Joy 21 Trustee’s Annual Report
- April 2022 April 23
Joy 21’s mission is share the message of joy and positivity to all new and expectant parents of a child that just happens to have Down syndrome. Joy 21 has partnered with the American charity PALS to bring their wonderful ‘Congratulations Project’ books here to Northern Ireland, to be given to new and expectant parents of babies that have Down Syndrome.
Our proceeds go towards producing our New Parents Congratulations Packs which contain the Congratulations book, along with the details of local support groups for that area, and some gifts for the new parents/arrival. We have continued to develop and build our packs which now contain the Congratulations Project book, a t-shirt for the new baby which states, ‘Born to take on the World’, our 3 star congratulations bracelets for the parents/guardians and a letter from us.
We have continued to develop positive relationships with key staff within maternity and neonatal units across NI, ensuring that staff are able to reach out when their stocks of our New Parent Congratulations Packs are running low. This year we donated a further 8 packs to the Royal Maternity and Neonatal Unit. We also provided packs to community-based clinics such as the Child Development Centre, to ensure that if any parents missed out on packs in hospital, they would still receive one. Packs were also donated to a Belfast therapy group specifically designed for Parents of young babies who have been diagnosed with Down’s Syndrome.
We have also continued to directly post our New Parent packs to any parents who have got in touch with us either via referral from a health professional, email or through our socials.
We have received wonderful feedback regarding our packs, from a variety of sources, including midwifes, nurses, paediatricians, therapists, Mums, Dads and families. We are delighted to be able to provide this message of joy and positivity to new parents at a time of uncertainty.