Voting opens for GamesAid charity selection

Voting has begun to choose the charities which will benefit from this year's GamesAid fundraising, with 19 good causes up for selection. Existing GamesAid members should have received an email overnight with their polling cards, but if you're not a member already and you work in the UK's games industry, you can sign up very quickly, and for free, here if you want to help. If you are a member and you haven't received your email, please do check your junk and promotions folders just in case so you don't miss out.

Voting closes on September 5. Let's make a difference.

This year's charity choices are:

Access Sport

Access Sport enhances the life prospects of disadvantaged children by providing opportunities to experience and enjoy the power of sport.

We do this by building thriving community sports clubs, led by inspirational local volunteers, in the most disadvantaged areas of London, Bristol, Manchester and Oxford. These clubs provide life-changing opportunities for local, vulnerable young people, whilst creating a lasting, locally-owned community resource.

Our work supports young people aged 5-25, with a particular emphasis on under 18's who are disabled, disadvantaged or excluded from society. Last year we developed 169 community sports clubs and helped 8,639 young people enjoy sporting activity.

Accuro

Accuro is a vibrant charity that provides high quality support for children, young people and adults with a disability in West Essex. For over 30 years we have offered our service users access to leisure and social opportunities in the local community via our youth groups, a Saturday Play Club, a school Holiday Scheme, a Drama Project and an Adult Friendship Scheme.

Our work enhances people's lives by developing their independence, social skills, self-esteem, confidence, life skills and by reducing their social isolation. Simultaneously family members are given a break from their caring role and receive often much needed support.

Action for Kids

Action for Kids is a small, national charity working tirelessly to support disabled children, young people and families, helping them move towards independence by funding vital specialist equipment not available on the NHS, including high-tech powered wheelchairs, trikes and communication aids and delivering a wide range of education and training programmes, offering accredited courses in life / work skills. We also assist them by providing paid and volunteer work placements and sourcing employment opportunities, and providing sporting, social and creative activities for youngsters to get together, gain access to and learn new skills, and to have fun!

Aidis Trust

Aidis Trust helps children with physical and learning difficulties to benefit from technology. We have done this since 1975, helping thousands of children across the UK.

Our "Everyone Can Game" service adapts computers to help disabled children to get together to play videogames and have fun.

We visit disabled children who struggle to socially integrate, helping them to become an active part of a group and form friendships through gaming.

We find fun games that suit children with varying levels of learning and physical disability.

With GamesAid's support, our small charity can continue this hugely-popular service and help even more children.

Apps for Good

Apps for Good aims to grow the next global generation of problem-solvers and tech entrepreneurs; young people that learn how to build, market and launch digital tools to solve problems that they care about, changing their world and challenging the status quo.

Partnering with schools and colleges, Apps for Good trains educators to deliver the programme to students aged 10 - 18 from a diverse range of socio-economic, ethnic and gender backgrounds, transforming the way technology is taught in schools and helping young people learn to turn bright ideas into real technology products.

Autistica

What if your child's life was achingly different to that of other children? What if they were written off, bullied, and isolated? What if their life was cut short by suicide or epilepsy.

Too many autistic children face a life-long struggle because of a lack of appropriate support and services. Research has the power to transform this by ensuring that services are based on the best scientific evidence. Autistica exists to harness the potential of cutting-edge science to transform the lives of autistic children and adults.

Be part of our journey, make today's science tomorrow's services so autistic children have the best possible chance in life.

The Blackpool Carers Centre

Blackpool Carers Centre is an independent, local charity and network partner of Carers Trust.

We provide a range of services to support and enhance the lives of unpaid carers of all ages throughout Blackpool and The Fylde Coast, some as young as 5 years old. Carers provide help and support to a family member who could not manage without their help. This could be due to age, frailty, physical or mental illness, substance misuse or disability.

We offer respite activity and emotional and practical support, which is often a lifeline for many carers who would otherwise feel isolated and unable to cope.

The Clock Tower Sanctuary

The Clock Tower Sanctuary in Brighton is the only drop-in service providing all-round information, advice and support for homeless young people aged 16-25 in the city.

We aim to intervene early with vulnerable, isolated young people to help turn their lives around and prevent a potential life of entrenched homelessness.

We provide Crisis Support to help a young person with their immediate crisis needs (e.g food, showers, drop-ins from specialist services) and Move-On Support to help a young person unlock their potential and move into training, employment and independent living (e.g. life skills courses, activities and 121 individualised case working).

Impetus

Impetus is a Brighton and Hove charity that helps vulnerable people who are dealing with loneliness and isolation because of disability, poor mental or physical health or age through befriending, advocacy and support services.

We help people make the right connections in their community, build skills which improve lives and wellbeing and we do this through a large network of trained volunteers.

