Charities and Social Action - plan 2023 - 2024
Please click here to see our 2023-2024 action plan.
Charities and Social Action
Charities, social action and support for the most vulnerable has always sat at the heart of the Holy Spirit MAC. In March 2020, we began delivering food to families experiencing financial hardship. This was the beginning of a programme of social action within and beyond the local community which has proven to be a defining feature of the Catholic life and mission of the MAC. Our Catholic mission has become a lived experience for the community, enabling all those involved to be able to articulate and understand how the Gospel values and the social teachings of the Church can be translated into action. To give just a few examples:
- Successful fundraising since March 2020 (in excess of £39,000) and donations of several tonnes of food to the MAC Foodbank, enabled us to provide regular meal deliveries to families. It also funded several specific projects including delivery of Easter Sunday dinner to over 500 people and our biggest project to date which was the delivery of over 1500 meals to families at Christmas, along with presents for every child in each family. Over 200 staff gave up the first day of the Christmas holiday to prepare and deliver the packages and many more gave their own time to plan and organise the event.
- In total, since March 2020, we have provided over 25000 meals, vouchers, food deliveries etc. We now deliver to families within the MAC and beyond, with requests coming from as far away as Leicester and Coventry.
- From December 2020, we became conscious of quite a different need locally. We began a programme of ‘community deliveries’ to people living alone and feeling isolated. We requested nominations from parishes, parents and those in the wider community and we received an overwhelming response. We also actively sought to engage with parishes by requesting volunteers to make the deliveries, with a view to supporting the development of relationships between parishioners and those living alone. The impact of this project was very positive as we now have established contact with many people who have had very little human contact for over 12 months. We also provided all those receiving a meal with a mobile telephone number they can call at any time should they need any kind of help or support. Many staff have chosen to continue to visit and telephone the people they delivered to and we ensure ongoing contact for all recipients by repeating the deliveries every couple of months.
- Most recently, we began an appeal for Ukraine which saw over 70,000 items donated which were sorted and boxed by staff ready for delivery. We actively linked with Fr. Michael White in Tamworth who organised transport for the donations and as a result, they made it to the centre of Ukraine within 72 hours. We also had over £10,000 donated during the appeal which we used to finance the purchase of 200 beds which enabled the opening of a refugee centre on the Polish border.
- Our programme of charities and social action is no longer a series of planned events, instead it is part of the core of the Catholic life of the school. Staff, children and the wider community know that our faith is alive and in action through our support for the most vulnerable. Our pursuit of justice, our uncompromising drive to preserve human dignity and to provide an option for the poor is now who we are as a Catholic community. We continue to run our foodbank and to be responsive to the needs of the families in our community and those beyond.
The Big Sleep Out 2023
The Big Sleep Out 2023 has come to an end! A huge well done to our amazing students and our wonderful staff. As always, you showed that if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. Fantastic memories made and a huge amount of money raised to help the homeless.
Lydia McphilimeyThis is so powerful! What a brilliant idea to create awareness and raise these vital funds
Janet MillerGolden young ladies and gentlemen....not to mention the caring Staff who made it all possible.
Clare DavenportReally beautiful…thought- provoking x
Ukraine appeal
Thank you all again for your donations. The beds you provided have been distributed between three refugee centres in Poland.
Thanks to your generous donations of almost £6000, today the Holy Spirit MAC sent 100 brand new beds to a centre for Ukrainian refugees in Poland. With freezing temperatures, beds are essential so we cannot thank you enough for your kindness and generosity - it has been truly overwhelming!
Jean Smith Wonderful work. God bless the people of Ukraine
Ukraine appeal
What an absolutely unbelievable day! We never could have imagined just how generous our fabulous community would be. There are so many people to thank for donating, sorting, packing and wrapping the 69,000 or so items
Janet Miller “The Lord loves a cheerful giver” …especially those who give their time.
Charlotte Lucie This is brilliant, what a community
Holy Spirit MAC Reverse Advent Calendar in support of Doorway.
Together we can make a HUGE difference to young people at risk of homelessness.
Sarah Beacham That’s an amazing achievement!
Claire Wright Amazing effort! Well done to all the wonderful families in the Holy Spirit MAC!
Family Picnic - in memory of Amy Norton
The 'Picnic Project' was in memory of Amy Norton, the daughter of Mrs. Norton at St. Francis, who tragically died recently aged just 21. Instead of flowers or cards, Mrs. Norton and her family asked for donation to the Holy Spirit MAC Just Giving page and as always, you gave very generously. We feel that lots of our families enjoying a picnic and enjoying time together is a fitting tribute to Amy.
548 picnics were hand delivered by Holy Spirit MAC staff to families across the MAC and beyond, ready for the start of the summer holiday! Well done everyone!
This time we want to ensure families in need of support started the holiday well and we thought what better way to mark the start of the summer than to have a family picnic!
Claire O'Donohoe Thankyou so much. Its meant a lot to us today. Life has been hard this past year but its school support that has kept us going.
Jenni Taylor The Holy Spirit Catholic MAC when you get it right, you are lovely.
Janet Miller My heart goes out to the family who have so thoughtfully put others in front of their own needs. Thank you, God Bless and Help you all through your great sadness. Wonderful gesture
Easter meals for the community
Another 1800 meals delivered across Nuneaton, Bedworth, Atherstone and as far away as Coventry and Leicester! Thank you to all our wonderful staff. Thanks too to the volunteers from the SVP!
Wishing all families and staff in the Holy Spirit MAC a very happy and holy Easter!
Leona Mupanda Many thanks for your hard work and dedication!!
Mark Hanlon Thank you Everyone involved in The Holy Spirit Mac Group and thank you for our generous Easter gifts. We are eternally grateful The Hanlon’s
Lesley Allton-Reynolds Absolutely fantastic and so kind, above and beyond as usual
The holy spirit mac needs you
Would you like to get involved with the Holy Spirit MAC social action? If so, we would very much appreciate your help!
We know from the deliveries we made just before Christmas to people who are living alone or who are isolating, that just seeing a friendly face at the door and being able to have a brief socially distanced chat makes a huge difference.
We are very fortunate to have a great team of willing and enthusiastic staff volunteers in the MAC but we also know how great it would be if we could grow our network of volunteers so that we can have an even greater impact.
On Friday 5th February 2020 we are planning to deliver a meal and a message from the children in the Holy Spirit MAC to people nominated to receive a visit. All our volunteers would have to do is come to St. Thomas More and collect a meal and deliver it to the nominated recipient. We'll be asking our volunteers to allow an extra 5 or 10 minutes to chat to the person they are delivering to and to check if they are ok.
So this is the challenge... we are delivering a meal to 100 people and we are hoping to get 100 volunteers so that each volunteer only has one delivery to make.
If you can help and you will be able to collect a meal from St. Thomas More between 11am and 2pm next Friday and deliver it straight to the nominated
Christmas deliveries
A huge thank you to the large number of people who gave up their time today to support with the Holy Spirit MAC meal deliveries! We wanted to remind all those nominated by their parish, friends or neighbours to receive a gift at Christmas that we are still thinking about them! Thank you to all those who supported us to spread a bit of love!
Alana Emma Great job, our neighbour has just told us about the lovely package you delivered to him - thank you so much, it really cheered him up x
Marie Burbury You all do amazing job thank you x
Saturday night takeway
Staff from the Holy Spirit MAC delivered 517 meals to families across the MAC! #saturdaynighttakeaway #lookingaftereachother #pizzafriesandallthetakeawaytrimmings
Janet Miller - It is the Holy Spirit at work!
Reecey RooYou're all amazing, what a wonderful community we are a part of
