TAKE A MOMENT - http://storelocator.asda.com/store/brighton-hollingbury - this link takes you to the page for Asda Hollingbury and if you scroll part way down there’s a box headed ‘You choose’ with a ‘nominate’ button where people can nominate local charities for support - please take a few moments to complete this on our behalf.

Demand for our services continues to rise, yet we continue to face a significant funding shortfall in meeting core costs. Our core work must be resourced sufficiently to continue to provide high quality childcare with trained, experienced staff. Some of our core funding comes from fees we charge to parents but this will never fully meet the full cost because our families could simply not afford it – a mainstream after school club will run on the basis of one member of staff to 8 children, at our clubs many of the children require one to one staffing, meaning that our costs per child are significantly higher.

In our current financial year, September 2011 to August 2012, we need to raise in excess of £70,000. We will do this in a variety of ways – funding bids to grant giving bodies both large and small, direct fundraising (eg sponsored runners in the 2012 Brighton Marathon), developing our training and consultancy services to other play providers and local authorities, and encouraging our supporters to raise funds or donate to us through our website and Facebook page. Any amount, however small, really does help - £10 can buy enough paint for one after school club for half a term, £150 would pay for an outing from one of the playschemes, £900 would pay for basic training for an inexperienced playworker or volunteer to bring them up to the level required to work in an extratime club, £6000 would pay for an experienced playworker for five days a week for 3 school terms in one of our after school clubs.

Email received from parent of a young person moving on from extratime’s services -

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you again for all the work you do with ‘Extratime’ it is really appreciated. I know our daughter has really enjoyed the time she spent at ‘Hillside’ and the YMCA. During the holidays to be able to ‘go to school’ is amazing for children like her because it’s a safe place. Then leaving school and being part of a club at the YMCA was just right for her. She is 19 now and it’s time to move on, but we cannot thank you enough for running these clubs it means so much to the young folk and believe me the parents too. If the kids are happy it means the world to us. Thank you so much and keep up the good work.

We will use this page to bring you some ideas on how you may be able to raise funds for extratime.. please watch this space but in the meantime any support you are able to offer to extratime’s work would be very much appreciated - please contact us or look us up on Facebook.