It’s Christmas Eve. Both the Manchester and London teams have packed the presents and designed the rooms and prepped the meals. Each dinner sits  65 care leavers.   Two dedicated teams of eight individuals have organized each dinner over three months. They began with nothing but their imagination and professional skills..

We have built this from the ground up.  It is  the community holding the care leaver in mind.    We are equally served in serving. This fact is important – crucial even. We are giving to ourselves when we give to others.

The Christmas Dinner is not a charity. It is not a lobbying group. We work to a creative rigorous approach to  detailed care and attention in each step of our goal.   We are not blindly optimistic. Our eyes are wide open.  We refuse to accept that we can not be flexible and yet rigorous. Any institution can take advantage of our open offer to accept young care leavers into the Christmas Dinner.

The teams I’ve brought together are social workers and artists. They are writers and theatre producers, they are self employed and unemployed. They are  government officials and professional actors.  They work for major national children’s charities and local schools. They work  in a personal capacity with  one goal – To create a Christmas Dinner for Care Leavers on Christmas Day.

Photo from top. 1. Lemn in Hackney  2. Manchester wrapping 3. Manchester team 4. London Decorations