The Challenge: Final weekend!
Last weekend over 3000 young people across London, Birmingham and Warwickshire and the Northwest, were engaged in large scale social action projects which benefitted their local communities. These events marked the finale of a summer of learning teamwork, leadership and communication skills, learning to work with people a variety of different backgrounds, learning new skills, and interacting with local community groups and organisations. Over 3000 young people took on The Challenge programme this summer and will now be graduating from it.
Read this article for an example of the kinds of projects young people engaged in on their last day of the programme!
This entry was posted on Friday, October 7th, 2011 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Challenge news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Grant from the Big Lottery Fund
On September 20th the Big Lottery announced a £15.3m investment in various life changing projects for young people, including organisations working with young offenders and youth involved in gangs, organisations providing various support services to young people, offering professional development and community engagement opportunities. A total of 58 organisations, including The Challenge Network, have received grants from the Big Lottery Fund to support these projects as part of Big Lottery’s Reaching Communities programme.
The Challenge has received a £170,000 grant which will contribute to the costs of the Real Challenge in 2011 and 2012. Specifically, the funding will cover the recruitment and remuneration of Team Mentors who support young people through the Real Challenge, and Logistics and Event Officers who deliver this part of the programme, as well as supporting the venue and overhead costs associated with the Real Challenge.
The Real Challenge is the final part of the programme, in which teams of young people are tasked with designing a fundraising event for a charity and a campaign to address a local issue. After pitching their ideas to a panel of judges, teams receive feedback and funding and over four weekends in the autumn they go on to deliver these projects, along with two other social impact events designed by The Challenge alongside local organisations. It is in this part of the programme that young people have the chance to show off their skills, and make a real difference in their communities.
We are delighted that the Big Lottery has decided to support this great opportunity for young people to engage in and with their communities, and showcase the positive impact they can have!
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 21st, 2011 at 3:35 pm and is filed under Challenge news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
The Challenge in partnership with BAA
The Challenge Network is delighted to announce a key corporate partnership with Heathrow Airport, through the airport owner’s grant-making charity BAA Communities Trust. The partnership centres on BAA’s commitment to supporting projects in communities closest to BAA’s airports. The Trust particularly focuses on projects that create learning opportunities for young people, raise their aspirations, and provide airport staff a chance to get involved in the community. This year, BAA Communities Trust is sponsoring approx. 150 young people who have participated in The Challenge from the boroughs of Hounslow and Ealing.
On August 25th, two representatives from Heathrow and from BAA Communities Trust served as dragons on the “Dragon’s Den” style panel on The Challenge in West London. They listened and gave feedback to young people who pitched ideas that ranged from giving out free hugs in an effort to build neighbourly spirit to raising awareness of anti-social behaviour.
Caroline Nicholls, Director of The BAA Communities Trust, was one of the dragons. She commented: “I was impressed by the enthusiasm and passion to make a difference shown by the Challenge teams – here were young people giving up their time to help others; it was a stark contrast to the images of rioting we have all seen in recent weeks.”
“The Trust is always looking at ways to strengthen Heathrow’s ties with local communities. We are excited to be supporting a programme that is clearly making positive impact in Hounslow and other parts of West London.”
Craig Morley, Chief Executive of The Challenge Network, says, “We are therefore tremendously excited about our partnership with BAA Communities Trust and the opportunity it gives to further increase social impact through the involvement of BAA employees.”
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 14th, 2011 at 10:18 am and is filed under Challenge news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.