Shell staff shell out for ReachOut

On the morning of Saturday 19 October, a team of nine people from Shell took part in the Richmond Riverside 10K for ReachOut. The race saw runners sprinting along the banks of the Thames between Kingston and Richmond, the route of which took runners through the beautiful, rural surroundings of south west London.

Even though the skies were grey and grim, our brilliant runners were cheerful from the start to the finish line (though within seconds of the words ‘On Your Marks, Get Set, GO!’ they were all caked with mud from the soggy track!)

Several ReachOut staff as well as colleagues from Shell came down to Richmond to cheer on the runners as they sprinted by. Waving and clapping, the onlookers gave the runners an added boost and stayed to meet them all at the end with bottles of water and packets of biscuits to help them replenish all of the energy spent racing each other to the finish!

Between them, our runners raised a fantastic £1,553.73 for ReachOut, hugely impressive given that they only started fundraising two weeks before the event! However, this total is made all the more impressive when you consider that £100 will pay for the resources to mentor 10 young people at the ReachOut Club, our one-to-one mentoring programme for young people aged 10-11. Very well done, Team Shell!

Liam, Vanisha, Dmitry, Ken, Allan, Robert, Rich, Alan & Shane – you’re all fantastic! Thank you so much for all of your hard work and dedication. See you again next year, yeah? 

By Luke Ounsworth

If you're interested in taking part in an event for ReachOut please contact luke.ounsworth@reachoutuk.org or visit our website.

Runners take to the streets for ReachOut in Royal Parks Half Marathon

On Sunday 6 October, 6 brilliant ReachOut supporters donned their running vests and trainers and took part in the Royal Parks Half Marathon, a 13-mile endurance race through Central London.

Our wonderful new vests! (Photo: http://sohfree.com/)

Despite gloomy forecasts, the weather on the morning of the race was spectacular and our runners were in high spirits as they took to the streets of the capital to raise money for ReachOut. The route of the race took our runners through some of the most beautiful surroundings which London has to offer, including Hyde Park, St. James’ Park and Westminster.

A grand total of 16,000 people took part in the race for various different local, national and international charities so it was great to see the ReachOut logo running alongside the likes of Oxfam, Cancer Research UK and Macmillan.

Our runners were among the best in the race, one of whom achieved a new personal best of 1hr 39mins! (Congratulations Paul!)

Emily and Sohko at the finish line! (Photo: http://sohfree.com/)

So far, our wonderful runners have raised over £3,000 for ReachOut. This is a truly fantastic total, especially when you consider that just £10 is enough to provide all of the resources to mentor one young person for an entire year at the ReachOut Club, a one-to-one mentoring project for primary school pupils!

Paul, Neshaat, Sohko, Emily, Rachael and Bradley – you’re all superstars! Thank you again for all of our hard work and determination. We hope your legs weren’t too sore on Monday morning!

If you're interested in taking part in an event for ReachOut please contact luke.ounsworth@reachoutuk.org or visit our website.

Luke Ounsworth

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