Parents' Christmas Group

(24th November 2005)

On Thursday 24th we held our Christmas Parent group at the Round Chapel. The aim of the group was to focus on the planning of a stress free Christmas. We did exercises in how to effectively plan for Christmas and how to avoid some of the pitfalls and experiences of a previous Christmas that was less enjoyable and most importantly an exercise in how to say NO and not maybe , when asked for presents that fall outside our budget. This avoids bitter disappointment on the day.

We also focussed on food additives as many children are affected by food colouring in particular.

We kick started our day by making a Christmas card using paper shapes. This exercise helped to reacquaint us with how much fun it is to engage in such activities and reminded us that our children could also have hours of fun engaged in such an activity. The most telling revelation came from our explorations on what makes a great Christmas.

It was unanimously agreed that the best Christmas experiences revolved around having other people to share the day with. Christmas traditions which may have started during our own childhood and we carried on, or those new traditions that we have started ourselves do make the day special. We definitely came to the conclusion that Xmas is about sharing and that this also is a perfect time to get involved in games and activities that involve the whole family. All parents that attended received a board game, encouraging interactive play within the family.

The feedback we received from those parents that attended our group were, that it was not only a very enjoyable day, but that it was helpful and that it definitely would make a difference. All went away feeling a lot more positive about the coming festivities.

There was an opportunity for the parents to network and phone numbers were exchanged. The whole experience was most enjoyable and definitely signposted that the planned groups for the spring of 2006 will be a positive way forward for our Parentplus programme.

 Flute and Piano Concert for Chance UK

September 2005

Beautiful music in a beautiful setting

Chance UK would like to thank Liz Cutts and John Flinders for their wonderful flute and piano concert. Lauderdale House was filled with people who enjoyed fantastic music in a beautiful setting and raised £600 for Chance UK . Thanks also to Liz’s amily who helped make the evening such a success.

Camden Voluntary Organisation of the Year Awards 2005

The winner of Camden Volunteering Organisation Awards 2005 was announced on Tuesday 23rd September and proud joint runners up were Chance UK in recognition of outstanding good practice in the management of volunteers. It is a great achievement and many thanks to Deborah Nutt, Chance UK's former mentor for nominating us.

The Awards Ceremony was held in the fantastic surroundings of The Foundling Museum in Brunswick Square . Comedian and writer Victoria Wood was on hand to hand out the certificates and even had time to have her picture taken with Chance UK’s Chef Executive Gracia McGrath and Chairman Dr Paul Vaight.
The night reflects Camden Volunteer Bureau (CVB)’s work in encouraging and enabling voluntary organisations to adopt good practice in the recruitment and management of volunteers. Chance UK is very grateful for the huge support we have received from Camden and as a result a significant number of our volunteers have been recruited from the borough.

Glenda Jackson MP when formally launching the competition said:

"This competition is an innovative way of highlighting the importance of volunteers and volunteering...Volunteering restores something which we are all in danger of losing - really being part of a community....The work that is done by volunteering organisations and their volunteers has a genuinely transforming effect on people's lives."

Congratulations to OASIS North, winners of Camden Volunteering Organisation of the Year Awards 2005.

IF YOU CAN’T STAND THE HEAT……HAVE AN APPLE JUICE! by Christine Parle, Hackney Children's Fund

AJ, our plucky competition winner, was taken for dinner by the Children’s Fund as the second part of his prize. AJ scooped third prize for completing the Word Fit puzzle in September, and chose a football set from the prize bag. AJ and Rachel, his mentor, met Dez, Gaynor and I at the Learning Trust, where we departed for Nando’s in Bethnal Green.

What a meal! AJ’s ordering was by far the bravest – he chose HOT sauce on his chicken, and boy, was it hot! The proof of this lay in the four empty apple juice bottles surrounding his plate. His pledge not to drink anything until he’d finished wavered at the first mouthful! He managed three bites before he caved in, and downed the first bottle in one go. Rachel was far more reserved – she went for the lemon and garlic mild one. I think I should’ve done that too!

AJ was a delight to spend time with and shared some private information during the meal… We have just two things to say to that, AJ - well done for winning your prize and for a great evening. And…… A SUPER HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY for 10th October!

Graduation night 

Graduating David Cabey with proud mentor Maria in the background

It’s 5:30pm on the night of graduation and a few smartly turned out Chance UK children started to turn up with their parents and families to the Hackney Museum in East London .

By 6pm, the room was packed with brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and friends who turned up to be apart of this special occasion. The room was packed to capacity and some guests even had to stand at the back to listen to Cllr Linda Brown as she read out the names of the 11 children and mentors who graduated on the night. Graduating mentor Nick Evans, described it as ‘the culmination of a fun and rewarding year and hopefully the start of a positive future for all the kids involved’.

There was also badge making and drawing and a great big Chance UK graduation cake for everybody to eat at the end. The Graduation night not only recognizes the hard work and commitment shown by mentors, children andtheir families but also the achievements made by everyone throughout the year.

