A new fundraising initiative is launching in Crewe, giving residents the chance to win big cash prizes, with the aim of supporting local charities.

The Crewe Prize Draw has been created to raise vital funds for organisations making a real difference in the community.

Priced at £2 per ticket, this fortnightly Thursday evening draw gives away a guaranteed MINIMUM PRIZE OF £1,500 to one lucky winner, all while boosting local charities, including Wishing Well.

CEO of Wishing Well, Charles Maines, has exclusively spoken to Crewe Nub News about the health and wellbeing charity, focusing on reducing social isolation and tackling health inequalities locally:

Take us back to the beginning — why was Wishing Well created?

Wishing Well was founded as a local community project. If you look at our name on Companies House, we're Wishing Well Project, that's the legal name of the organisation.

It was founded in 2002 by a lady called Hilary Hamilton to tackle inequality, specifically within the West End of Crewe back then.

There are lots of positives about Crewe but there are certainly several challenges as well. Even back then in 2002, it was identified that Crewe West was a particularly deprived ward within the Cheshire East area.

Hilary set out to deliver a range of health and well-being projects to tackle inequality. They were things like parents and tots sessions, youth clubs, and luncheon clubs for older people. Some of those things that Hillary came up with back then still exist today.

​As we move into our 25th year next year, the organisation has grown significantly to serve a larger community, Crewe as a whole, and then beyond into South Cheshire and the rural areas in between.

Our mission hasn't really changed. It is to always look to improve public health and well-being, to support those who are most disadvantaged.

Where we're particularly proud is because we're nearly 25 years old, we've come through several societal challenges and changes, like credit crashes, global pandemics, and the cost-of-living crisis. We've always stood tall for our local community.

What problem in the community were you seeing that made you think "something needs to change"?

I think the inequality and the injustice in some respects. Crewe is an industrial town, a boom-and-bust town. When the town is thriving and there are jobs and opportunity, then inherently the community is in a much stronger place.

Unfortunately, Crewe's had its fair share of knocks and setbacks. When industry is down, or when things like HS2 fell through, it has a catastrophic effect on the town.

It affects the family dynamic, it affects the affluence of the area, and then what we do is try to support people as best as we possibly can because those gaps in inequality unfortunately continue to widen.

If you're living and working within the central Crewe areas, you're probably less likely to have a healthier lifestyle than perhaps if you were in one of the more affluent areas of the county.

​What services or support do you provide that people might not realise?

​A lot of people are aware of the meal service; that's probably our flagship community project. They perhaps aren't aware of our work with early years, our work with the parents and tots, and the stay-and-play sessions.

We have a Children and Families Hub in Crewe town centre [Chester Bridge]. I don't think many people know about that.

We have community hubs here where we're sat now in central Crewe, and we also have one in the West End of Crewe, at the Georges.

They're quite visible, people know where they are and can get to them, but some people perhaps aren't aware of our 'start well' provision.

​Can you give an example of a person or a family you've helped (without identifying them)?

One story that really sticks out goes back to our 'start well' provision. We have a family who came around four or five years ago with young children, looking for support and activities to do in their local community.

Their mother, a very passionate, proud Crewe lady, joined us as a helper and a volunteer to support that session. She then became a cleaner for the Wishing Well, and now she's one of our senior youth workers.

In fact, her son, who had his fair share of challenges as well, has followed a very similar pathway. He became a volunteer and is now one of our sports coaches.

So it's one of those instances where we provide activities in the community, but we're also providing pathways through to employment.

For that family in particular, from their own point of view, it's night and day. They've got income into the family, they've got that support around them, and that's just one story that really sticks with me.

​What happens behind the scenes at Wishing Well that people don't see?

There's a lot that goes into the administration of a charity, or any business. Sometimes charities get a perception that everything is done by volunteers, everything is free, and everything is simple, but that's not the case.

We have 68 colleagues, seven venues, and 24 or 25 different projects within those key service areas that I mentioned.

