Beyond Words

At Buttle, we are dedicated to collecting and sharing data which highlights our impact. We are also keen to champion transparency, so we try to share all the feedback, good and bad. We see the importance, too, of making sure that the voices that feed into this are those that matter most. This means that we don’t just speak to the frontline workers who help us to deliver our grants, but the parents and carers who receive them. In 2025, we decided to take that one step further; we reached out to the children and young people, as they’re the ones who the grants are really for.

We had to think really carefully about how to collect their incredibly insightful, valid perspectives. To do so, this project used a draw-and-tell methodology, allowing children to draw us a picture about any aspect of their grant, and fill out questions about it too. We reached out to recent grantees aged between 4–18 years old. We were so delighted by the incredible submissions we received!

All the findings can be found in our Beyond Words report, and they make for fascinating reading. Reading their words and exploring their pictures taught us so much about the importance of the items we give, with some surprises along the way. Items and impacts they told us about included how:

• Laptops and tablets helped with learning, schoolwork, and building confidence; they enjoyed feeling more independent, fitting in with peers, and being able to learn at home.
• Children spoke joyfully about going on days out. These outings helped them bond with family, recover from trauma, and feel normal. Skill-based activities like swimming, dancing, and boxing gave them confidence and joy.
• Having their own beds felt hugely important. These beds were described as cosy, restful, and comforting. Children who had shared beds or lacked proper furniture expressed relief and improved sleep and wellbeing.
• Toys brought happiness, play opportunities, and imagination, and they loved ones that helped them get outside! Some children mentioned owning toys for the first time.
• New clothes and shoes helped children feel confident and included at school. Some children highlighted how they no longer felt embarrassed thanks to these items.
• Children expressed increased self-esteem, hope, and aspirations for the future. Many referenced a sense of belonging, ownership, and even future goals tied to their items.

A point of important learning here is that children and young people provided us with new perspectives on what matters most to them. This sometimes differed to that which we had heard was important previously from their parents and carers. That gives us much to learn going forwards in terms of making sure that we seek and acknowledge every voice.

When it comes to childhood poverty and our grant-making, it’s easy to focus on the numerate data – evaluation scores, household income, deprivation indexes, and so on. This is much harder to collect and deliver for young and older children, and we’re thankful that undertaking this project helped us to think outside the box in how to bring these numbers to life!

The methods we used worked really well for opening up that dialogue, and we loved seeing every single picture and handwritten response. We intend to turn this project into a rolling evaluation plan, to make sure that child voice is right at the centre of what we do. All of their wonderful feedback will be used to help us raise more money through our fundraising efforts, to give more grants to families that need them most.

Once again, we just wanted to say a huge thank you to the children and young people who submitted their wonderful drawings and words, and to their families for their role in helping them to take part.

Download full report Download report summary