Mentee wins Jubilee Award for "stress" of volunteering!

My name is Rhiana Dennis-Small and I am currently a sixth form student attending Bishop Challoner. I first got into ReachOut in winter of 2013, attending the weekly mentoring sessions whilst in Y10. Some employees from Barclays came to the mentoring session to talk about work experience, and at the time I was very interested in banking.  After that session, I continued attending the weekly sessions in ReachOut and started to build my confidence. At the end of the year I then volunteered as a Junior Mentor in my school’s summer transition project, mentoring a group of 16 Year 6 pupils.

Junior Mentors on a confidence building outward bound trip. Rhiana is 3rd from left.

In Year 11, I was brave enough to run for project manager for our ReachOut group project that was a talent show and then volunteer project manager for the summer transition project at my school. I learned a lot about organisation and was able to assist others with looking after the children. I also took part in a number of other fundraising events such as bag packing to raise money for the summer project.

Junior Mentors bag packing to raise funds for the Summer Project.

As a result of all this stress, I was awarded a Jubilee Award from the Jubilee Centre for the work I have contributed towards ReachOut through my volunteering. The award ceremony was held at the House of Lords. It was genuinely a great experience and a nice day out. I had never been there before and as well as accepting the award, I was lucky enough to have a tour in the House of Lords, from which I learnt some interesting historical facts about Britain. It was an event that I will never forget and that has raised the ambitions that I already have.

Rhiana (5th from left) received the Jubilee Award for Service at the House of Lords, with James Arthur, Director of the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues (2nd from right).

Overall, ReachOut has increased the expectations that I have for myself, improved my confidence, improved different skills I have such as communication and finally, made me come to the realisation that I love helping people and that I love working with young children.

Welcome to the ReachOut family!

We're excited to welcome several new team members into the ReachOut fold in both London and Manchester. As we prepare for the new academic year and the 66 mentoring projects starting soon they will have their work cut out!

So let's meet them!

Caroline Cheetham (pictured right)
A former primary school teacher in Sheffield, Caroline brings her experience with young people and knowledge of the KS2 curriculum to the charity as the new ReachOut Club Project Manager in London.

Jo Tripney (pictured left)
Jo is our new Volunteering Officer in Manchester. She formerly worked in the student volunteering team at Manchester University Students' Union so is prepared to manage the questions and expectations of our student volunteers.

Chris Mills (pictured right)
Chris joins the fundraising team in London, focusing on Trusts and Foundations applications. He's an Oxford grad but also plays bass in a band, raising the coolness of the team by a factor of 10!

Alice Pooley
Our new ReachOut Academy Project Officer in Manchester, Alice is well placed to manage our secondary school projects thanks to her Teach First training and project work in Hong Kong. 

Adriana Buffa (pictured left)
Our summer intern, Adriana, is from northern Italy and is busy sightseeing and exploring London whilst also taking a lead on stakeholder consultations. 

Elizabeth Thornton
Elizabeth is the newest member of our team, joining after a stint in Colombia volunteering in an orphanage. She is helping to create character development resources as well as with recruitment in London. 

Alison Braybrooks
Alison actually starts on Monday but she knows ReachOut well having been part of our Board of Advisors and volunteering in the office. She specialises in Impact Measurement and has a wealth of experience; formerly Head of Corporate Fundraising for Macmillan and has also worked in the CSR team for UBS and EDF energy. She will be heading up the fundraising team in London.

Massive welcome to them all, and also to all our new volunteer mentors who are gearing up to start projects in the coming months.

Summer's end heralded by the new school term

As the end of the summer approaches we like to take stock and look back on all the things we achieved, and there has been a lot to take stock of this year.

All through late July and August we have been busy running our Summer Projects at schools in London and Manchester. The Summer Project is all about helping incoming year 7 students with the transition into high school, as well as providing a place for young people to have fun during the school holidays.

We worked with four schools in Manchester this year: The Barlow RC High School in Didsbury, Manchester Creative Media Academy in Higher Blackley, Our Lady's RC Sports College in Higher Blackley, and St Paul's Catholic High School in Wythenshawe.


