Reading East MP Matt Rodda paid a visit to Parents and Children Together (PACT) recently to discuss with them the challenges and pressures faced by charities in relation to sourcing sustainable funding, in addition to finding out more about their various programmes and initiatives.

PACT is a charity which has been working with families for over a century. They are one of the UK’s leading independent adoption agencies, and place children with secure and loving families who are also supported with specialist therapeutic support. The charity has an award-winning FACTS service which includes counselling, Theraplay, creative art therapy and life story work which helps adopted children to overcome difficulties in childhood, adolescence and early adulthood which have resulted from early trauma and neglect. PACT also runs community projects supporting vulnerable children and adults facing a range of issues including domestic abuse, homelessness and debt.

‘Bounce Back 4 Kids’ is a support programme aimed at helping children affected by domestic abuse. It seeks to improve children’s self-esteem by providing opportunities for them to explore and express their feelings through fun, child focussed activities. Parental support is also available to enable carers to feel empowered, and is run by trained professionals. Through Alana House, an innovative women’s community project, there are also programmes to assist troubled families, women offenders and victims of domestic violence, in addition to early intervention support work to help vulnerable and distressed women.

Matt said:
“I’ve found my visit to PACT really informative and have learned much more about the joined-up approach which the charity has developed in connection with other organisations and service providers. Challenges such as identifying funding sources are a very real concern in these times of austerity, as well as finding new ways for charities and organisations to plug into one another to to give a seam-free end-toend support structure to today’s struggling families, children and individuals. I look forward to doing more work with PACT, particularly with regard to promoting and supporting their work both within the constituency and also in Westminster.”