A volunteer's experience of the ReachOut Club

When I started at the LSE I knew I wanted to make the year count, to make it a memorable and rewarding year. For me this meant not only pushing myself academically, but also pushing myself personally.

I always had the itch to do charitable work with a voluntary organization, so I was delighted to attend the Volunteering Fair run by the LSE Careers Volunteer Centre in my first weeks at LSE. It was here that I found out about ReachOut—a mentoring organization working with disadvantaged communities in East London and Manchester. Being an East Londoner, I decided this was a great opportunity to scratch the itch and do something for my local community.

Soon enough I found myself at Brook Community Primary School every Friday afternoon with a group of 10 year old boys and some similarly minded volunteers. The typical afternoon session began with an enthralling game of football. It’s a great start to the session not only because the lads to get run off some nervous energy, but also because it provides an opportunity to promote teamwork, sportsmanship and fairness. It also helped to build trust and respect with the mentees—if you scored a goal you were a king. After football it was straight to the books where mentor and mentee would work through numeracy and literacy exercises together. The great thing about ReachOut is that you are paired with the same mentee throughout the duration of term. This provides the opportunity to be a positive role model and track progress together throughout the year. Finally, if the lads were well behaved, then the afternoon would end with an action-packed a game of dodgeball. This secretly became my favourite time of the week. It was like being a kid again!

Volunteering is a tremendously empowering experience. It provides an outlet to tackle some of the social challenges you read about at university head on and you see the direct impact of your effort. I can genuinely say that volunteering at ReachOut has been one of the most rewarding and enjoyable experiences of my year studying at LSE. Rewarding not only because you see the positive impact you have on your mentee, but also because it helps to build professional and friendship networks and develop new skills—all while having a lot of fun in the process. It’s also a great break from study.

But it’s not without its difficulties, and these are perhaps the most rewarding elements of the whole experience. In particular, gaining the trust and respect of your mentee is challenging and really helps to build your emotional intelligence. You have to try different techniques, be creative and really listen to your mentee. I found that my mentee had an incredibly creative side and kept talking about inventing all these different types of gadgets. I used this to anchor the value of doing the numeracy and literacy work and it provided a base on which to build his confidence. At the end of the year I received a letter from my mentee stating although I was an annoying person, he respected me. I was chuffed (I was only annoying because I made him do his work)!

So if you do have the itch to do volunteer work, or if you want to develop your personal and professional skills, then I would highly recommend you get in touch with the crew at the ReachOut! 

Chris Wajzer

ReachOut is currently recruiting volunteers to become mentors on our projects. Visit our website for more information and to sign up.

Summer Project Success

Both inside and outside the classroom, this year’s London Summer Project was full of firsts.

We had our first summer fete, sponsored by the ACCA. This involved the traditional features of a summer fair, from a bouncy castle to face painting, alongside some more bizarre activities, including a cactus-themed hoopla, inflatable basketball and 10 pin bowling! Throughout the fete, one of our volunteers, Ryan, DJ-ed while the volunteers from the ACCA served up popcorn.

Later in the project, we had our first visit from the Cabinet Office Olympic and Paralympic Legacy team who hosted an athletics competition and a tense game of sitting volley ball. Afterwards, they gave everyone the exciting chance to have their photograph taken with the Olympic torch. Other new activities included a cycling course and a climbing trip.

Inside the classroom, we made a special effort to instil our four character values in our mentees: fairness, good judgement, self-control and staying power. Throughout the project, we had a merit race, offering merits and prizes to those who made the most effort to display these values. This proved an effective way encourage the young people to think about and improve their behaviour.

Alongside all these new and exciting activities we kept the old favourites which included swimming, kayaking, ice-skating and a cinema trip. It will be hard to top this year’s Summer Project. Have a look below to read about one volunteer’s experience of the Project.

A volunteer’s experience of the ReachOut Summer Project

"I have had the best time at the ReachOut Summer Project", a quote by a volunteer epitomising the feeling at the ReachOut Summer Project where young people have fun whilst developing life and educational skills along the way.

The atmosphere of the final day celebrations spoke volumes. As a member of staff, seeing all the students and their enthusiastic parents for a final time made me realise that the Summer Programme is unique and offers different challenges to that of the ReachOut Club and Academy Programmes during the school year. This was my first year working on the Summer Programme teaching English, and I know in my heart that the children and staff alike have come out on the other side with an unforgettable experience.