Across the projects the young people threw themselves into fun and engaging top up sessions in Maths and English, learned about industrial Manchester on trips to the Museum of Science and Industry, ran aerial gauntlets at Challenge 4 Change, went head to head with their peers in our Olympic sports day events (thanks to PWC and RBS who supported the events at Our Lady's and MCMA respectively), and tackled extra-curricular sessions in arts and crafts, dance and drama, and sport.


As much as it might be tempting to sit back an admire all the fine work we did over the summer, we don't have the time! The new academic year is just around the corner and it's time for us to get back to work planning our projects for the school year. We can't wait to do it all again. Hopefully you can come with us!

Rugby World Cup Sweepstake

The 2015 Rugby World Cup is just around the corner and this year it's in the UK! 

Why not set up a sweepstake with your friends, family and/or colleagues to really get in the spirit and raise a bit of money for your favourite charity (hopefully ReachOut) at the same time? You could even win a prize yourself!

We’ve made it as easy as possible for you and created a template sweepstake kit which you can download here and included instructions below. If you get 20 people to enter at £5 a pop, you’ll have a total prize draw of £100. Suggested prizes:

•          Winning team - £40
•          Losing team - £10
•          ReachOut - £50

If you need a bit of inspiration, just check out the pics of all of us at ReachOut getting involved with our own sweepstake earlier this week:

Sweepstake Instructions

1) Download the template sweepstake kit.

2) Cut out the countries and place them in a hat.

3) Ask each person who has entered to pull a country from the hat and write their name on the table.

4) Sit back and enjoy the rugby! 

The first match is on Friday 18th September and the final is Saturday 31st October.

If you plan to hold a sweepstake or have any questions please email Luke at luke.ounsworth@reachoutuk.org or call 0203 489 9797. Thanks!

Volunteer spotlight - Catherine Millar

Meet Catherine. Catherine volunteered on both the ReachOut club and the academy this year. She is a Drama and English Literature student at the University of Manchester. Next year she will be taking up a role as a Project Leader at ReachOut Manchester. We sat down with Catherine to find out why she started volunteering with ReachOut and what impact the experience had on her.

Why did you begin volunteering with ReachOut?
I knew I wanted to do some sort of volunteering with young people during my time at Uni, so I went to the University of Manchester Volunteering Fair to search for the right charity to volunteer with. I was immediately excited by the sound of ReachOut because mentoring is something I’ve always wanted to do. As a young teenager I had an amazing mentor who was a massively positive influence on my life. The opportunity to try one-to-one mentoring, along with the group work I am more used to, was too good to miss.

What effect do you think you had on your young person while volunteering with ReachOut?
The main thing I saw a big improvement in was her confidence. It became clear that having someone dedicating time every week to chat to her and help her with work was improving her self esteem, and enabling her to really open up and develop her work and personal qualities throughout the year. It was so encouraging to see her start to believe in herself.

How do you feel you developed while you volunteered with ReachOut and what skills did you gain?
ReachOut has helped me to develop my listening skills and ability to practise Good Judgement. The more I really listened and focused on my mentee the more I knew the best way to handle her when she was struggling or having a bad day. Being able to judge what the best course of action is, with individual mentees and whole groups, and carry out that action as quickly and efficiently as possible, is a skill I really developed throughout my time at ReachOut.

Has ReachOut changed your views or perspective on anything?
I don’t think it has necessarily changed my views on anything, rather it has confirmed my views. It has proven to me that spending just a few hours of your time each week, and giving those few hours your best efforts, can make a real difference in a young person’s life. You can be skeptical about the effect volunteers really have in the long term, but this year at ReachOut has really consolidated my view that dedicating time to the development of young people has the potential to be really beneficial for both them and the volunteer. I would say that ReachOut has changed my view of myself and what I am able to achieve, due to its fantastic support system and the confidence it places in every single one of its volunteers.

We're currently looking for more fantastic mentors like Catherine so if you or someone you know is interested, please visit http://www.reachoutuk.org/mentor/