February Update to the Centre Charity

The Echoes Foundation is a new charity in Hull and with the support of parents, local businesses and grants we aim to open a multi-purpose dedicated therapy centre for all children in Hull, East Yorkshire and North East Lincolnshire with special and additional needs. If you would like to visit Echoes website click Echoes Foundation.

We want to work with other agencies to provide the following:

• Sensory Room
• Hydrotherapy Pool
• Parent Resource room
• Tac pac (communication through touch and music- new to the area)
• Music Therapy
• Sensory Integration
• Daily living and feeding skills
• Sensory Garden
• Alternative Therapy
• Soft play area
• Parental support and benefits advice
• Swimming Classes for children with special needs

The Echoes Foundation 2011

The Echoes Foundation was set up because I saw and experienced the need for additional services, when I found out that Finley was disabled I firstly wanted to speak to other parents who knew what I was going through and secondly I wanted to know what was wrong with my son.  I also wanted Finley to have hydrotherapy and music therapy amongst other therapies and found it really hard to access these services, also I was unaware of what was really out there for my son and my family, for example benefits etc.  So I made the decision to start fund-raising and planned that one day I would eventually raise enough money to open a dedicated therapy centre for all children in Hull and the surrounding area with special or additional needs, I never imagined that by the 14th August 2009 we would be planning our open day and be in a position to offer families a sensory room, alternative therapy room, parental support room and parent resource room and be supporting 84 families! This number is now over 150 and continues to grow. So how did it all happen?

Up until beginning this incredible journey I had no experience what so ever of businesses and charities it was a completely different ball game to my usual hospital theatre job as an Operating Dept Practitioner. I first came up with the vision of what I wanted and planned for a time frame of about 10 years… I then came up with the name Echoes because I really liked the sound of the name it was also short and I would be able to put a word to each letter and that’s how I came up with Every Child Has Opportunities, Equality and Support. Echoes is a voice and means, an echo (plural echoes) is a reflection of sound, arriving at the listener some time after the direct sound. ... So I came up with our mission statement, Special needs. We have a voice too. The logo came next and I sat down with a friend and made some doodles on the computer I told him it had to show love, be bright and show our name and that’s how we came up with the logo, to me it looks like a parent/carer and a child facing each other. I knew these where the first things I would need to do as I wanted to print stationary and business cards etc and it would look much more professional. Soon after this and when the organization began to grow I copy wrote and trademarked the name and logo to me personally so I actually own it and do not have the worry of it ever being used by anyone else.

Ian Holmes of Pickering and Newington Development Association soon heard of what I was trying to do, he manages the Gypsyville library and the offices above and asked to have a meeting with me. At this point Alan Johnson Mp had come on board as our patron and the directors consisted of me, my mum, Phillip Drew (General Surgeon), this would have been May 2008. I went along with my business plan which was basically like this and sat around a table discussing my aspirations for the future, what my plans where and how I thought these could be achieved. After the meeting Ian showed me the empty rooms above the library and basically offered me a room, I was really shocked to be being offered a room I couldn’t believe someone was taking me seriously! So I began trying to raise the funds for the rent£2000 per year, and furniture etc for the room. I rang around some contacts and managed to get £1000 from Transwaste, furniture donated from Shakers in Hessle, insurance donated from kennets insurance, computer donated from Gemini Trailers Ltd flooring donated from Floorways in Hessle and blinds donated from All Blinds, this took me a few days and I moved into the Parental Support room/office on the 1st June 2008.

As soon as I got my first room I began planning how to raise money and also started to investigate where I could get help and I came across Business Link. Business link helped me source funding for my business plan and quality control procedures and put the work out to tender. I chose Genesis Training and spent a lot of time with Anne Hames working on my business plan and Quality Procedures (Policies and Procedures) I also got funding for a mentor who also helped me plan the future and gave me a lot of invaluable advice as regards funding and grants.

I also began advertising (for free of course) using the local media, I did radio interviews, press releases and even did some television interviews for Calendar and Look North, and did stands at various events and really began to build the brand, all the time I still did my other job working as an Operating Department Practitioner at the time in Leeds, I also worked for a agency on the labour ward at Hull Royal Infirmary which help fund The Echoes Foundation I donated this directly to The Echoes Foundation bank account which was about £100 per week.

I was advised to start off by being a Social Enterprise and Charitable Company by Limited Guarantee. I also appointed new directors which all had different skills that I knew would benefit Echoes and help us to grow. I appointed a social worker/school governor, finance advisor, solicitor, fireman and another parent of a disabled child. Our patrons are Alan Johnson MP and celebrity chef Nigel Brown.

