Website...

Hey everyone!

We now have a website in the making..

At the moment www.changetogether.co.uk just redirects to this blog but watch this space!

Any help much appreciated as were very much beginners on website design!

xx

Starbucks Youth Action application successful!!

Wahooooo!!!

Our application was successful and we are now on to Stage two!

2 of us are attending the training on the 14th July and will be filling out the next part and presenting it to the judges!

If successful our project will be promoted in Starbucks and the public will have the chance to vote for their favourite projects!

Wish us luck and let us know if you have any pointers!

See http://www.guardian.co.uk/starbucks-youth-action for more info about the scheme.

Starbucks Youth Action Fund applied for!

We have applied for a grant from Starbucks Youth Action for a share of the £1000 regional pot of money. To win we need to fit the following criteria: 


a. Age 16-24
b. Location of project impact / where you live 
c. Endorsement or support of youth worker 
d. Willingness to come on a workshop
e. Makes a real difference to the local community

We fit all the criteria and have decided to apply for money to run a series of fundraising events such as fun-days etc in the Local Community, run by us with help from other young people in the borough. 

If were successful in our initial bid we will be invited to attend a workshop where we will be given support and training to develop a second, more detailed application then we have to pitch our ideas to a panel of judges then 3-5 finalists will be picked. 

Wish us Luck!!

x

WESTWAY COMMUNITY FESTIVAL...

Some of the team attended the Community festival at Westway Sports Centre in North Kensington on Sat 11th June 2011.

We had a stall and ran a raffle to raise money and had a donations bucket.

We managed to make £33 and had a great day!  :-)

Every little helps- Well done Girls!

xx

Funding update!

We have been successful in our application to the DofE Jubilee fund for £6000!!

This money will go towards paying for our practice expedition and necessary equipment.
We have to arrange a date to pick up the cheque and get our photo taken etc.

This is such great news and takes the pressure off as we were working so hard to come up with the money by October half term which is the only time we can do the practice.

We will still be working hard to raise the rest of the money so watch this space for details of other fundraising events coming up! xx

Bike taster day @ Richmond Park!

Richmond Park was a great day out!

We tested out a range of bikes and add ons for the kids buy riding round the fields and going on a 15 minute bike ride on the bike paths.

We tried tag alongs, trailers and child seats and all swapped round then had a picnic to decide what we all liked best.

Most of us loved the trailers and some liked the child seats but the larger kids were too heavy and it was scary to think the bike may fall over! The tag along was quite hard to turn with but Abdullah and Isiah loved it so we were thinking of swapping or taking in turns.

We had a picnic and a discussion about what the best bikes and attachments are to use on our expedition and  we are going to do some more research. We like the idea of having child seats and trailers on the bikes so the kids can alternate and not get too bored but were not sure this is possible. 

We were originally planning to use tandem bikes but have now decided not too due to the cost, the weight of them and also the difficulty in attaching things to the back eg a tag a long or trailer.

Were going to look in to buying the trailers and baby seats as hiring them for the practice and full expeditions will be expensive and this was we can use them for other young mothers groups in the future. 

All in all it was a brilliant day and we learnt so much. We bonded as a group and although the hire was quite expensive and came out of our fundraising money we think it was well worth while as were a lot more informed to make decisions about what we want now. 

Thanks for reading and please see some pics below!

Emily 

Emily and Luke on the Tag-a-long, Daniella and Reon on the trailer

Harmony and Isiah on a tag-a-long

Daniella and Reon with the child sea

Daniella with the trailer

Laura and Aaliyah with the child seat

Rennice and Savai with the child Seat

Reon happy on the child seat

Aaliyah and Savai in the trailer

Luke in the trailer

Richmond Park

Cycling Taster day!

Were planning a trip to Richmond Park to try out what type of bikes were going to use.

Were starting early and meeting to try out equipment such as tents etc then taking it all to Richmond park where we will be trying out tandem bikes and mountain bikes and trailers with baby seats, tag alongs and little  bikes for the kids.

Were going to have a picnic and discuss a fundraising event were planning at Westway Sports Centre on June 10th 2011 and while were there do some group bonding and let the kids play with the equipment and tents.

We really want to make our Gold as beneficial for the kids as it is for us so will be talking through how we can to that while were away.

One of us will be twittering through out the day then writing up a blog about how it went and any decision that came out of it.

Unfortunately we cant get any discount on the bike hire so all together this practice day is costing around £150 so were all chipping in.

Watch this space to see how it went!!...

Bank account!

We now have a community bank account set up with HSBC and are ready to take donations and have a paypal set up to accept support- emily@changetogether.co.uk.

Any donations will be much appreciated and we will recognise you on our blog if you like! :-)

 Please contact us at info@changetogether.co.uk if you would like to make a donation through other means like bank transfer, cheques or cash or can help in any other way.

 Thank you for all our support! Emily