The Textile Industry Children’s Trust is urging more retailers to get involved and raise awareness of its aims at a time when it is reinventing itself. Liz Morrell reports

Retailers in the textile and fashion industry know only too well the benefits of nurturing young talent to create the designers and retailers of tomorrow.

But the Textile Industry Children’s Trust (TICT) is not focused on developing new talent. Instead, it supports the welfare and educational needs of children of those who have worked in the industry who are facing hardship.

The charity, established in 1853, was first called the Purley Children’s Trust and counts Charles Dickens among its previous supporters. In 1999, it changed its name and now helps close to 250 children a year, with average grants of about£300,000 each.

Today, the charity, which is funded both by its own investment capital base and from retailer donations, is in the middle of a relaunch. It has picked new trustees from the retail industry, who are focused on increasing awareness. Adams chief executive David Carter-Johnson, chairman of the development committee for TICT, has helped drive the changes. “We have set ourselves three objectives – to get new trustees on board, raise the profile and awareness among staff and move onto fundraising,” he says.

So what does TICT do? “85 per cent of what we do goes on providing education,” says the charity’s director and secretary Graham Sullivan. This educational support covers four main areas. “We will provide [funding for] special education needs where the state system is not very well resourced to deal with that, or will help a child go to boarding school when the home environment is difficult, maybe because of violence or illness,” says Sullivan.

“We will help especially talented children – whether in the performing arts or particularly intellectually gifted, or provide for those who are already in independent education and where something happens – such as redundancy of a parent – then we will help the child complete that phase of their education.”

The rest goes on hardship or poverty grants to, for example, provide uniforms or fund transport to school or even provide a desk for a child’s room.

For children whose lives may have been shattered by tragedy, marred by violence or simply disrupted by redundancy, the charity provides a lifeline. All TICT asks is that the parent or guardian of the child has worked within the textile industry – be that on the manufacturing or retail side – for five years. That time could have been clocked up over many years, on a part-time basis, for instance, and the parent or guardian can even have changed careers since.

Support structure
While the case studies (see box right) demonstrate the benefit the charity brings to children and the relief of their parents and guardians, TICT believes there are many more retail employees within the fashion and textile industry that it could support.

Hobbs chief executive Nick Samuel, a trustee of the charity, believes developments in the way retailers operate mean they have a greater responsibility than ever to help safeguard their employees. “More and more textile manufacturing is taking place overseas and that in itself is creating a need,” he says. “Some of the old retail names have also gone, so people who would have had long careers in the industry may now find themselves unemployed and facing hardship.”

TICT can also help the employees of retailers that are forced to make redundancies because of store closures. “We do sometimes reach a point where a store closes and redundancy takes place. We have our own responsibility to staff, but it may also be possible for staff to have access to TICT funds,” says Samuel.

Sullivan says: “For retailers it’s an insurance policy for their own employees. We stand ready to help. We are there to help their employees when they get into trouble and are a safety net for the children.”

Topman managing director David Shepherd – another trustee – encourages retailers to tell their staff about TICT. “We want retailers to help us with exposure by raising awareness through staff magazines and posters in staff rooms,” he says.

This is happening at Hobbs. “We want to make sure every store is aware of TICT,” says Samuel.

The charity also wants to raise its profile among retailers’ finance departments. “There is a two-pronged approach,” says Samuel. “We are trying to make more eligible families aware of TICT but, at the same time, being aware that if we are really successful we will need more funding,” he says.

Marks & Spencer director of communications and charity trustee Flic Howard-Allen also urges retailers to get involved. She persuaded M&S chief executive Stuart Rose to donate£20,000 to kick-start the charity’s latest PR campaign. “It’s about a major retail organisation doing our part to support a major charity in the industry,” she says.

Carter-Johnson compares TICT’s rebirth to that of Retail Trust. He says retailers should be excited about supporting the cause. “The big attraction is that we start from the beginning – what is more important than a child’s education?”

But to increase the assistance it gives, the charity needs retailers to educate their own staff to understand exactly how TICT can help.

Home from home
Tragic circumstances including the suicide of their mother and their father’s psychological problems meant Charlie and Sam faced going into care. Their maternal grandmother and her partner Brian took them in four years ago. But, nearing their 70s, the couple did not feel able to cope with the educational and emotional needs of two boys who were nearing their teens.

Instead, they found a local independent school that would take them on a weekly boarding basis and that offered to help fund their education. The school directed the couple to a number of trusts, but it was the boys’ paternal grandfather who, having previously owned his own textile manufacturing business, suggested contacting TICT.

Brian says their assistance has been instrumental in the boys’ recovery from their experiences and the safeguarding of their education and future. “They have made invaluable contributions ever since. We would not be in this position without their help – it has been an act of heroism,” he says.

Writing wrongs
A mix-up with school books at a parents’ evening led to Julie Coxon realising there was a problem with her nine-year-old son Richard. The other child’s book she was given was full of text, yet her son’s only had four lines in them. Coupled with a change in his behaviour, she knew something was wrong with the boy who at home read encyclopaedias in bed. Tests revealed her son had a reading disorder called dysgraphia.

The only option was private school, but after a year her savings were depleted and she needed financial assistance. Through her work at the time teaching textiles and furniture restoration, she was pointed in the direction of TICT, which helped with a£700 a year grant to keep Richard at the school.

The change has been dramatic. He has gained two As and two Bs at A level and next year will go to university to study medicine. “It was like releasing a cork out of a bottle,” says Coxon. “He was brimming over with knowledge and ideas.”

She admits she wouldn’t have the same son without TICT. “I couldn’t have done it without its help – not only the financial assistance, but it was also nice knowing I had someone on my side. If I’d put him back into state school Richard would have just disappeared again.”

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