Good Causes

The aim of St Augustines Festival is to give local musicians a chance to play their music, and provide a relaxed afternoon of great entertainment for anyone who comes along in support. With this in mind no-one makes any profit from the event, and those organising or taking part do it for the love of it.

This year we have decided to put our fun to the benefit of others, by supporting two charities, one locally and one globally. The charities we have chosen are Ipswich Concern Counselling Centre and WaterAid.

If you wish to make a donation there will be many ways you can do so on the day, including raffle entries, food stalls or directly at the bar, as well as manual collections. Entry to the event remains free for all.

Both charities we have picked are non-exclusive, providing support to anyone who needs it. We wanted to give something back to our community, as well as help as many people as we can.

Counselling is about enabling a person to make changes in their life which they feel would be of benefit. People from all backgrounds may find counselling helpful at particular times in their life. Whatever the circumstances, counselling offers a confidential and supportive service to help people focus on their needs and enable them to make the changes they want.

Concern Counselling is a registered charity, and a non-profit-making, professional organisation. No-one is turned away if they cannot afford the fees, money raised through donations helps to cover any costs. This ensures that the service is available to everyone who needs it.

Concern Counselling’s objectives are to:

• relieve distress, mental sickness and anxiety amongst the community and to provide assistance in the form of counselling through the Counselling Centre or Centres.
• provide, maintain and operate a Centre or Centres in Ipswich for the provision of counselling.
• provide education and training in the counselling field for the community.

We decided to give our support to Ipswich Concern Counselling as we felt this was a charity that could touch anyone’s life at any time. By donating half the money raised throughout the festival we felt we were giving something back to our community and helping to ensure the service continues to be available to everyone that needs it.

Visit the Ipswich Concern Counselling website to find out more or make a donation.

WaterAid (UK Charity registration number 288701) is an international charity dedicated to helping people escape the stranglehold of poverty and disease caused by living without safe water and sanitation. WaterAid works in partnership with local organisations in 15 countries in Africa and Asia to help poor communities establish sustainable water supplies and latrines, close to home. WaterAid also works to influence governments’ water and sanitation policies to serve the interests of vulnerable people.

WaterAid’s vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation.

Established by UK water industry in 1981, WaterAid is one of the leading international non-governmental organisations in the global drinking water sector.

We decided to give our support to WaterAid as we wanted to give half the proceeds from the festival to a charity that reaches people globally. As water is one of the most basic necessities for life we felt the support we could give would potentially help many people in a practical way.

Visit the WaterAid website to find out more or make a donation.