How Comic Relief funding helps 100,000 households

It is the smiles that get to Jo Haydon, when she gives out new toys in behalf of her charity and "they go 'have I not got to pay you for that?' and you say 'no its free'."

Her organisation, 4 Community Trust, is being helped by another charity, the West Midlands Multibank, as each week she goes there to collect household products, toys and more, to give out to families across Sandwell.

"It's enabled the children to get enjoyment out of more new toys and also gave them some fantastic toys at Christmas, which for some, might have been the only present they were going to have," she told me.

The multibank itself has helped 100,000 households, across Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Coventry and the Black Country over the last year, since it began in 2025.

They provide items including clothing, cleaning products and toiletries for social workers, teachers, groups and charities, like Haydon's, to distribute.

The products at the multibank are donated by businesses with surplus stock, while day-to-day operations and staff are paid for through moneyfrom Comic Relief.

"They've provided us with a good five years of funding," Matthew Daniels, from the multibank said.

"That is invaluable because it enables us to build some sustainability for multibank to develop the work we are doing and expand the work we are doing across the region."

The organisation is aiming to help 200,000 families in the West Midlands over the next 12 months.

"The need for something like this has never been more relevant, and the impact for our community is to be able to give an opportunity for people to access some of those goods or products that they need," Daniels added.

"The other beauty of it is that, from an environmental point of view, rather than all of this stuff going into landfill it's actually going to people who actually need it and it's enabling people to live their lives and have a better quality of life."

The West Midlands Multibank is the sixth of its kind been established in the UK.

The charity, which was co-founded by Gordon Brown, has so far seen more than seven million goods donated to more than 600,000 families in Scotland, Greater Manchester, Wales, London and Tees Valley.

Comic Relief will be on BBC One and iPlayer from 19:00 on Friday.

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