Small Charity Week is an annual celebration of the small charities making a huge difference to communities across the U.K. The campaign aims to amplify the messages and impact of small charities, support them in their invaluable work, and connect small charities with those who can strengthen them. When small charities are stronger, the communities they support are stronger too.
In the spirit of Small Charity Week, we are delighted to highlight the brilliant work of small charities in Bath & North East Somerset, by featuring several individual charity spotlights across the week of June 24th - 28th. By sharing their stories, we hope to support further recognition for the vital role small charities play, empower our members to have their voices heard, and celebrate their magnificent efforts.
Rounding off Small Charity Week, we have a bumper spotlight to share with you, featuring the wonderful We Get It! We Get It became a registered charity in 2020, and have been instrumental in supporting many local people affected by cancer, providing much needed emotional and wellbeing support, ever since. Dee from We Get It kindly shared a bit more about the charity. Read on to learn all about the amazing work they do and the impact they've had.
Can you tell us a little bit about your small charity?
We’re a charity on a mission to make sure people living with cancer and beyond, don’t do it alone. We Get It was formed as a community group in 2018 and became a registered charity in May 2020. Our founder, Laura Phillips, was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in her early thirties and following treatment she was desperate for emotional and wellbeing support, to talk about her experiences with people who understood what she’d gone through. Realising that there was nothing like that in Bath, she founded We Get It to ensure that no one has to face cancer alone. The charity is led by people with lived experience.
Are you working on any big projects at the moment?
Watch out for our new 'We are more than just cancer' videos. Featuring our community members, we will be starting to share these shortly to illustrate how they are not defined by cancer. We expect them to be hugely powerful in inspiring others to make use of our support and live well with and beyond cancer.
We're also working in collaboration with Children's Hospice South West and Dorothy House again on the second 'Strength in Style Fashion Show', to be held at the Bath Assembly Rooms on the evening of Thursday 26th September. Be sure to save the date!
Have there been any accomplishments your charity is particularly proud of that you'd like to share?
We won the Charity of the Year Award at the Bath Life Awards this year. We were delighted to win this competitive, coveted award in just three and a half years of being a registered charity. The best thing about the win is that it will help more people hear about We Get Its support and be inspired by how our cancer community continue to live well with and beyond cancer.
We are also the current holders of the BaNES Community Awards Charity of the Year Award.
Other than volunteering and donating, what other ways can local people help support your charity's great work?
Everybody is affected by cancer. We have all heard the '1 in 2' statistic. You can support us by SHARING what we do, by telling someone with cancer or caring for someone with cancer about We Get It and the support we provide. You can also CONNECT us with anyone willing to help us achieve our goal to help more local people affected by cancer.
Can you tell us a little bit about your charity's impact?
All the key cancer-facing healthcare professionals in the area cite our services as filling a gap in local support for people with cancer, who struggle to find peer support following their medical treatment, and continue to refer them to us for this reason.
An increasing amount of referrals to our support services also come from our growing community, social media followers and as a result of the growth in our local profile through our award wins and so on.
The combination of the above has resulted in our cancer community growing quickly. This includes attendance at our weekly Get Togethers which continues to climb. In 2023, we helped 169 more people coming to these events alone, who had just been diagnosed, or were living with or beyond cancer, compared to 2022 (535 vs. 366 attendees).
What are the benefits of being a small charity?
We find we are more 'agile' than some of the bigger, longer-established charities. We can respond to developments, explore opportunities and take action more quickly.
As a small charity, what is your favourite thing about being a 3SG member?
Apart from getting to know and working with the fabulous 3SG team, the chance to meet and learn from other 3SG members is hugely valuable. The 3SG organisation provides us with so many other benefits too, including being a source of information for our charity on a multitude of topics, and enabling us to promote our news, events and vacancies.
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Check out the We Get It website to learn more about what they do!
Find out more about Small Charity Week here: https://www.smallcharityweek.com/
Small Charity Week defines a small charity as a voluntary organisation with a social or charitable purpose with an annual income of less than £1 million. This includes registered charities, community groups, community interest companies (CICs) and other structures.
If your small charity would like to become a 3SG member, you can find more information here. Alternatively, please get in touch and we'd be happy to have a chat - contact@3sg.org.uk
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