 Help young Ukrainian refugees
There are more than 125 children coming to the borough from war-torn Ukraine to try and rebuild their lives.
We’ve set up our Chance to Thrive fund, raising £25,000 from the public to help young Ukrainians coming to the borough. We’ll match this with £25,000, via Government’s funding to us to help welcome refugees.
The fund will be used to pay for laptops and smartphones to help with school, as well as the chance to pay for sports, music, drama and other activities for these youngsters.
We know many people in the borough want to help but can’t host, so this is your chance to welcome Ukrainians coming to our community.
 Make connections to overcome loneliness
With the theme for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week (9 to 15 May) being loneliness, we’re promoting many services and initiatives that can support people.
The annual awareness week has been running for more than 20 years, but this year’s focus on loneliness is an opportunity to overcome some of the challenges that have been made worse by Covid-19.
Loneliness has a huge impact on your mental and physical health, but there are a number of ways to reduce isolation and make new friends. Some places to look include:
 Borough children need foster homes
This Fostering Fortnight, we’re asking residents if they have the space and time to foster a child, after the number of children in the borough needing a foster home has increased by a third.
Fostering Fortnight (9 to 22 May) is an annual campaign spearheaded by The Fostering Network, raising the profile of fostering and showing how foster carers change children and young people's lives every day.
The need for foster carers in the borough is increasing, with 136 children in care (as of 1 April 2022), an increase from approximately 100 over the past couple of years.
With the number of children in care growing by over a third in the past year, we’re trying to increase the number of local foster carers to help keep children close to their home community, allowing them to remain connected with families, schools and friends.
For more information, please visit our fostering website, or email us and the team will give you a call. We regularly hold information events, with two coming up on 19 May:
- In person from 11.30 to 2pm in the REME Room at Wokingham Town Hall
- Online 6pm-7pm where as well as speaking to the fostering team, you’ll also get to hear from some of our current foster carers and what their experiences have been. Email the fostering team to find out more
Find out more on what it's like to foster from Emma and Alastair (pictured above), one of our new foster families.
Business networking event in Wokingham
We would like to invite businesses to our trading and networking fayre at the town hall in Wokingham, from 12 noon to 2.30pm on 30 May.
This live event, with our partner The Rebel Business School, will enable local entrepreneurs and business people to practice their sales skills and meet each other face-to-face.
It follows a business skills course which we ran with the business school in February, aiming to boost key skills in areas such as sales, marketing, tax and legal for those who took part
We invite you, our residents, partners and fellow business supporters, to meet our local start-ups, see what they have to offer and support them in whichever way you can, as they look to expand and flourish in Berkshire.
If you have any questions or would like to make us aware of any accessibility issues if you are planning to attend, email economicdevelopment@wokingham.gov.uk
What you might have missed
We’re back to sending our full compliment of newsletters each week after the local elections have happened. You can see all the latest updates below:
You can sign up for more newsletters using our registration form.
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