Keepy Uppy Video

Last month we had a Keepy Uppy Competition at investment bank, Macquarie. Watch our video of the competition here:

NFL ticket donation goes to lucky mentees

Last Sunday Ali Aden, mentee turned mentor, and his brother Abokar, currently a mentee on the ReachOut Academy in London, got a lucky surprise when they were chosen to attend one of three NFL International Series games at Wembley, the Jacksonville Jaguars versus the Dallas Cowboys.  

"It was mine and Abokar's first time going Wembley, and seeing a NFL game too. I had a rough idea on how to play it and my brother had no knowledge at all, but we sat next to some friendly Americans who explained the whole game to us and exactly why Jacksonville were getting demolished (they hadn't made use of the wings apparently!) 

Abokar said he loved the experience, as he's never been to Wembley prior to Sunday, and got his first taste of experiencing the crowd roaring (even though it wasn't exactly football). I'm sure he won't forget it for years to come. He said thanks for the ticket too!"

Huge thanks to Kirby Jeter for the donation!

ReachOut and The Southbank

At the end of October, The Southbank celebrated the 15th anniversary of the UN's Convention of the Rights of the Child through their WHY Festival, which partnered with ReachOut. 

This convention promises children rights, from education to health. These rights describe what a child needs to survive, grow, participate and fulfil their potential. They apply equally to every child, regardless of who they are or where they come from.

ReachOut partnered with the Southbank on their "Things I Wish I Knew At 15" project, which explored individuals' experiences of being a young person. Eight young people from the Junior Mentor's project volunteered their Saturdays to engage with the public on this topic, encouraging them to fill in postcards like those shown below.

The young people filled the wall with enlightening and warming postcards and participated in the other workshops run during the WHY Festival, to great praise and success.

By Katy Belben
Bishop Challoner Junior Mentors Project Leader  

ReachOut welcomes local MP

This week at the ReachOut Club in Cayley Primary School we were lucky enough to be joined by the Labour MP of the Bethnal Green and Bow area, Rushanara Ali. Rushanara was the first woman of  Bangladeshi origin to have been elected to the House of Commons, as well as one of the first female Muslim MPs.

Rushanara Ali gets involved with mentoring.

During the session we did a drama exercise, with the girls acting like they were at an award ceremony. They first worked with their mentors to write an acceptance speech detailing: what they had won the award for; what hurdles they faced along the way in striving to get the award; and, who they would like to thank for helping them along the way. 

After this the girls dressed up in scarfs, necklaces, and other jewellery myself and the mentors had brought - after all, this was a glamorous occasion! The girls then took turns in performing their speeches. The other girls displayed great fairness in listening to each other, and self-control in waiting for their turn - just some of the character values we promote at the ReachOut Club. 

Eventual winner Sophie performs her speech.

We elected Rushanara to be the judge of which award acceptance speech was the best. In the end, though all of the speeches were very well-read and touching (with some girls thanking their mentors for their help and support), we had two winners. These winners gleefully raised the trophy to an eruption of applause from the rest of the girls. 

Question time!

Rushanara then went on to talk to the group about her role as an MP, joking she would make it so school hours were longer if they weren’t nice to her! She explained her role was to care for the community and make changes to UK law when it is needed. Her speech was very inspiring, and when at the end she asked the girls who wanted to be an MP, or minister, or the Prime Minister in the future, many of them raised their hands. At the end of the session she was even asked for her autograph by the girls! A huge thanks to Rushanara Ali for visiting ReachOut and having a positive influence on the girls. 

After the project Rushanara Ali said "I was incredibly impressed by the way the young people were responding to the mentors. ReachOut is a brilliant charity that helps build confidence, presentation skills, writing skills and more. I was also impressed by the speeches the young people gave and look forward to welcoming some of them in the Houses of Parliament as future MPs or perhaps even Prime Minister!"

Jess and her mentee Anika.

Cayley Headteacher, Lissa Samuel popped in and was surprised and pleased to see all the girls participating “I was amazed to see one of the least confident girls in the group stand up and give her presentation; she would never have done that before taking part in the ReachOut project.”

Well done Cayley ReachOut Club mentors!

By Jessica Rowbotham

Cayley ReachOut Club Project Leader

ReachOut mentors and mentees with Rushanara Ali.

ReachOut Junior Mentors visit Barclays

During school holidays we try and arrange trips with clear learning value for our young people, to work places, exhibitions, museums, sporting events etc.  Last week some great guys at Barclays invited our ReachOut Junior Mentors from Bishop Challoner secondary school to the head office in Canary Wharf to get a little taste of what it’s like to work in a huge bank and to teach some public speaking and presentation skills as well. 

17 young people in Year 10 & 11 came on the trip.  As it’s still quite early in the school year there were a lot of faces I didn’t recognise, and names I didn’t know, so I was particularly interested to see how the trip unfolded.  We arrived at Barclays at 11AM, and went up to the 30^th floor to meet our hosts for the day.  It was a bit quiet to start off with in our meet & greet session, which didn’t bode well considering the theme for the day.  However, the kids gradually came out of their shells, and in the end there were some really excellent presentations delivered, with clear improvements on practices conducted earlier in the day! They had really taken on the advice of the Barclays employees when thinking about their presentations.

The Junior Mentors also got a real treat when Anne Grim (Managing Director, Global Head of Client Services at Barclays Wealth) popped in to say hi and chat to the kids about pathways into banking. Anne showed a good understanding of the issues facing young people and even encouraged them to email her if they wanted to ask anything else. The young people were really pleased that someone so senior took the time to come and meet them, and by this time there were questions aplenty!

We rounded the day off with some mixed sports at a local centre, where Justin Pickett (Junior Mentors Project Leader), was seen demonstrating some flamboyant footwork on the football pitch. It was a great day out for everyone, lots of learning and fun as well. Huge thanks to Nick Whitbread for organising everything and all his colleagues at Barclays for helping out!

By Pete Blackwell, ReachOut London Director

Photos by Chris King http://ckpho.to