Wear ‘Jeans 4 Jigsaw’ this February

Join Surrey businesses supporting local bereavement charity Jigsaw (South East) by wearing jeans to work for a day

Dress down for a day in February in exchange for a small contribution towards the work of East Grinstead-based charity Jigsaw (South East).

In its first year, the ‘Jeans 4 Jigsaw’ campaign aims to raise essential funds for bereaved families and young people across Surrey and surrounding towns. The idea is simple: wear jeans, pay a few pounds and support a worthwhile local cause.

Who we are?

Based at East Court Mansion in East Grinstead since 2006, the charity offers grief support to children and young people who have experienced the death of a significant family member through illness, accident, suicide or murder. In partnership with Macmillan, it also provides support to children and young people who have a family member with a serious condition.

The loss of a close family member can be hard for children to understand and difficult for adults to talk to them about. Jigsaw (South East) provides:

• Advice and support from trained professionals by telephone or email
• A meeting in the family home or at school plus liaison with school and other professionals involved
• A six-week family support group, which offers activities to help process the loss, learn some coping strategies and meeting others in a similar situation
• Ongoing telephone support and follow up sessions, as well as invitations to numerous annual events

Five reasons why you should support ‘Jeans 4 Jigsaw’

1.

It is fun and very easy to organise – staff just need to wear a pair of jeans (or just dress down) for a day and pay a few pounds

2.

It can help your organisation meet its corporate social responsibility targets and raise its profile in the local area

3.

£1,000 will pay for one family to go through the six-week grief support groups, which is supported by trained professionals and volunteers; £50 will cover the cost of the ‘balloon release’ at the Grief Groups’ family weekend; £30 will cover the cost of the memory boxes for each child on the weekly groups

4.

Allowing staff to dress down for a day can help the boss look good – and help bring a team, floor or whole organisation together

5.

In the past year (March 2011-April 2012), Jigsaw (South East) supported 199 local young people. Since April this year, we have already had more than 270 enquiries and are currently working with almost 50 new families who have suffered or are facing the loss of a loved one.

Jeans 4 Jigsaw invites everyone across the UK, from nurseries to schools to companies, to wear their jeans for the day in return for a donation. Funds raised provide vital support to dozens of families across Surrey and surrounds.

What people say about us

“Jigsaw was a life-saver for us – it equipped us with the tools we needed to cope with our grief and taught us how to communicate again.”

Mother with a seven-year-old son

“Jigsaw helped me a great deal after my sister died. I am very grateful for all their help, support and time. My life would have been very different without them”

Lewis, 12 years old

To find out more about how to organise your Jeans 4 Jigsaw day, email janeytreharne@jigsawsoutheast.org.uk or call 01342 313895.