right at the heart of the day to day running of Cytoplan. From a small collection among employees to a larger contribution to an international charitable scheme, we look to stay active in this area all year round.
With the year-end almost upon us, we thought it would be a fitting time to provide you, our valued customer, with an update on some of the charitable activities of our owners, The AIM Foundation, as well as looking at some of the more local charitable work that our office team have taken part in.
The AIM Foundation
The charitable foundation that owns Cytoplan is The AIM Foundation. They are an organisation concerned with nutrition, health and well-being projects, as well as supporting the most vulnerable in our communities, such as women suffering from domestic abuse in Essex.
The mission of the AIM Foundation is to seek and achieve positive social change by funding organisations that work to address today’s needs and prevent problems arising. In order to achieve this overall goal, AIM has a strategy to proactively identify and fund three specific areas; Research and Policy, Prevention, and Support work.
Across these strategic ways of working, the Foundation is currently focussed on:
- Nutrition and well-being – diet and lifestyle programs to optimise cognitive health
- Young People – Improving their life chances, especially around the transition from school to employment
- Early Years – Improving the emotional and social development of young children from vulnerable families
Research and policy
The AIM Foundation works alongside respected research bodies with the aim of tackling causes of urgent problems and promote innovative work, ensuring that learning is shared as widely as possible and attempting to influence social change.
Nutrition and well-being
The AIM Foundation has continued to work with Health Empowerment Through Nutrition (visit their website here for further information), a charity with the primary aim of creating awareness of Hidden Hunger (Type B Malnutrition). The Foundation have supported in areas such as researching and promoting optimum health programs, and changing lifestyles and nutrition in order to prevent the development of chronic degenerative diseases.
The AIM Foundation supported the ongoing work of researching and promoting The Bredesen Protocol; a multi-factorial lifestyle and nutrition based approach to treating, and reversing, early onset Alzheimer’s. They are funding the preparatory stages of the work needed to facilitate and gain approval for a multi model trial in the UK for the reversal of cognitive decline at the University of Lancaster, towards developing a proposal for larger publically funded trials of this approach. You can find out more about The Bredesen Protocol in this Cytoplan blog.
There was support for the New Economics Foundation for their well-being policy work, as well as helping to promote the updated research for the Happy Planet Index, which tells us how well nations are doing at achieving long, happy, sustainable lives.
Early Years
Wave Trust – Further grants were made to this charity concerned with trying to break the damaging, intergenerational family cycles of childhood neglect and abuse. The AIM Foundation have continued to support their social policy work in demonstrating the need for universal early prevention interventions. This includes helping midwives and health visitors across the population to identify which families need extra support during pregnancy and the first years of the child’s emotional development.
Mellow-Parents – Evaluation research of the impact of Mellow Babies’s group work with vulnerable parents was undertaken in order to improve its uptake by commissioning agencies and expand its reach.
Young People
The Royal Foundation-Heads Together Campaign – The AIM Foundation contributed towards this campaign to reduce the stigma around discussing one’s mental health difficulties. It is the foundation’s intention to make further grants addressing the increase in teenager’s mental well-being issues.
Prevention
AIM continue to fund core costs of medium sized organisations over a number of years, that demonstrate strong leadership and are delivering effective work and increasing their impact or scale up. AIM look for opportunities to leverage the effectiveness of these organisations.
Early Years
Institute of Health Visiting – A new multi-year grant was made towards the setting of regional forums of Health Visitors to help disseminate best practice and research around supporting families in improving mental well-being around the time of birth.
Impetus-PEF – AIM gave their last grant supporting Impetus-PEF in developing and demonstrating the impact of Family Nurse Partnership; an independent charity that supports young first-time mothers in developing attuned parent-infant relationships. This includes highly trained nurses delivering home visits in order to help the young mothers from pregnancy through to the child’s second birthday.
