What are some of your earliest memories? Perhaps playing with your favourite toys with your brother, sister or best friends? Imagine if you or your kids couldn’t play with your toys without someone else’s help....

Toys for Tots is a project dreamt up by Jen, James, Fiona and Maísa, workmates at an Australian Charity (Cerebral Palsy Alliance) who are passionate about improving the lives of children with disability.

Fiona told the group about a project she was working on to support local libraries in setting up ‘switch toys libraries’ for families living with disability. This idea came from our innovation hub which identified the huge need to help families gain access to these amazing switch toys.

Jen, James and Maisa wanted to support this project and were inspired to try crowdfunding after getting the opportunity to watch a therapy session involving switch toys.

Jen contacted Shane Mumford and asked if he’d help, he said yes and Toys for Tots was born.




So what are switch toys?

Many children with a disability, who have difficulty moving their hands, can’t play without someone else’s help.
But there are some brilliant adapted toys available with specialised switches so all children can play and learn. The toys have sockets so that different types of switches can be attached to meet the needs of lots of children with different physical abilities.

Playing isn’t just about having fun. It’s crucial in a child’s development, helping them learn social skills, words, language, understand cause and effect and develop fine motor skills. And for children with a disability these toys also become stepping stones to assist in learning how to operate a computer, drive a power wheelchair and/or use a communication devices in the future.

For some children, the first time they play with these toys, is the first time they have experienced independent control over something. EVER.

But they aren’t cheap. Out of the reach of most families affected by disability.

We need your help to raise $10,212 to offer these amazing toys and other specialised switching equipment to hundreds of children through our local community libraries.

Every donation counts and will open up a world of new opportunities for children with a disability.

We will use the funds to provide grants to a selection of passionate community libraries to set up switch toy libraries.

The toys cost around $250 each and the switches more. This is why most families can’t afford them on top of all the other costs of caring for a child with a disability. So with your support we will be able to provide around 30 switch toys and 10 switches to be used by 100s of children every year.

If we are successful there are two main risks associated with this project.

1. We won’t be able to find enough libraries to take on the task of setting up and running a switch toy library. To manage this risk Fiona has contacted a number of libraries and listened to their concerns. We have produced a detailed guide available to libraries (for free) explaining how they can make the most of a switch toy library. We already have a list of librarians who are now raring to go as soon as we secure funding and hope to spread the word more widely if we are successful.
2. Another risk is that we don’t have control over how the libraries spend their funding once they have received it. To manage this risk we will develop a simple application form which will need to be signed by the library manager and a funding agreement form for successful libraries to complete which includes reporting requirements.

The other risk of this project is that we won’t hit our target.

We don’t know if this project will be appealing and stand out from the amazing range of crowdfunding projects available. The high cost of each individual toy might put some people off. The fact that the funds aren’t going directly to individual families but to libraries might also put some people off.

However we hope
- the video we have produced shows the amazing benefit of these toys (you can see the delight on Raymond’s face when he is able to play with the toys)


- people can see that it is because these toys are so expensive, that most families can’t afford them and therefore this is why having them available at local libraries is such a brilliant idea. If we gave the toys directly to families we’d be able to help 30 families. However this project will be able to help hundreds of families every year which we feel is a better use of resources.