Despite the many challenges of 2020, there are signs of hopeful change that we can all hold on to.

What a difference a year makes! Last Christmas, my parting words were, “may you know love in action this year”. Who knew the tremendous worldwide challenge, loss, heartache, confusion, unity, resilience, and love that the Corona Virus pandemic would force into place.

Standing Together

I know that 2020 has been an immense year of cyclical challenges, but I want to reflect on some of the grace notes that have kept me going and shown just how wonderful human beings can be.

• The resilience of the NHS and our pride and support of it
• This renewed concept of shielding, and making sacrificial decisions to keep our loved ones safe
• The real and encouraging shift that seems to be taking place within our thinking and culture, following the tragic murder of George Floyd and the protests of the Black Lives Matter movement
• The sense of communities coming together to support and help each other out.

As we look forward to a year that will see the development of a vaccine and our exit from the EU, I hope that our sense of standing together and being kind to our neighbours is not forgotten.

My Thanks

I want to take this opportunity to thank our long-standing clients who fully embraced the cost of enabling their Helper to have 4 weeks paid leave, who continue to treat their Helper like an extended member of their family, and who remember that far from being an invisible magic fairy, that they too have hopes and dreams.

I want to thank our fabulous cleaning colleagues, our team of Helpers who faithfully and resiliently continue to deliver excellent cleans, exhibiting deep nurturing care for their clients week by week.

I want to thank the office team who have tirelessly worked, worried, planned, adapted, pivoted through the whole of this year, and still continue to help create exceedingly excellent cleaning experiences for everyone in the Just Helpers community.

I know that Christmas may look different for each of us this year. But may you know good health, strong community and be filled with hope as we look forward into next year.

Merry Christmas

Antoinette and the Just Helpers Team

Merry Christmas from Just Helpers!

As an office team, we want to take this opportunity to say thank you for trusting us to find great cleaning colleagues who match your home and office spaces over this past year. This year has been a big year of growth for us, which has been exciting and has kept us all very busy. We are excited about the creation of our new App which will be launched in the first quarter of next year. This will help to ease communication, allow you and your Helper to keep up with your cleaning schedules, give you an easy platform to make comments and allow you to connect with the team more readily.

It was thrilling to have our 3 babies in the manager’s team and the arrival of baby Matthew to Monika in September has been wonderful – more on that in January!

Empowering Women

Being nominated by one of you for a Venus award this year was also very humbling, and much more making it through to the final 4 and a ‘juoozy’ awards evening at the Waldorf with the team on the 3rd as an Employer of the year has been an interesting journey. We look forward to announcing the results.

Spreading Christmas Cheer

Many of you ask me about potential gifts for your Helper. For all of the team, the very best thing for them is a monetary tip as they are often trying to support family still located in their countries of origin. I will leave this between you and your cleaner, but please do be mindful of your last cleaning day before Christmas with your regular Helper. I would suggest just leaving a card etc, in a prominent place where she is likely to find it. Last year I can honestly say that most of my team were moved to tears because of your generosity. Thank you in advance.

Our Christmas Charity Appeal

We are supporting two charities this year:

The first is Bulgarian charity spearheaded by Olga one of our cleaning colleagues. She and a group of friends organise a busload of items to be delivered to a charity that cares for Children in the care system in Bulgaria. There is a desperate need for items of clothing, toiletries, stationery and toys. As many of our team are Bulgarian, we want to get behind this in two ways:

Our team will rally together to donate various second-hand items from their family. Secondly, any money raised by the team for both this and our UK charity below will be matched by the agency. We will divide the money and have a day as a team in the spring where we create as many gift-boxes as we can to send with the next bus that Olga and her friends will organise. We would LOVE it if you could consider donating some money towards this.

The second is Children with Cancer UK. This was the charity that is close to our manager Yana Yaneva’s heart and won the team’s vote too. Already as a team, we have raised over £600. This will be matched pound for pound by the agency. Could you join us in donating to this charity too? Find out more at https://www.childrenwithcancer.org.uk

Christmas Festivities near you

We currently clean for 9 great churches and their clergy around London. I know that they will be busily planning their Christmas services now. If the thought of Carols by Candlelight, Alfrescosinging, festive wreath making, midnight mass, an evening of carols at your local jazz bar, Children’s Nativity service, a Christmas market or the chance to find out what Christmas is really all about beyond the trees, carols, Santa and gifts piques your interest, why not drop into one of their services or a church more local to you. See below for details of our connections:

Streatham Central Church
Dundonald Church Wimbledon
Hornsey Parish Church
St Michael’s Battersea
St Thomas More Swiss Cottage
St Peter’s Bethnal Green
St Andrew’s Chelsea
The Bridge Battersea Community Church
St Mary Abbots Parish Church Kensington

Christmas and New Year often provide a time and space for us to reboot, rethink and in some cases change direction. I pray for safety and well-being for each and every one of you as you pause, reflect, spend time with family and friends and enter into a new year.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas!
Warmest wishes,
Antoinette, Lydia, Monika, Vivian, Vanya, Yana, Yana, and the Just Helpers Team

You often hear us saying at Just Helpers how much we love our clients and love our colleagues. And it’s true.

Our team take great pride in treating your homes as they would their own. We want to take this opportunity to say thank-you for trusting us with your home and office spaces over this past year, and to some of you, for embracing us as an additional member of your household.  We’ve loved being your Helpers and look forward to journeying with you next year.

Many of you ask me about potential gifts for your Helper.  For all of the team, the very best thing for them is a monetary tip as they are often trying to support family still located in their countries of origin. I will leave this between you and your cleaner, but please do be mindful of your last cleaning day before Christmas with your regular Helper. I would suggest just leaving a card etc, in a prominent place where she is likely to find it.

Christmas and New Year often provide a time and space for us to reboot, rethink and in some cases change direction. I pray for safety and well-being for each and every one of you as you pause, reflect, spend time with family and friends and enter into a new year.

For those of you who live in and around my neighbourhood, Streatham, I’d love to invite you to a Christian carols service at the Hideaway on 10th December at 3.30pm for families and 7.30pm for adults find out more here. It would be great to welcome you there for what I know will be a fab evening.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas!

Warmest wishes,
Antoinette, and the Just Helpers team

P.S. Our Christmas Charity appeal is underway with bobble hats galore! As a team we have already raised £800, and hope you can join us too. For every £1 raised through Facebook, they will match our donations. Our team voted for two charities: Battersea Dogs & Cats Home and Great Ormond Street Hospital. Because we couldn’t access our chosen charity, Great Ormond Street Hospital through this giving site, we would love you to partner with us and UNICEF too.