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Charity Station House Community Association is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. 

Based in Thurnscoe, the charity currently provides a playgroup for toddlers, as well as an after-school club. 

The organisation accepts childcare vouchers and tax credits, making it a valuable resource for the local community.

Charlotte Williams, Chief Executive of Station House, said that the charity “empowers parents to work.”

She added: “We offer the only after school club in the area and that picks up children from school that are in full time school at the age of eleven.

“If you’re at work and your kids are at school, you need somebody to look after them.”

The charity also helps parents who are struggling to provide for their children by distributing items such as hygiene packs and shopping vouchers, as well as offering a food pantry. 

Mrs Williams described this aspect of their role as “being like your cousin or your sister giving you a bit of advice and that sort of thing.”

For example, she said: “We had an older child, sort of a nine, ten year old girl, and her mum just said she’s impossible to get to sleep. It’s really difficult. 

“I linked her up with the sleep charity, but we don’t just refer on. A couple of weeks later I went back to mum and went, how’s it going now? Is it any better? 

“Sometimes giving a phone number is not enough. Because either people forget, they lose it, it wasn’t quite what they wanted or they couldn’t get through. 

“So we believe that when we signpost, you don’t just give people a phone number or an email address, you follow it up, you support them.

“This isn’t in a very highly structured family support program way that you might get through the local authority.”

As the charity looks on beyond its 40th year, Mrs Williams has reiterated their commitment to providing what the community needs. 

She said: “A lot of schools are opening their own after school clubs. If that was to happen in that area, that’s absolutely fine because in our constitution it just says ‘do whatever the community needs’.”

To find out more about Station House, you can visit their website here.