The Great Notts Christmas Toy Appeal is a registered charity and as such, has a constitution which lays down our objectives.

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The relief of financial hardship among families living or working in the City of Nottingham or the County of Nottinghamshire by providing toys, toiletries and other items to children, young people and their carers at Christmas time, which they could not otherwise afford through lack of means.

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​What this means in reality is that we collect toys or funds to provide toys for children anywhere in Nottinghamshire. We are particularly committed to helping those children who have slipped through the net and might not be receiving help from other agencies. Our children may not be getting anything for Christmas and they may not have anything  at all in the way of toys. We find them through our partnership with NHS children's workers who may often visit the houses of clients for other reasons.

An example of this comes from an NHS worker who does home visits to assess children for speech and language development. She told us that she has to take a bag of toys with her because part of the assessment is watching the children at play and some have no toys of their own to play with. We are trying to reach out to those children and make their lives a little happier.

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These are the invisible children. The ones that we will pass in the street without thinking but who may be going home to nothing.

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We also reach out to those children in hostels, refuges and temporary accommodation. Many arrive in those places fleeing domestic violence or other troubled situations, with just the clothes they are wearing and their lives are reset at that point. We can show them, on that first Christmas morning of their new life, that someone cares about them. We can provide them with something that is theirs, with which to start their new life. We also aim to provide toiletries, gift sets or just the basics, to the mums that are with them, and through our collection of Christmas decorations, we have ensured there was a small Christmas tree in each room of each refuge we help.

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You can help us at any time of year with a gift of toys and funds. Just contact us via the button below and we can arrange to collect your gift or find you a local delivery point. We cam also accept money through bank transfer. One hundred per cent of all financial gifts are used to buy presents as the volunteers meet all the charities costs.