Thank you, London Volunteers!

Friday played host to the ReachOut London event of the year - the London Volunteer Awards. Hosted with the help of our wonderful friends at Teach First, this is our event to say a great big thank you to the people that make ReachOut - our mentors.

Thanks to the generosity of Salt Yard, volunteers enjoyed complimentary drinks with fantastic views of Tower Bridge and the Mayor's Office on the banks of the Thames. Nothing is too glamorous for ReachOut volunteers!

We gathered together to thank everybody with Bronze, Silver and Gold awards given to volunteers who have volunteered for 30, 60 or 100 hours with us. People came from across all our programmes, the ReachOut Club, Academy and Junior Mentor Programme as well as our brilliant fundraisers.

We also recognised two Outstanding Voluntary Contribution award winners, Tim Birtwistle and Bryony Orr. Tim has volunteered with ReachOut at the Academy and ReachOut FC working with the current Y11s for 3 years, mentoring weekly, running film making workshops and taking them to matches on the weekend. Bryony Orr has volunteered with ReachOut! for 3 years, starting as a mentor before becoming a ReachOut Club Project Leader, fundraiser and social secretary.

"Having been involved with ReachOut during the last three years has been a rewarding experience." said Bryony. "Working one to one with the children in various schools and leading projects has shown me how great the Reachout  Club is in helping improve the self esteem, behaviour and academic skills of young people. Our little community is all about helping each other improve, young and old alike, and its been a pleasure to be part of that."

Our fundraiser Hannah told everyone about Give as You Live, a way to shop online and donate to ReachOut at no extra cost. You can find out more and start giving here.

Attended by our fantastic past and present volunteers, project staff, Chief Executive and Chair of Trustees, it was an event to remember. Thanks to everyone who has helped make this year at ReachOut London one of our best ever!

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer with us, please visit our website for more info.

ReachOut Junior Mentor volunteers

ReachOut Academy volunteers

Former ReachOut volunteers from Manchester who have made it to the capital

"ReachOut!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Hi Boris! Shall we zip-wire over?

Thank you ReachOut volunteers 

Fundraising and ReachOut Club volunteers say hi

ReachOut Junior Mentor Programme Manager Justin Pickett with some of our brilliant volunteers 

ReachOut Club volunteers with Outstanding Voluntary Contribution winner Bryony (r)

Everyone settles down for the Awards

Having a chat

Rachel Kershaw on how to get involved with Teach First

Chief Executive Xavier Bosch on the joys of giving

Outstanding Voluntary Contribution Award winner Bryony Orr with ReachOut Club Programme Manager Frances Blackwell

Outstanding Voluntary Contribution Award winner Tim Birtwistle with ReachOut London Director Peter Blackwell

Chair of Trustees Ed Lehman on the team behind the charity (and also apparently doing the robot!)

Well done Bronze Award Winners!

Give as you live with ReachOut

Give as you Live has landed at ReachOut

Sign up once to Give as you Live and each time you shop online, a percentage of your purchases will be given to ReachOut at no extra cost to you. It's quick, easy, and lets you give in a secure way.

Simply download to your computer in seconds then shop as usual. Head to http://www.giveasyoulive.com/join/reachoutuk to start today. Here's some ideas on how you can get what you want and give too ...

So, get started now! If you want to know more about how Give as you Live with ReachOut works, watch the video or see the Give as you Live website.

How Give as you Live works from Give as you Live on Vimeo.

Bogle Stroll 2013

Going for a stroll. A quintessentially British past time. The locations of choice for many an ardent perambulator include grassy knolls, wooded grottoes, and soft sandy beaches, but you'd be hard pushed to find anyone advocating inner city Manchester as a place to promenade... Unless it was March 1st of course!

For those of you that don't know, the Bogle is a grueling 55 mile or 26 mile stroll around Greater Manchester organized by Manchester RAG. Participants raise money for their chosen charity and (if they do the full 55 miles) walk in a figure of 8 that takes them as far as Farnworth at one end, and Manchester Airport at the other . It typically takes the average participant between 15 and 20 hours to complete (or 8-10 for the 26 mile); that's no mean feat I think you'll agree!

Our own Andy Milne took part last year. After coming home exhausted and blistered he vowed never again to shun public transport in place of walking again. In lieu of Andy's heroics this year, ReachOut! volunteer Alysha Alauddin Onn took up his mantle and set out to tackle the punishing route with a group of friends from the Malaysian students society. Here is what she had to say about the experience.

"One Saturday morning, I did not sleep in. That was the precursor to my Bogle experience. Bleak as it sounds, I had a sense of purpose: to walk 26 miles for ReachOut.

Luck was on my side as it turned out to be a beautiful day and I managed to do the walk relatively stress free (except for the time when I really needed to go to the loo and walked 3 miles to get there). The one thing I'd recommend is to bring a pack of friends, if only for their exceptional navigational skills and your lack of it. In my case, they offered endless motivation (mostly because I really didn't want to seem like a huge wimp) and staved off my boredom.

So thank you MSSM (Malaysian Students' Society of Manchester) for lending me such a wonderful experience. Especially the weird experience of overcoming mind numbing pain to sprint to the finish line whilst belting out the Lord of the Rings soundtrack.