Chance UK would like to say a big thanks to everybody who has been involved and worked so hard to make it a success.

Chance UK needs more male mentors!!!

Chance UK ’s Introductory Night for Men was a big success.

Held on Thursday 25th August the night aimed to highlight the positive impact men can have on children’s lives. We wanted to emphasise the point that you don’t have to be Superman to be a good mentor, just simply have a genuine interest in working with children of 5-11 years of age, be committed for a year and be a positive influence on their lives. Chance UK wants to end up with a pool of volunteers that we can match with children. It is essential that the mentors we recruit also represent the diverse ethnic backgrounds of the children we work with.

It was great to see people who might previously have doubted their ability to work with children now starting to come forward and see how their skills, experience and background could be used in a positive way to help others.

As well as watching the Chance UK ‘Me and My Mentor’ video, participants got the chance to meet a current male mentor and find out what mentoring was like through his eyes: the challenges he faced and the amazing achievements made as well.

Twenty people turned up on the night and seventeen have now put their names down for the mentor training programme – a massive twelve of these represented ethnic minority communities. We would like to say a big thanks to Ross, the mentor who came along and gave people a real insight into the mentoring experience.

If you want to find out more about introductory nights like this and would like to attend the next one on Thursday 9th February, contact either James or Cliff on 020 7281 5858.

Lets go fly a kite...(August 2005)

The sun shone, the wind blew and the kites flew (a bit) when 26 mentors and children gathered in Finsbury Park for Chance UK’s annual summer Mentor Support Group picnic on Thursday 4 August.

A few creative mentors and children made kites from the plastic sheeting, garden canes and decorations provided by Chance. Others brought their own kites with them – there were many types, from state-of-the art dual-lines to the traditional diamond-shaped versions. Whatever type of kite they had, children seemed to have just as much fun running along trying to make them fly as they did seeing them rise up in the air. There were a few frustrations when kites plunged down into the trees, but in true solution-focused style, nobody stayed sad for long.

Kite-flying wasn’t the only activity on offer – children, mentors and staff also enjoyed playing football, Frisbee, rounders and this summer’s favourite game, cricket. There was a wonderful picnic, too (healthy, of course). Strawberries and quiches were the foods that disappeared the fastest, so we will know what to buy more of next year.
Of course, as well as having fun, mentors had the opportunity to discuss their mentoring experiences with each other in a relaxed setting, while children were able to get to know others on the Chance programme. All in all, it was a great event – and it didn’t rain all evening!

The Big Night In...(10th Nov 2005)

This is the Big Night In and this is how it works. You get your mates round. You throw whatever kind of party you like. Then, the money everyone would have spent going out, you give to charity. The cash you raise will help PiggyBankKids support some of the UK's most innovative charitable projects for young people. So no matter what you get up to, it's OK. Davina McCall will be hosting her Big Night In on Thursday 10th November 2005 and we want you to host your own on or around that night too.

Register to host a Big Night In and receive your Host's Kit at www.bignightin.org. The Host's Kit contains all the information you need. There are suggestions on possible themes, ideas on how to raise money and invitations to send to your friends.

Launched last year by children's charity PiggyBankKids, the Big Night In is a great way to give to charity while having a great night in with your friends.

What to do next? Order your Host's Kit, which includes ideas on themes for your Big Night In and fundraising suggestions. Register for yours at www.bignightin.org. Then ring round your friends and get planning!!! Order your Host's Kit (NB: this is a PDF document download)

Gracia McGrath hosts Interfaith Meeting...(July 2005)

After the terrible events of 7th July Chance UK organised a multi-faith service at Islington Town Hall to pray for the victims of the bombings and their families and to show support for the Muslim community. The speakers were: Fadi Itani from Muslim Welfare House in Finsbury Park, Rev. David Silvester the Islington Dean of the Church of England, and Jack Gilbert, LGBTGFI on behalf of the Jewish community the event was hosted by Gracia McGrath from Chance UK.

Also in attendance were Mohammed Kozbar from the Finsbury Park Mosque, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Lady Sarah Ludford, Helen Bailey, Chief Executive of Islington Council, Richard Woolford the new Borough Commander for the police and other representatives of the council, faith groups and the voluntary sector in Islington.

“This is just the beginning of our working together” says Gracia McGrath of Chance UK “since the service we have arranged a number of meetings to discuss how we can best work together as a community and to plan further events.”

Chance welcomes new Hackney Programme Manager...(June 2005)

Chance UK has recently appointed one of it’s exmentors as a Hackney Programme Manager.

Cliff Joseph has been appointed to work specifically with primary school aged children who have been referred by the Hackney Youth Inclusion Support Panel and The Hackney Primary School Pupil Referral Unit.

The Youth Inclusion Support Early intervention project works with children aged 8-13 who have been identified as being at risk of offending or anti social behaviour. “I am very pleased and excited to be joining the Chance UK team. I know, through personal experience, that the work that we do at Chance UK is effective and important”.

