Following a visit to Little Sunflowers Childcare in Plas Madoc, Wrexham in November, our CEO, Rebecca Neumark, and Project Funding Manager, Philippa Davies, were really inspired by the incredible work that the Little Sunflowers team, run by AVOW, the County Voluntary Council for Wrexham, were doing to support children and families in Plas Madoc, to help with early development years and providing support and guidance for parents who need it.
Little Sunflowers Childcare, based in Plas Madoc was established in October 2010. They are accommodated in a newly built school (Rhosymedre CP School) and a custom-built nursery (Integrated Children’s Centre or ICC). Both locations have a lovely outside space for the children to develop their skills and good quality outdoor equipment to facilitate this.
Little Sunflowers aims to provide a friendly and supportive service where parents and carers can leave their child knowing that they will learn, develop and socialise in a fun and caring environment. They also offer parents and carers who want to become directly involved in the activities, the opportunities to do so. Their overall aim is to offer the children the opportunity to explore and discover, and encourage parents and carers the opportunity to understand and support this wonderful childcare facility in providing for the holistic needs of their children.
Following this visit, at the recent Board meeting in January, Trustees at The Neumark Foundation were delighted to approve a grant award of £15,000.
“We are delighted the Neumark Foundation has generously agreed to provide continuing funding for Little Sunflowers much needed wrap around support projects.”
Katherine Prince – Development Manager from AVOW (Little Sunflowers Childcare parent organisation)
Little Sunflowers Breakfast Club
Little Sunflowers breakfast club was established in January 2023 as staff became increasingly aware that children would arrive for their morning session without having breakfast. This was making them lethargic, emotional and angry, as we know ensuring our children are well fed will only assist them with playing, interacting and thus improving their overall development.
Family Support
Family Support is a drop-in group that runs Monday to Wednesday, supporting families informally through arts and crafts, play and other activities chosen by them. On a Thursday families can have this session on their own if requested. These sessions are vital in ensuring that we support groups/individual parents with education, employment, wellbeing and support networks, whilst addressing their isolation and social disadvantage of having a young child. The parents will directly benefit from this support. However, each and every child will indirectly benefit not just from their parent having better wellbeing as a result of the above being addressed, but also with staff directly supporting parents with questions around toileting, minor health concerns, routines, feeding, Women in Need Getting Support (WINGS) and foodbank referrals etc.
Sharon Evans, Litlle Sunflowers Manager said, “We are incredibly grateful to The Neumark Foundation for their support. This is a vital facility for the families in Plas Madoc, and the grant we have been awarded by the foundation will help us really strengthen our support.”
“We are aware of the challenges faced by families in Plas Madoc, and we are only too pleased to support such an inspiring, passionate and hardworking team to enable them to support and enable so many families in the area. Our visit to Little Sunflowers really highlighted for us, the importance of small, but crucial initiatives such as this, in developing communities to overcome existing and future challenges through education and learning. Well done to the team and we look forward to working with you.”
Rebecca Neumark – CEO of The Neumark Foundation
If you would like to find out more about Little Sunflowers Childcare, you can take a look at their website https://www.avow.org/little-sunflowers-childcare/