In the last fortnight I visited Blackthorn Good Neighbours, a registered charity (charity no: 1107071) community organisation which does a huge amount of good work in and around the local community.
As well as running a local nursery which was rated as ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted in February 2017, they run a number of campaigns such as ‘End Hunger campaign’ which helps disadvantaged children in Northampton’s Eastern district.
I have visited the charity community centre twice previously (in 2011 and again in 2014) and I was invited to visit again in the last two weeks by the Trustees as they had made a lot of good progress in recent years – including opening the nursery in 2015. When I visited the nursery was closed for the day due to heavy snow but I was very impressed to meet the manager and a trustee and hear about the hard-working and dedicated staff.
Blackthorn Good Neighbours do extremely important work to help those in society who need support and they exemplify just what a positive contribution charities can make. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) last year stated that the gap between the richest and poorest households in the UK has narrowed since the recession in 2007-08 and the gap between rich and poor is now at its smallest for many years- but there is still a great deal to do.