We have governance responsibilities, funding responsibilities, and contractual obligations. A lot goes into the administration of running a charity.​

In many organisations you have a very clear job description in terms of the role that you do, but everyone at the Wishing Well rolls up their sleeves and gets the job done, and I really like that.

There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes in terms of conversations with partners, policymakers, politicians, and funders because to deliver what we do costs £1.3 million a year. To try and get that money in through the door can be quite tricky at times.

​How important is local fundraising in keeping Wishing Well running?

​It's crucial to be quite honest. Funding covers our core costs, staffing costs, and operational costs, but what local-level giving and grassroots fundraising does is it means we can say yes to certain things quicker.

​We deliver 130 to 140 meals into the community every day. If you walk into our kitchen now, one of our ovens isn't working. So it's one of those situations where we need to get that back up and running. That's going to cost us a couple of grand, and it's not a quick "yeah, let's just do that."

It's a case of looking at what the cash flow looks like and seeing how conversations go with the Richmond Foundation or another local funder.

Those are the real, tangible costs where a donation means we can get our cooker working again so we can deliver our project.

​What difference could the money coming from Crewe Prize Draw make?

​We've got four key projects that we've identified that need long-term sustainability.

​One of them is our visually impaired provision. We have that provision every Monday here, called our Iris project. That costs around £24k a year to deliver in terms of staffing costs, materials, and resources, so we're actively seeking funding for that one.

​Then there is Street Sports, a community-based sport and physical activity session for young people taking place in parks and playing fields across Crewe. We have secured summer funding for that, but when we move into the winter months, we want to keep that provision running. Again, we're talking about figures around £15k, £20k, or £25k a year to keep it going.

​Our supported adults service, the SAS, is our provision at the Georges Community Hub for adults with learning disabilities or autism. They have a wonderful time over there with a fantastic programme of activities. But again, it's about how we continue to sustain that. We're looking for that similar level of £20k to £25k a year for that provision from October.

Our disadvantage football project ​is the one that gets a lot of really positive interest. We work closely with Crewe Alexandra, the YMCA, and a few other organisations like Chance Changing Lives, to provide people who are homeless, living with addiction, unemployed, or have a physical or mental health condition with regular contact through football sessions. We run workshops there to get them into training, education, employment, or to secure appropriate housing.

The disadvantage project is one we're really proud of and passionate about, but it is incredibly difficult to sustain. We're looking for about £20k to £25k to sustain each of these.

​What is the most memorable moment you've had working with Wishing Well?

​If I go back to the opening few days and weeks of the pandemic, we were delivering around 90 or 95 meals through the meals delivery service.

We were very close to our magic number of a hundred; we always wanted to get to a hundred meals delivered in the community. Then the pandemic came and we knew we would have to pause a lot of our contact-based activities.

We reallocated all of our resources into our meals service. One of the things we're really proud of is how swiftly we moved to that.

We didn't make anybody redundant, we didn't put anybody on furlough, we kept everybody, and on one particular day, we delivered our highest ever: 208 meals into our local community.

​That's probably the moment where everybody involved rolled up their sleeves to get the job done, everyone from our fantastic volunteers to the board who lead the organisation.

We did a lot during those early weeks and months of the pandemic and feel incredibly proud of, and it set the foundations for our growth over the last four or five years.

I remember saying at the time, "If we can get through a global pandemic, then we can get through most things."

Why does Wishing Well want to be involved with Crewe Prize Draw?

With Crewe Nub News, I remember four years ago I started seeing Ryan's articles pop up on my phone every time I opened it. I just felt like this was a really good thing for the town in terms of local news being fast and accessible. It was just really refreshing to see.

In terms of our friendship, when Nub News reached out to us and said that we were under consideration, it seemed like a very natural way to secure a partnership.

​In terms of partnering with Nub News and the Nub News Foundation, you look across the organisation and we've got local people who are helping other local people. In a nutshell, that is what this is all about.

Every Crewe Prize Draw ticket bought is not just a chance to win, it's a contribution towards helping people in our own community.

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The Crewe Prize Draw launches with a simple aim, to create winners locally - all while supporting causes like Wishing Well.