The children at the summer project varied from ages 9-14, which I thought presented itself as a challenge as some of the older children would influence the younger ones. However, the younger kids were allowed to integrate themselves with the older year groups, which was great preparation for the jump from primary to secondary school. 

I believe that seeing kids improve their character is fundamental and the vast majority of them have developed throughout the summer, displaying ReachOut's core values of staying power, good judgement, fairness and self-control. Throughout the project, I felt the development of a great class rapport, something which cannot be continued but which the children and I will not forget.

The staff developed friendships quickly from the very start which allowed a feeling of togetherness and community, with plenty of camaraderie. There was a vast array of interesting and diverse characters but all came together to make the project a success, and the end of project social reflected this, as we all celebrated enthusiastically.

It has been a roller-coaster but when I saw the year groups that I taught improve considerably, it gave me a sense of relief and increased my confidence about my impact in the classroom. Passion and determination are key to succeeding with the children; something the staff had in abundance which is what made the project so successful.

Jeremy Tang

North Manchester Football Club have their first competitive game

The boys from the North Manchester Academy kicked off their summer with their first ever competitive tournament as a team.The boys have been working towards building a team in their ReachOut sessions, and the annual Tintwhistle Athletic tournament in Glossop represented the fruits of 2 years hard work.

The tournament proved a great opportunity for the team to get a few competitive games under their belt before the start of the football league in a few months time. Many of the opposition teams had been playing together as teams for considerably longer than we had, but that didn't deter the North Manchester boys. They gave it their all and came away with plenty of positives to take into next season, while conducting themselves like real sportsmen.

Here is to many more ReachOut North Manchester FC matches to come!

Luke 
Manchester

Junior Mentors project goes down a treat!

Six months of hard work and preparation by our Junior Mentors came down to a night of fine dining and entertainment at Bishop Challoner School. The young people catered to a host of guests; family members, friends and even the Head of Girls’ Campus Nick Soar!

     

Head Teacher Nick Soar enjoys his starter.

The young people, who are part of the ReachOut Junior Mentors Project, served up a delightful 3 course meal; with the option of having either lamb or fruit kebab as a starter, chicken and mushroom pie or rice and peas with chicken. This was then topped off with a warm, delectable apple crumble for desert.

This was followed by a performance written and directed by, and starring the young people. In the months leading up to the event, the Junior Mentors prepared tirelessly for an enactment of how gang culture was ruining the community. They used the death of a fellow pupil who fell unkindly to gang culture, and also their own perception to put on a show which was described as ‘Top notch’ by Luke Ounsworth.

The audience were on the edge of their seat as the Junior Mentors performed.

The ReachOut Junior Mentors Project, funded by the Macquarie Group Foundation, are paired with senior mentors that help guide young people through various tasks and projects, that ultimately are designed to boost confidence & skills, encourage teamwork and provide a unique experience.

Sarah Barker, mother of Taylor Barker said “Taylor is very academic but has struggled emotionally and the ReachOut project came along at just the right time to give her the extra support she needed. The girls have become a really tight knit group. It’s been a really excellent project.”

Junior Mentor Shawkat Hussain said “ReachOut has changed my way of thinking about the future, it's not straightforward, because what I had in mind was to be a businessman, but I met mentors who work in banks and thought I could do that, and I also think I'd like to be a mentor one day. It's just been a great opportunity to be able to come to ReachOut.”

By Ali Aden, ex-ReachOut mentee

A fond farewell to Hannah Christie

1^st October 2012 was a landmark moment in ReachOut history as Hannah Christie became our first employee to transfer between offices.  After two years working in our Manchester office in roles including volunteer management, project delivery and fundraising, she moved to our London office to head up our fundraising efforts nationwide.

Hannah settled really well, and was a great asset to our team in London.  She did a wonderful job, exceeding both mine and ReachOut’s expectations in every way.  She brought some great attributes to the table, not least her office banter, but especially her relentless work ethic and intelligent creativity. 

She has been a really valued member of our team, and as such there were bittersweet emotions when she left us last month (May 2013) for an incredible opportunity as Corporate Partnerships Manager at the St Giles Trust.  Thankfully she’s still helping us with fundraising, and volunteers regularly at the ReachOut Academy, so it’s not quite goodbye and we wish her all the best in the new job!

Peter Blackwell