ReachOut Graduation 2017!

A first in ReachOut history!

The University of Manchester hosted our first ever ReachOut graduation with the support of Barclays and Zurich to celebrate the progress and achievements made by every one of our mentees. The event recognised their success in character and attainment as well as their commitment to a ReachOut programme throughout the year.

Thumbs up for the ReachOut Graduation!

On arrival, mentees were greeted by the ReachOut Aspirations Fair that included exhibitors from some of our brilliant partners. Barclays, Zurich, GMCC, The Challenge, Headstart and The Tutor Trust along with the University of Manchester and the Manchester Museum who provided an insight into the work they do along with lots of freebies for our mentees to bag! Little Sports provided some tense competition in the form of a one on one pop up football pitch and the University of Manchester Science Buskers left everyone in awe with some fascinating displays of science demonstrations and tricks!

Year 7 Failsworth girls V the knot challenge

Rolls Crescent teachers take on the science buskers knot challenge!

ReachOut Aspirations Fair in full swing

Group effort!

Nearly there!

Our sports provider Little Sports host a tense match

With some opening words from our CEO Peter Blackwell, the graduation ceremony was underway. Pete highlighted ReachOut’s work across both Manchester and London. With over 7000 hours of additional one to one support provided to over 500 young people in 2016/17, ReachOut and our mentees have had a great year. Our mentees in Manchester reported that they had progressed academically, in character and confidence. Awards were presented across a number of important categories. A recap of the winners are listed below: 

ROC Attendance of the Year - Rolls Crescent Primary School Year 5

ROA Attendance of the Year - Dean Trust Ardwick Year 8 Girls

Mentee of the Year

Armitage Primary School - Rebecca Hulme

Heald Place Primary School - Symeta Rahimi

Rolls Crescent Primary School - Jamica Lawrence

Dean Trust Ardwick - Azaan Khalique
Oasis Academy Media City - Fithi Teklit
Failsworth School - Arabella Shepard

Outstanding Character Award - Sharqil Mosul (Dean Trust Ardwick)

Project of the Year – Rolls Crescent Primary School Year 6

Supporting Member of Staff Award - Amanda Beresford (Failsworth School)

Outstanding Character Award winner, Sharqil Mosul with CEO Pete and former mentee and mentor Keiarnya

Project of the Year supported by Barclays - Rolls Crescent Primary School Year 6

The lucky winners of the Zurich aspirations fair quiz!

Our guest speaker Memona Shahid, 'Making a Difference' award winner, brought the graduation to a close with some inspirational words urging our mentees to use the skills they have gained from ReachOut and ‘don’t be afraid of challenge’ as they go forth! An inspiring day summed up in the words of one of our mentees as ‘the best day ever’!

We look forward to celebrating the achievements of our next class of ReachOut graduates in 2018!

ReachOut Charity Cup 2017 (Manchester)

We have new ReachOut Charity Cup Manchester Champions!!!

People were talking up the Champions league final played in Cardiff on Saturday but it had nothing on the ReachOut Charity Cup 2017. Not even the miserable Manchester weather could stop us and oh boy what drama we had. From the spectacular goals, amazing saves to the drama of a sudden death penalty shoot-out which ultimately decided who took the trophy home. The annual tournament, now in its 8th year, didn’t disappoint.

University of Manchester, The Challenge (Manchester & Lancashire), Zurich, Dean Trust Ardwick, ITC, EWA & Team ReachOut battled it out in the round robin group stage with the two top teams in each group progressing to the semi-finals.   There were some near misses, vital interceptions and impressive goals. All of the teams showed great character and sportsmanship throughout.

The Challenge (Lancashire) narrowly missed out in a tense semi-final with Dean Trust Ardwick which then pitted the hosts for the evening, Dean Trust, against ITC in the final. It was a close game and nothing could split the two teams over the course of the match with the final going all the way to penalties. After a few reprieves for either team after some stunning saves from both keepers, Dean Trust finally clinched the crucial winning penalty to take the cup in sudden death. Fingernails had gone at this point and everyone was cold from the rain. There was even shouts from the side lines of “hurry up I haven’t had my tea yet” as the penalties went on and on. But in the end we had worthy winners. Goalkeeper from the winning team Graham Mitchell said “It’s been the talk of the town in our school today but we’ve really enjoyed it and we look forward to next year and defending the cup”

ReachOut would like to thank everyone who came and braved the awful weather, from our amazing referees (Ray, Ellie and Hannah) to all our brilliant teams. Your fantastic support goes to helping many young people across the Greater Manchester area. Myself, Chloe & Keisha thank you so much and look forward to hosting you all again in 2018.

Remember we are looking for mentors to join our projects in the next academic year. Could this be the next goal you make? 

Click here to find out how to become a mentor.

Ben
ReachOut Manchester

50/50 action

University of Manchester pumped up

The Challenge (Lancashire)  

Zurich boys meant business

Hosts for the evening and eventual winners Dean Trust Ardwick

Tight game between Zurich & Dean Trust Ardwick

Jack from Team ReachOut not too sure about this weather. 

The crowd look on

Man down. All a bit too much for some. 

The Final - May the best team win

"Ave it" Penalties to decide the winner

Sudden Death Penalties 

Is this the moment for Dean Trust Ardwick? Surely?

ITC & eventual winners Dean Trust Ardwick put on a great final

Hackney Half 2017 - Go ReachOut!