Jigsaw4U

Jigsaw4u was formed in 1997 to support children and young people through trauma, loss and bereavement. Bereaved children have told us that they feel 'alone and different.'

At Jigsaw4U, we undertake family group work and individual support sessions to help children and young people to communicate their feelings and share these in a safe environment. This reduces their feelings of isolation and difference, we also support communication in families to ensure that parents and children talk about the person who has died. It is through the sharing of their experiences children and families can develop the tools to move forward in their lives.

Lifelites

Lifelites is the only charity that provides specialist inclusive and assistive technologies to help life-limited and disabled children in every hospice in the British Isles to feel 'normal' for a while. Thanks to Lifelites, these children, irrespective of their disabilities are able to: play games with their brothers and sisters on a level playing field; use a computer to learn; communicate with their parents and carers; and have some control over their lives. Best of all, they can relax with their families and escape from their illness at what is often a difficult time for them all.

MAPS

MAPS supports children and young people who are experiencing mental or emotional distress and have complex and multiple needs. These young people have feelings of low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, self-harm, social isolation or risk taking behaviours. Many have experienced domestic abuse, have parents with poor mental health or substance misuse issues, are young carers, struggle educationally or live in economically challenging situations.

MAPS provides mentors, positive role models, who provide a safe space each week for the young person to unpack life with a trusted adult who is non-judgemental, listens and supports them as they need to be supported.

Panthalon

The Panathlon Foundation inspires severely disabled/Deaf/Visually Impaired young people across England by giving new opportunities in sport, officiating, coaching and leadership, which increase their personal, educational and communication skills, and help in disabled young people gaining evidence for their tertiary environment. The Panathlon Foundation had over 10,000 disabled young people involved in 2015/16 school year through 242 activity days of sport and 1,590 leaders. associated with these days across 27 counties.

Independent research has shown involvement in Panathlon increases self-esteem, motivation and confidence and in turn provides life-enhancing opportunities by providing these raft of opportunities be they - multi-sport activity (The Panathlon Challenge/Primary Panathlon, PMLD Panathlon)/sports specific (Swimming/Boccia/Football/Ten Pin Bowling) and classification specific (Powerchair Athletes/Visually Impaired/Deaf/Hearing Impaired and PMLD.

Parenting Special Children

Parenting Special Children is a Berkshire charity offering a range of free workshops, courses and one to one support to families who have children with special needs, including ADHD, Autism and looked after and adopted children. Parenting Special Children is unique in that all of those working and volunteering for the charity are parents of children with special needs themselves as well as having a professional background in health or education. Over the past 10 years Parenting Special Children have supported thousands of families and have an excellent reputation for providing a service that truly understands families of children with special needs.

Roundabout

Roundabout is Sheffield's local youth housing charity providing shelter, support and life skills to over 150 young people in Sheffield everyday who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

We provide emergency accommodation at our hostel for homeless 16-21 year olds in Sheffield, a range of medium term accommodation in safe bedsits and in shared housing throughout the city and we support young people to live independently in their own accommodation, who might otherwise struggle to do so - putting them at risk of homelessness.

Safe@Last

SAFE@LAST provides services and support for children and young people who are at risk of harm before, during and after running away in South Yorkshire. We offer a range of services for young people from prevention to crisis intervention including a helpline, prevention and education programme and specialised one to one support for young people and their families.

We aim to reduce running away and young people making risky choices associated with running away such as taking drugs, abusing alcohol, having unsafe sex, sleeping rough and become victims of crime.

Solving Kids' Cancer

Solving Kids' Cancer helps children, and their families, affected by the rarest and most aggressive childhood cancers. We offer emotional, practical and clinical support to families, and help children to access cutting-edge clinical trials available outside the UK which represent their best chance of survival. Putting the immediate needs of families at the centre of our work, we fight childhood cancer on all fronts; through research, education and awareness, and advocating on behalf of children for the very best standard of treatment and care.

Special Effect

Special Effect puts fun and inclusion back into the lives of people with physical disabilities by helping them to play video games.

By using technology ranging from modified joypads to eye-control, we're finding a way for people to play to the very best of their abilities.

But we're not just doing it for fun. By levelling the playing field, we're bringing families and friends together and having a profoundly positive impact on therapy, confidence and rehabilitation.

UpRising

The UK has some of the lowest level of social mobility in the developed world - so young people from disadvantaged backgrounds find it even harder to break through the glass ceiling.

We therefore recruit talented young people from disadvantaged communities to become tomorrow's socially-conscious leaders by enabling them to take part on our Leadership Programme. Here they learn how the power landscape works, how they can influence it, how to present themselves and their chosen causes, and how to use networks to achieve their aims. They learn how to develop campaigns that address the needs of their communities - be it around racism, unemployment, lack of aspiration amongst children from disadvantaged communities, even litter in the park.