Karen Greatbatch has been appointed Fundraising and Communications Manager at The Children’s Centre.

She joins a team headed up by Chief Executive Fiona Dawson, all dedicated to making sure that this unique Isle of Man Charity remains at the centre of the community, enabling children and young people to realise their potential, and supporting families across the Island.

Karen, who comes to The Children’s Centre from the Isle of Man College of Further and Higher Education where she was Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Business Studies and the new BA (Hons) Event Management and Marketing. Prior to this she worked at the Isle of Man Government Department of Home Affairs where she was responsible for setting up a number of statutory bodies. In addition she has been heavily involved in IT development and business continuity planning within the Airline industry, and brings wide experience in the understanding of an organisation’s needs, and how to meet its specific requirements.

“The Children’s Centre reaches around 40% of the Island’s children in one way or another, and needs nearly ?40,000 a month just to run our Charitable Services,” says Karen. “My role is to develop and extend our revenue streams, making sure we can plan our services in advance, confident that the funds aren’t going to suddenly dry up.”

It’s a challenge Karen is ideally suited to meet. “The Children’s Centre has always been grateful for the goodwill and the almost legendary generosity of the Manx public and my job is not to exploit this goodwill, but to broaden and deepen the range of fundraising opportunities into areas we’ve only touched on before,” says Karen. “The aim is to create a sustainable, regular income to enable us to extend and add to the services we already provide.”

Some people think of The Children’s Centre as a provider of child care, or through the adoption and fostering service, but it is a Charity first and foremost, aimed at enabling children, young people and families to reach their full potential. Its Charitable Services include a wide range of initiatives such as the Community Farm, the Action, Songs and Rhymes sessions for younger children, school playground initiatives, and the Forest School, but also MOBEX, which offers experiential learning to help children and young people overcome their own specific physical and developmental challenges.

“I’m thrilled to be working here,” says Karen. “The Children’s Centre is so well known, but many people probably aren’t aware of how much it costs and how many of our services wouldn’t exist without charitable fundraising. Yes, it’s a challenge, but one that I’m looking forward to meeting head-on!”

Photo - Karen Greatbatch