ReachOut gets a makeover

It’s here! The ReachOut rebrand has begun. Over the coming weeks we’ll be giving everything “ReachOut” a fresh lick of paint, so don’t be alarmed if things start to appear different, we’re still the same ReachOut just better looking!

So how did we get here?

A tiny charity started by Manchester University students back in 1994, ReachOut has been shaped and grown over the past 19 years. With only a handful of children in our first year, we now work with over 1000 children through our mentoring programmes.

Over time we have experimented with various logos, colours, images and punctuation. Although we became quite attached to the strange morph like figures and our exclamation mark, we felt it was time to seek help from the pros. 

We were fortunate to have some support from design company Pentagram, who agreed to take on the ReachOut rebrand as a pro bono project and have spent many late nights and early mornings coming up with ideas and concepts for the new brand.

We hope that this logo and strapline reflect the scientific nature of our mentoring programmes which have been designed in line with our mission statement. They combine one-to-one mentoring and group activities with a focus on developing ReachOut’s four competencies and four character values.

The competencies (Numeracy, Literacy, Memory and Communication) are derived from experience, observation and discussion of the skills essential to achieve one’s goal in life, whilst the character values (Fairness, Good Judgement, Self-Control and Staying Power) are based on Plato’s  Cardinal Virtues, which work together to achieve happiness.

And our programmes get results.

For the second year in a row young people at the ReachOut Academy in Hackney have exceeded the national average of pupils achieving five good GCSEs (5 A* – C grades including English and Maths). A recent survey of mentees who attended the ReachOut Academy in 2011/12 whilst in Year 11 revealed that 73.9 per cent hit the target, compared to 59.4 per cent nationally.

Last year there was a 26% average increase in the number of children who achieved the government target in KS2 Reading, Writing and Numeracy after participating in the ReachOut Club and receiving one-to-one support, compared to the previous year before becoming a ReachOut mentee.

And so I am extremely proud to unveil our new logo – ta da! 

The new brand is professional, attractive, and celebrates our mentees’ and mentors’ achievements.

Thank you to all who have helped ReachOut get to where we are today, and a special thank you to Katee, Joe, Tom, Zoe, Lucy, Sophie and Nick at Pentagram for all their hard work and our wonderful new brand!

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