On Sunday, May 3^rd over 10,000 runners gathered at Hackney Marshes for the beginning of the 2017 Hackney Half.  By 8am the atmosphere in the race village had started to build, with music, warm ups and even a live interview with Sir Richard Branson, who got the whole event under way by firing the starting confetti gun!

With perfect running conditions and the sun breaking through the clouds, the local Hackney residents were out in force and high spirits, cheering the runners through the 13.1 mile course. The ReachOut team joined the crowds at mile 3.5 where we set up a cheer point and enthusiastically cheered our runners through the opening stages!

We were fortunate to have over 20 runners in this years’ event who have raised well over £10,000 for ReachOut! Our runners’ ranged from university students and corporate mentors to former mentees, and there were some pretty impressive performances with the fastest finishing in 1:33 and all of them finishing in less than 2:30!

A huge shout out goes to the team from our corporate partner Macquarie Group, led by James Lovelace who is our in-house champion and recruited 4 extra runners to take part with him. Not only that, he also ran the Hackney Half in a brilliant Gnome costume. Well done to Team Macquarie, who after matched funding, have raised well over £5,000!!

We love days like these, because it gives us a chance to show our appreciation for the people who support ReachOut. Whether it is a university student mentor or a supporter who found us through a Google search – it was great to meet our wide range of supporters. And what better place to hang out with them than the Hackney Half Race Village which had music, food stands, free massages and chill out areas on offer to runners, friends and family! 

Thank you so much to all of our runners who worked so hard training and fundraising. Next year, we are looking to double the number of young people we work with, and your hard work will help us towards this goal.

Bring on the 2018 Hackney Half!

If you’re interested in running for ReachOut in the 2017 Royal Parks, you can book your place here today: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/royal-parks-half-2017-tickets-32856283027?aff=es2

 

 

Volunteer Thank You Event London

The annual ReachOut Volunteer Thank You Event is one of our favourite nights of the year.  It’s an opportunity for us to bring all of our wonderful volunteers together and show how much we appreciate their hard work, commitment and resilience. 

We provide one-to-one mentors for young people who have been referred to us for a variety of reasons and in the words of our London Manager, Chloe Holness, “volunteering with ReachOut is not easy, but if it were easy then those wouldn’t be the children that need a mentor”.  Despite this challenge, our dedicated volunteer mentors show up week after week, rain or shine, to support these young people in raising their aspirations, improving their academic attainment and reaching their potential.  We are incredibly grateful and so proud of every single one of them and this is our way of saying a huge THANK YOU!! 

This year we were extremely lucky to be able to host the event at the beautiful and historic Clothworkers Hall in the City of London.  With over 100 volunteers in attendance and the speeches out of the way we were pleased to announce the following winners of the 2017 awards:

ReachOut Academy Volunteer of the Year – James Lovelace

James has been volunteering since 2014 and has a great relationship with his mentee, Eren, who he has worked with for 2.5 years. He has participated in various workshops and fundraising activities, including football and dodgeball tournaments, and is soon to run the Hackney Half Marathon for ReachOut.

ReachOut Club Volunteer of the Year – Prithvi Shashikant

Prithvi has been a dedicated, reliable and supportive mentor, taking an active role on his project by helping with behaviour management and helping to run activities. His enthusiasm has had a massive impact on his mentee who has made huge improvements in their reading and writing.  In addition, Prithvi has been a great ambassador for ReachOut at his university and has even written a piece about us for the LSE Volunteer Brochure.

ReachOut Project of the Year – Redlands Year 6 Girls Project

Mentor attendance on this project has been consistently excellent and their project leader has made an exceptional effort to deliver interesting and fun sessions which have included art, cooking, sport and debate activities. The mentees on this project have particular challenges around self-confidence and self-esteem and the mentors have worked hard to build positive mentor relationships to combat this. 

ReachOut Project Leader of the Year – Ovig Mututa

We first met Ovig when she volunteered on our Summer Project in 2015 and we were so impressed with the way she engaged with young people we offered her the job of Project Leader that September. She is always thinking of creative ways to engage the boys on her project, from mini science challenges to bulldog with their mentors, and the boys have a great fondness for her.  She is strict but fair and goes above and beyond in her role as project leader.

ReachOut Outstanding Contribution Award – Daphne Mcrae

Daphne first started mentoring with ReachOut in 2012 at a ReachOut Academy project in Hackney with a lively group of 15 year old boys.  She then went on to mentor 10 year old girls at ReachOut Club, a totally different challenge!  She still volunteers today, as well as being the social secretary of the ReachOut Socials committee, organising social events such as pub quizzes and BBQ's for our volunteers throughout the year.

Kierhan Dhaliwal Student Inspiration Award – Toby Sansom

This award goes to Toby, who has shown exceptional dedication to ReachOut and his project since starting as a mentor in 2014. Now a project leader, he works hard to support his mentors and deliver an inspirational and interesting project every week. In addition to mentoring and being a project leader, he has helped raise our profile at Queen Mary University through the ReachOut Society and has also volunteered in our office over the summer of 2016 to help us develop our curriculum.  Unfortunately Toby is currently abroad so Boma, an ex-mentee, accepted the award on his behalf. 

Congratulations also goes out to all of our volunteers who were awarded with their 25 hours, 50 hours and 75 hours of volunteering certificates – well done and thank you to you all!

Thank you to everyone who attended and everyone who has supported us over the last year. Bring on 2017/18!