YSS (Your Support Service) is joining this year’s #GivingTuesday movement to encourage people in Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin to ‘do good stuff’ this Christmas!

YSS is taking part in this year’s #GivingTuesday campaign, which takes place on Tuesday 27 November. The campaign, which began in America, is an antidote to the mass consumerism of Black Friday and aims to get people thinking of others in the run up to Christmas, be it through donating to charity, volunteering or simply helping a friend, neighbour or family member.

YSS is a charity with more than 30 years’ experience in providing support to some of the most marginalised people in society, from children as young as seven acting as young carers to families in crisis and people coming out of prison, and is using #GivingTuesday as an opportunity to do three things.

Lorraine Preece, Chief Executive, said: “We’re really pleased to be taking part in this year’s #GivingTuesday campaign. It is great to be encouraging people to get thinking about others this Christmas and doing little things that can make a huge difference, especially to the people we help who often have little of what most of us take for granted, be it a roof over our heads, strong family relationships or good education.

“The first and most important thing we want to do this #GivingTuesday is to say a huge thank you and ‘hats off’ to our fantastic supporters, donors, staff and volunteers who consistently go over and above, helping us to support more than 2,000 vulnerable children, families and adults across West Mercia every year. Without you, we simply wouldn’t exist.

“We’re also using today as an opportunity to raise awareness of both the need for volunteers and donations, to support the work we do.

“We are fortunate at YSS to have a band of extremely hard working and selfless volunteers who support us in a variety of ways, from acting as Appropriate Adults to providing office support or assisting at Worcestershire Young Carers Clubs. However, with our service users facing more hardship than ever before, and funding constantly being cut, the need for volunteers remains high.”

If you’ve been thinking about how you can make a difference this Christmas, why not consider filling in a volunteer application form to put your skills and spare time to good use, or make a donation to support the YSS Discretionary Distress Fund?

The Discretionary Distress Fund exists to provide practical and emotional support to service users, many of whom are facing greater hardship than ever before. By donating £35 you could provide emergency overnight support for someone living on the street, or a counselling session for someone experiencing stress, anxiety or depression, whilst £50 could provide an emergency food and clothing package to a family in crisis, or a targeted one-to-one support session with an experienced keyworker. 

To ‘do good stuff’ this Christmas and make a donation to support people in need, please click here. To become a volunteer or find out more about the volunteering opportunities available, please click here.

Since its inception in 2014, #GivingTuesday has become one of the biggest events in the global charity calendar, breaking successive Guinness World Records for the most amount of money donated online to charity in 24 hours. In 2016, £48 million was donated online via PayPal with the UK accounting for the second largest amount of donations. An estimated 4.5 million people in Britain also did something to support a good cause on the day.

Don’t forget to follow @OfficialYSS on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation this #GivingTuesday.