I promoted my parental support service by writing to children’s centres, doctor’s surgeries, the Pct, hospital wards, nurseries and special/main stream schools. I also did interviews with magazines, everything I possibly could to get the brand out there. I was told very early on to treat it as a business so that’s what I did. We launched our website very early on and I even had this donated through the brother in law of one of The Echoes foundation trustees www.echoesfoundation.co.uk

Through the many fundraising events I did, donations, and a few grants plus a large one off injection of cash from the Pct £20,000 I was able to open more rooms and I eventually had nearly the whole of the top floor and we opened on the 27th August 2009 at that point having 84 families!



In December 2008 I had the idea of trying to raise some regular revenue so that I didn’t have to rely on constant fundraising and donations (which is hard work). I decided to open a charity shop; again I didn’t have a clue where to start, as I had never been involved in retail or leasing property… I saw a potential opportunity on Hessle Road not far from the centre and went to have a look, it was a good size and I decided to negotiate a reasonable rent. The shop opened its doors 6 weeks later and the profit after the first year was £14000. The shop is run completely separate from The Echoes Foundation and is registered under the company Echoes Retail Outlets which every year donates all of its profit to the charity and this is also gift aided so we make another 17.5p in the pound too.

After we had raised £5000 which happened very quickly I began to think about registering as a charity, this was a very long drawn out process and eventually I sought some professional help and asked Rollits solicitors to do it all for me, which they did and we became a registered charity in January 2010.

In 2009 I was nominated for Social Entrepreneur for Yorkshire and the Humber 2009 which I won and couldn’t quite believe it in fact I was lost for words which was a first for me when it comes to talking about The Echoes Foundation.

We have recently opened our second shop on Newland Avenue and have just set up a P.A.T. Testing Business too all with the aim of becoming fully self sustainable. We have spent some of the profit from the Hessle Road shop £7000 setting up the Newland Ave one and we have now been open 2 weeks and have turned over more than £2000, We have a steady flow of P.A.T. testing jobs coming in and are about to sign a contract with the Mandeville Special school in London and we hope to get some more work in the London area too, as we do not have hardly any running costs for the P.A.T. testing business so long as we clear the wages and diesel for the day the rest is profit which at the end of the year along with the profit from the shops will go directly to The Echoes Foundation. We charged the school £400 per day and this is still way below the quotes they where being given in London and that gave us a profit of £250. If the shops keep doing well and also the P.A.T. testing business we hope to have a profit of £25,000 at the end of this financial year. The following year we hope this will be in the region of £33,000 as we will not have the setting up costs of Newland although we may be looking to open another shop in around 12 to 18 months.

The Echoes Foundation employs three staff, centre Co Coordinator, Finance/payroll officer and admin assistant (NVQ 2 student). Echoes Retail Outlets employs 2 members of staff to run both charity shops and one person to do the Pat Testing. I still work as an Operating Dept Practitioner, now at a local hospital rather than in Leeds. I felt I needed to be closer to home especially with Finley and his needs and also with the needs and my commitment to The Echoes Foundation. I work two days a week at the hospital plus one Saturday a month for the extra pennies, and three days a week at the centre. I also help out at the shop on a Saturday sometimes when they are short on volunteers or to cover sickness which I enjoy as I am very much a people person. I want to also keep an eye on how the shops are doing and also feel it is important for them to know I am supportive of them.

We also sell merchandise, t shirts, pens, hoodies, key rings etc as another funding stream. We are about to launch our Celebrity Chef Calendar, which was the idea of one of our families. Alison Thompson volunteers for us every week and had the idea of getting some of the celebrity chefs to donate recipes, the calendar is being launch on the 23rd September. Twelve famous celebrity chefs have got behind the 2011 Charity Calendar, contributing a different recipe for each month. In order of appearance Gordon Ramsey, Gary Rhodes, Raymond Blanc, Merrilees Parker, Gino D’Acampo, Silvana Franco, the Hairy Bikers, Jean-Christophe Novelli, James Martin, Ainsley Harriott, James McKenzie and Nigel Brown. The story hit the headlines in various local newspapers and radio stations.

Since beginning to fund raise for The Echoes Foundation we have raised in access of £200,000 which is fantastic although not enough to have our own building but this will happen one day and I can’t wait….

Thank you

Claire Stockton


Please note I have not updated my story for quite a few months as I have been so busy with my son and charity events etc. We have just launched our 2011 calendar and have many Olympic hopefuls that have contributed their picture and words of inspiration these are currently on sale at £5 so hopefully we should make a profit and again the calendar has been sponsored.

We are currently doing amazing work and have finally found a caravan park that will take our fully disabled accessible carvan, Patrington Haven have donated a pitch to us and we hope to have the caravan insitu by the end of November so families can start to book it next year. We are also running Ryme and Sign classes through the area and we also continue to do all the amazing work we do with families at the centre. Without the support of businesses like your selves we just would not be able to continue to grow and develop our services and the hippocamp loan service will be a fantastic project!