Young People
Impetus-PEF – However, AIM continues to support the main strategic work where Impetus-PEF now focusses on preventative and policy work with disadvantaged and disengaged young people, in order to assist in the transition from school to further education or work. Impetus-PEF helps build the capacity of many charities and social enterprises, developing their impact and extending their reach to support young people to reach their potential.
The Lighthouse Group (TLG) – The AIM Foundation have continued to support this group, training volunteer coaches to support pupils at risk of failing academically due to emotional and social problems. In the last year the charity has seen excellent results; over half of the children have been better behaved and feel more positive about school.
Support
The foundation continues to support people who are disadvantaged through local groups or initiatives. The focus is on people living in the area of Essex, as this is where AIM’s endowment funds were generated and the Founder Trustees live.
The Children’s Society – The Children’s Society in East Anglia was awarded a further multi-year grant to the Community Hidden Harm Awareness Team. They improve the physical and emotional well-being of children and young people, whose parents are misusing substances and consequently, are victims of domestic violence, neglect and under achievement at school.
Parent’s First – A new multi-year commitment of support began with this group working in deprived areas of Essex to train ‘community parents’ volunteers to provide peer-support to mothers of very young children.
Essex Community Foundation – The AIM Foundation supported the Essex Community Foundation towards their collaborative work employing independent domestic violence advocates. These advocates are based in local acute hospitals in Basildon and Colchester to provide direct support to victims of abuse and training to NHS staff.
Wells for India – This is a grass-roots organisation that provides safe, clean water to rural communities. The AIM Foundation have continued to support their work.
The charitable work of Cytoplan
All year round, employees of Cytoplan endeavour to participate in a number of charitable activities. This year has been no different. We have taken part in a Colour Run in Wolverhampton where we raised just under £1,000 for The Alzheimer’s Society, and we also recently took part in the ‘wear it pink’ awareness day for Breast Cancer.
We have also continued to support the following charitable organisations:
- World Land Trust – WLT is an international conservation charity, which protects the world’s most biologically threatened habitats in the world. Since its foundation in 1989, WLT has funded partner organisations around the world to create reserves, and give permanent protection to habitats and wildlife.
- Circus Starr – Circus Starr is a touring circus boasting world-class, professional artists from across the globe. It was first founded in 1987 and provides free seats for thousands of disadvantaged, disabled or vulnerable children, whilst helping to raise much needed funds for local charities.
- Baby Ava’s Support Foundation – A charity that supplies keepsake/memory boxes for families who have suffered the sudden loss of a child through stillbirth or neonatal death. The charity aim to supply as many neonatal units across the UK that do not currently have any form of keepsake boxes.
- NSPCC – The leading children’s charity fighting to end child abuse in the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man. The NSPCC help children who have been abused to rebuild their lives, protect those at risk, and find the best ways of preventing abuse from ever happening.
- Guide dogs – a charity that aims is to provide people with sight loss with the support they need to be able to move around safely and confidently, to get out of their homes and be able to live life the way they choose.
A big Thank You
Every customer who purchases our products, whether it be once, twice or ten times a year, is helping us to try and help those who are much less fortunate than ourselves. We believe this is a sound business model: one that we are very proud of and one that hopefully, in time, will achieve the goals we have set ourselves, to improve the health of the nation and the rest of the world too! Our charitable work – both on a small and large scale – is testament to this.
We hope that this information has given you a small insight into the charitable structure of Cytoplan and the significant role it plays in the day to day running of the company. We hope you continue to support us in the future in whatever way you can.
If you have any questions regarding the topics that have been raised, or any other health matters, please do contact me (Amanda) by phone or email at any time.
amanda@cytoplan.co.uk, 01684 310099
Amanda Williams and the Cytoplan Editorial Team
Last updated on 6th June 2018 by cytoffice
Wow I’m speechless – you are almost too good to be true – you cover just about every area that needs help. I am truly amazed and impressed with your moral work ethic and the variety of needs you cover are definitely making a huge difference. I take my hat off to you. You are inspirational.