East of England Ambulance Service Charity
The Charity is a separate legal entity from EEAST, with the Trust Board being the corporate trustee for the charity (registered charity number 1047987).
The charity exists as a result of donations, support from fundraising activities, legacy giving, and opportunities from grant programmes. The work of the charity enhances that of the Trust and is intended to be beyond that ordinarily afforded by the NHS.
Raising funds to support the staff, volunteers, and local communities of the East of England Ambulance Service, strengthening the provision of outstanding care to patients.
Together, we make a difference:
Supporting our staff - through health and wellbeing initiatives to improve working lives, enriching workplace environments, providing colleague training, development, and access to wellbeing related services. This year, the charity played a vital role in funding drinks and snacks on our welfare wagons, which support staff during periods of high demand.
Supporting our volunteers - our lifesaving community first responders provide an early emergency response often in advance of ambulance arrival. These volunteers operate in their local communities and are supported by the Charity. Donations provided uniform and equipment, lifesaving defibrillators, as well as educational resources and various training aids.
Supporting our local communities - providing community education programmes, such as EEAST Heart which educates the public in essential basic life support skills. This vital skill is taught by qualified staff and volunteers from EEAST and fully funded via donations from our supporters.
If you would like to find out more about the work of our charity, are interested in fundraising for us or are considering supporting the charity with a donation, please get in touch:
- Contact charity@eastamb.nhs.uk
- Tel. 01603 422731
- Visit the EEAST Charity webpage
£8k was allocated to support two additional trauma risk management (TRiM) courses, funded from an NHS Charities Together grant, helped increase the number of trained TRiM practitioners able to assist colleagues following possible exposure to trauma. This funding supported 14 new foundation practitioners for the Essex region and 18 for Norfolk.
The charity continued to support the creation of numerous wellbeing gardens across the Trust, and local stations created enriching outdoor spaces with planters, benches, gazebos and foliage, as well as refreshing tired break out rooms with plants, pictures and recreational items all to provide colleagues and volunteers with a more pleasant area for relaxation.
The Charity supported volunteer community first responders (CFR), providing uniform, additional CFR equipment and community automated emergency defibrillators (AEDs). The CFR groups actively fundraise to support their local communities, using donations to positively influence and raise awareness of the work they do on behalf of EEAST.
The Charity also provided a a CFR PLUS app to CFRs. The app provides reference and reassurance for responders in their role along with essential resources to aid understanding.
£19k funded replacement pads for iPad AEDs, which were originally placed in the community as part of a Trust initiative to improve response times to cardiac arrests in the hard-to-reach areas of our region. This funding ensured the devices remained fit for purpose and can continue to be used to support patients.
The projects supported by grants awarded from NHS Charities Together in 2021/22, progressed well during the year, both projects are focused around patient care and are delivering significant impact.
- Our unmet needs pilot had two full time unmet needs navigators helping to signpost patients who have additional non-clinical needs to access the support services they require. In the first six months of the scheme, 500 patients and their families were signposted to community support.
This new referral pathway was embraced at EEAST by ambulance crews, community first responders and clinicians in control rooms as they often see patients who require additional help beyond what the ambulance service and NHS can immediately offer. - The second project provided falls equipment for eighteen targeted CFR groups and provided initial falls training and on-going annual re-certification training to volunteers. Six new CFR roving cars were also funded, all fully equipped with falls and CFR response kit and fully trained falls volunteers.
- The Charity successfully secured a £30k grant to support its development a programme of work supported by this grant is planned for 2023/24.
The Charity relies solely on donations and fundraising activities from our supporters, generosity from legacies and income opportunities from grant programmes to enable workstreams to happen.
Throughout the year, we have been in awe of our incredible fundraisers who go above and beyond in support of local stations and CFR groups. Last year was no exception. Our fundraising campaign, Outrun an Ambulance, as part of a wider collaboration of six ambulance services across the nation, resulted in us being proud winners of two national awards recognising the success of the collaboration and campaign. Our campaign raised just under £5k including gift aid, to support health and wellbeing initiatives across the region.
During the year, there have been some amazing fundraising efforts, including our dedicated community first responder groups, these volunteers not only provide life-saving treatment in their spare time, but they go above and beyond to raise vital funds to support their local communities holding local charity and awareness events to fund additional CFR kit.
Additionally, in year, the charity received several legacies, a unique and meaningful gift left by individuals in their will.