My recommendation: Don't sleep in. Get up and go Bogle because it's just one of those things you have to do." 

Alysha and her friends completed the stroll in just under 10 hours and raised around £200 for the charity.

Here at ReachOut! we recognize the determination and hard work that goes into accomplishing tasks such as this. We are supremely proud of Alysha and her friends for raising the money for us. Well done and thanks guys!

ReachOut! Shortlisted for International Women's Day Award

Last Friday ReachOut! volunteer Polly Rusby and I were invited to Manchester City Council’s Grand Hall to celebrate InternationalWomen’s Day and to represent ReachOut! who had been shortlisted the Women’s Champion in honour of Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw.

As we enjoyed our meal of curry followed by sticky toffee pudding and coffee the event was opened with entertainment from Dr Katie Steckles. Katie is part of the team at Think Maths who visit schools and engage pupils in Maths through the medium of magic!

Susan Woodward, OBE, then gave an enthusiastic opening speech thanking all the guests for their hard work and commitment to the city of Manchester and more so to the women of Manchester. As the awards unveiled, Manchester is a city full of dedicated individuals and organisations who are all striving and succeeding to support their community. Susan’s speech did take a more sober tone however, as she relayed stats that highlighted ever present gender gap faced by women;

Only 22.5% of MPs are women

Only 17% of the cabinet are women

Only 5% of editors for national newspapers are women

There are no women represented on the Bank of England Monetary Commission.

Then came the moment we were all waiting for – The Awards!

ReachOut! was nominated by Charlotte Smailes (2^nd year Manchester volunteer) for our Junior Mentor Programme. Shortlisted for the Women’s Champion in honour of Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw, we were up against two other nominees, Angela Lawrence and her work with women and gang violence and Annie Emery and her work with bisexual women.  

Polly and I waited excitedly as they talked about the work we have done and showed a short video clip from each nominee. Then the moment of truth – and the winner is…..

Angela Lawrence. A well-deserved winner.

Although disappointed not to win, it was fantastic to be shortlisted. We would like to say thank you to Manchester City Council for recognising the hard work and commitment of our volunteers, without whom, the ReachOut! Junior Mentor Programme would not exist.

Heidi Hinchliffe

Fundraising Fortnight: What We Achieved!

February means fundraising at ReachOut! In Manchester. The FUNdraising lasted for 2 weeks with bag packs, cake sales and a pub quiz. Overall, £1940.44 was raised which will go directly towards funding our fantastic projects. 

We had a brilliant turnout of volunteers eager to help us raise funds. Let me say a huge thank you on behalf of us all here at ReachOut!. The money raised will be a great help towards funding the vital work we do.

During the 2 weeks we ran two successful bag packing afternoons at Sainsbury's Fallowfield. The bag packs proved especially fruitful so thank you to all the generous customers who kindly deposited money into our buckets! (p.s sorry for any squashed loaves of bread or cracked eggs!).

Odder bar on Oxford road provided an excellent venue for an evening of cranial competition at our ReachOut! pub quiz. Odder were most accommodating hosts so a huge thank you must go out them. It was a close contest in the end but inevitably ReachOut! staff proved to be somewhat of a jinx with the only team that did not have a member of staff in the team taking down top prize. Heidi and Luke's team put in a good showing in second place (cementing bragging rights for the next few weeks much to the chagrin of the rest of the office). 

We also ran bake sales throughout the week giving our project volunteers a quick sugar kick before they were transported off to their respective projects. Thank you to the 'Great Fundraise' team for their help with the sales.

Fundraising fortnight might be over but there is still opportunity to pitch your ideas for fundraising events to us and/or to make a contribution to the charity. If you've got innovative ideas for an event that you think could benefit us, email  Jo@reachoutuk.org if you are Manchester based or Hannah@reachoutuk.org if you are London based. If you would like to make a one off donation or a recurring one go here. 

The name's Bond.

Last week we said farewell to our very own Bond. Jack Bond.  Don’t worry, he hasn’t been shot whilst wrestling a baddie on a fast moving train, but he has moved on from ReachOut! to work with Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North. On behalf of all at ReachOut! we’d like to say a massive thank you for all his hard work at ReachOut! in the last 3½ years and wish him well in his future career.

Jack’s involvement with ReachOut! began in Manchester where he was studying History and Politics.  Xavier Bosch called him up personally and guilt tripped him into becoming a mentor.  It turned out to be a shrewd move by our CEO, and upon graduating Jack returned to London and took up a job as ReachOut! Academy Project Manager in Sept 2009.

Thrown in at the deep end, Jack took on the huge job of whipping the ReachOut! Academy into shape.  He doubled the size of the project and vastly increased the number and quality of mentors involved, whilst still ensuring the needs of the young people were met. Academic results at the project improved steadily, and he was a great example to all the young people and volunteers he worked alongside.

Somehow Jack still found time to get stranded with 30 kids in Madrid in 2010 during the Ash Crisis, run an football team for two seasons and even be in charge of our Junior Mentors Summer Programmes every year!   Whilst he has been left somewhat traumatised by certain events at ReachOut! (mostly splitting his head open whilst ice skating with the kids at Lea Valley Ice Rink) we hope he’ll remember his time here fondly.  He made a big difference to the kids he worked with, and his energy, passion and integrity will be deeply missed by all.