Two City Leaders pitch events see six clubs receive funding.
19 April 2017
Over the past two weeks, we’ve hosted two City Leaders community stage pitch events, which has seen six of our member clubs each receive £600 of funding for their projects.
On Thursday the 30th of March two of our clubs came along to Vanquis Bank at the Walkie-Talkie in the City. Hounslow Action for Youth and Dragon Hall Tech Club both pitched their ideas to get involved in their local communities.
First to pitch was Dragon Hall who are putting on a “Dragon Drop-In” event at St. Mungo’s for the homeless people in their local borough. They plan on providing services such as employability support, a barbers, food and gift bags as well as linking them to other charities that are able to help. They plan to reach out to at least 20 people sleeping rough, supporting two homeless charities, and partnering up with two other organisations.
Hounslow Action for Youth were next up to present their idea to give up to 90 young people in their local community a trip to the theatre. They recognised that while they live less than an hour away from London’s West End, not many young people had been given the opportunity to experience it. They are going to change this, by bringing ninety local young people together to get to know one another, and then heading to the West End to see Stomp. Not only will this allow the young people to experience a world-renowned part of London’s culture, but they will also meet new friends from their area.
The panel of four included:
Guy Davidson, Trustee at London Youth
Victoria, Dare London Youth Advisory Board
Fiona Ellison, Step Up To Serve
Yordanka Stancheva, Vanquis Bank
Both clubs were successful in their bids for funding!
On April the 6th of March we held our latest pitch event at Cinven St Paul’s. Four clubs attended to pitch to our four panel members:
Ian Seaton, Deputy Chair at the City Bridge Trust
Guy Davidson, Trustee at London Youth
Rosa Pali, Head of Membership at London Youth
Alda, Dare London Youth Advisory Board
First up was Hogarth who are going to run three different training courses over the summer. The courses will vary, covering drama, self-defense, and hair and beauty. Everyone in the community will be welcome, with the variety of courses offered, aimed to attract a broad range of people. This will also enable the club to build strong bonds within Hounslow.
Kentish Town Community Centre were next, pitching their idea to build relationships across the generations, hosting a social event with elderly people and a trip to the beach at Brighton. They want to break down the barriers and stereotypes that exist, and hope to create a positive impact within Kentish Town.
Football Beyond Borders were third to pitch, and plan to host a football tournament at Dulwich Hamlet Football Stadium. By inviting lots of young people from the local community to take part in the tournament, they hope to breakdown the walls created by living in different areas of South London. Instead, they will encourage as many as 100 people to get involved and get into the South London spirit.
‘You don’t have to speak one language when you play football’ – Football Beyond Borders
The final pitch came from Rathbone, who are going to tackle homelessness as part of their community project. They want to provide packs for homeless people in their area, starting with 30 bags and possibly even more in the future. Working in partnership with Brixton Soup Kitchen to distribute the packs, they will source a variety of different items, such as sleep mats, protein bars and toiletries that those sleeping rough would not otherwise have access to.
The room was abuzz as the deliberations came in from the judging panel, who were delighted to award the four clubs with the community stage funding.
We think that there has been an amazing range of ideas during the pitches, and over the next month we will be working with our City Leaders clubs to find out more about how their community projects are coming along.
For more information on the City Leaders Programme click here.
To follow along on Twitter check out #CityLeaders.
