To receive a presentation about Busy Buttons CORE Charity from their founders, Louella & Lautaro.

Lautaro and Louella shared a presentation which explained the charity in which they founded, Busy Buttons CORE Charity, located at Windsor Yards. They described the charity as “an inclusive charity helping each child find their unique potential through creativity and imagination”. While the charity was known more for its community projects and creative courses for young people, the charity provided other services.

According to the NHS, 1-in-5 children in the UK suffered from mental health problems, which lead to school avoidance, isolation, self-harm, anti-social behaviour and criminality. Lautaro conveyed that anxiety was not a personality disorder, but a response to a situation. These may include special needs, such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia (in which they refer to as superpowers), as well as bullying and domestic abuse.

Lautaro stated that Busy Buttons was started in response to a first-hand experience of the results of mental health problems. Louella explained the background: she and Lautaro were attacked by a group of young people in a park in London but managed to escape. The assailants were a group of 20 young people aged from 15-to-21-years of age who “worked like clockwork”. After receiving counselling, Louella and Lautaro wondered about the frame of mind of the assailants, namely their lack of empathy and having nothing to lose. They speculated that the attack gave the assailants a sense of empowerment, and that they had no mentoring and no sense of responsibility. From this, Louella and Lautaro decided that these types of young people required positive feeling through more positive experiences and by contributing to the community rather than causing trouble.

The Charity believed in early intervention whereby young people were presented with a passion at a young age to prevent them from going down alternative routes. They gave a case study whereby an anxious child with selective mutism became more cheerful and sociable at Busy Buttons.

Lautaro informed that Busy Buttons provided a weekly one-to-one support to families to challenge emotional-based school avoidance by their children. From this, Busy Buttons received referrals from CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services), social services, early help, local schools, adoption services and domestic abuse charities. Since this programme was launched, there was a positive response of 55% of young participants returning to school.

After submitting children’s artwork, Busy Buttons was selected as the best art school by Craft Council UK and received a Yinka Ilori Designer’s Award. Three young people from Busy Buttons were selected to display their work at the Royal Academy of Arts, out of 1,500 nationwide entries.

Lautaro stated that this showed the positive impact of early intervention, creative opportunities, and positive experiences. He explained that young people were invited to join programmes with other young people once they gained enough momentum and confidence. These include holiday programmes, such as Creative Wellbeing Camps, Creative Skill-based Courses, Theatre Productions and Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme.

Attending the meeting with Lautaro and Louella, the Youth Ambassador from Busy Buttons then shared his own story. He explained that he was doing his Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme (which Busy Buttons was directly licensed towards), in which he decided that he was going to volunteer to tutor a child to play the piano. This had reached the stage that they would perform the piano at Busy Button’s Christmas Fair on 10^th December 2023.

Louella added that all of Busy Button’s programmes and the Duke of Edinburgh Award at Busy Buttons were free for low-income families.

Lautaro explained that community engagement projects were very important as they involved not only Busy Buttons’ children but other children, local schools and other organisations in which they worked with. He explained that these events were important for families who had been isolated as it made them feel part of something, such as Christmas light switch-on and other events in Windsor. It also made those families feel part of the wider community. Louella added that children’s work being put on display at events created a sense of being part of the larger project and community as well as boost their confidence.

Lautaro requested support from the community and RBWM. The most pressing issue at the moment was Windsor Yards being redeveloped which meant Busy Buttons would lose its base of operations (which it had been for the last seven years), and that it needed to find a new location. Louella informed that there needed to be greater awareness for the charity as many people did not realise what it did, stating that Busy Buttons focused on celebrating the children’s activities and achievements rather than their problems.

To conclude his presentation, Lautaro shared a two-minute video which showed the charity’s activities.

Jim, a resident, asked if the charity was based entirely in Windsor or the wider south-east of England. Louella replied that Busy Buttons received children from outside of Windsor as well, including Slough, Ascot, High Wycombe, Bracknell and Staines; but the sole location of the charity was Windsor.

Councillor Price asked if Busy Buttons had another location to move to in midst of the redevelopment of Windsor Yards. Lautaro replied that they did not have a new location at the moment and that Busy Buttons were actively looking, but they had to balance their search with their volunteering work in delivering the programmes and new referrals. He welcomed any ideas and support.

Councillor Buckley suggested that some material (e.g., a screenshot or presentation) could be shared with Councillors who could then share it on social media and to residents, stating that he was more than happy to promote the charity in his Borough ward (Datchet, Horton and Wraysbury). He also commended the charity’s work as “mind-boggling”. Lautaro appreciated the offer.

Councillor Wilson praised and appreciated the work of Busy Buttons, having recently visited their exhibition and viewing their celebration of neurodiverse was fantastic. He took note of the location issue and that he would take this into account with some work he was doing.

When asked by the Chair, Lautaro confirmed that there was a Christmas Fair arranged by Busy Buttons on 10^th December 2023 as well as attend the Christmas fair in Dedworth on 26^th November 2023.