Cliff has previously worked at SKY Partnership (Young Fathers Development Worker), Off Centre (Young Peoples Counsellor) and, Hoxton Sure Start (Dance tutor and Fathers Development Worker). He has also been teaching Afro-Cuban dance for the last ten years and has been practicing yoga since 1994. And if that wasn’t enough he’s also a Tottenham Hotspurs supporter”!

For further details on this post, Cliff Joseph can be reached on 020 7281 5858 X203 or via email Cliff.joseph@chanceuk.com.

A poem by Claudy...(June 2005)

Claudy Kunsianga-Marie Dingi and her mentor, Jennifer Gilkes, spent a session in the library thinking about how they could describe what a mentor is to other children. They cut out letters from the word ‘mentor’ and Claudy used them as inspiration for an acrostic poem. We think it is brilliant.

Well done Claudy!

The life and times of Gracia McGrath... (April 2005)

Gracia McGrath was expelled from school at 16 for screaming abuse at her headmistress. "The teacher punished me for truancy by not entering me for an O-level exam, but only told me once I had sat down to take it," she says.

The outburst cost her a good school reference, which made it tough to find a job. But it also influenced her decision in 2001 to become chief executive at Chance UK , which recruits adults to mentor children aged between five and 11...read the full story

Chance UK recruits National Development Manager... (March 2005)

   Chance UK has recruited a National Development Manager to work across the UK supporting the development of mentoring programmes based on the Chance UK Model.

  Jo Hobbs has been appointed into the position    and will be working with a variety of organisations and local authorities. Her role will be to ensure that excellent mentoring provision is developed within the organisation, based on their best practice model.

Chance UK is one of eight Home Office ‘Gold Star’ projects named as exemplars of good practice in mentoring and befriending and as such will be providing advice and helping to open similar programmes across the UK. They provide specific and targeted solution focused mentoring for children aged 5-11 years, based on individual needs. The programmes are delivered by carefully screened and trained volunteers, who are closely supervised and supported by Chance UK staff.

 Hobbs has been working in the voluntary youth sector for the past 5 years, including roles at London Youth and Girlguiding UK . Her experience of working both regionally and UK-wide makes her ideally placed to take forward this work.

Jo said, ‘I am delighted to be taking up this post at such an exciting time for Chance UK . Having been recognised as a Gold Star project, Chance UK will now be sharing our experience with others to enable more children to benefit from our approach to mentoring. What I have already seen of the mentoring programme in Islington, Hackney and Belfast has been inspiring and I am looking forward supporting others to gain these benefits in their communities’

Gracia McGrath , Chance UK Chief Executive: ‘We are delighted to be able to offer this new service; over the last few years we have been approached by approximately 25 areas of the UK to request that Chance UK start a service in their community. Thanks to the support from the Big Lottery Fund we now have the resources to advise other organisations and support them in developing a nationally recognised mentoring programme.’

For more information, photographs and interviews contact:

Jo Hobbs on 020 7281 5858 x 212 (office) / 07788 417 363 (mobile) or email on: Joanne.hobbs@chanceuk.com

A chance encounter... (March 2005)

   

This is the moment when Rosana Hermosa, Hackney Program Manager at Chance UK met Prime Minister Tony Blair. Rosana was invited to the event at Lancaster House in recognision of the work she has done with young people in the voluntary sector over the last five years.

Congratulations... (February 2005)

Congratulations to the 8 children and 8 mentors who received their graduation certificates at the Hackney Museum on Friday 25 th February.

               

Mums, dad, brothers and sisters all turned up on the night – even uncles and aunties came along to celebrate the success stories over the past year. The certificates were presented by Councillor Geoff Taylor who commented on the day by saying:

 ‘I reckon every pound spent on mentoring [and other programmes] to help youngsters stay on the straight-and-narrow could easily save over fifty pounds in the cost of dealing with a young offender, to say nothing of the human misery and waste of potential. It’s money very well spent. Even when someone really wants to change, it’s hard to do it without help, and that’s what mentors provide. I know that the volunteer mentors get a lot of satisfaction out of what they do, but we are very much in their debt for their contribution to building a happier community’.

Matthew Bates, a mentor graduate from the Chance UK Programme said:

 "The graduation was a fitting end to an amazing year. The mentees were left with a great sense of achievement and the feeling that they could achieve anything they put their mind to."

Chance would like to say thanks to Hackney Museum and to Rahil for taking these GREAT photographs.

Chance UK win money for campaign (October 2004)

This is Gracia McGrath from Chance UK and Michelle Valentine from Vitamin V receiving a huge comedy cheque for nearly € 50,000 at the House of Commons. The money was won jointly for the Ideas That Matter 2004 Competition. The money will be used for an advertising campaign to recruit more mentors, focusing on men, black and minority ethnic mentors. The campaign will start on the 3rd January 2005, so watch this space for more exciting news.

 

New Islington Programme Manager (October 2004)

Christine Hatt has been appointed as our new Islington Programme Manager after working for many years in children's publishing, writing and editing educational books, and more recently for Volunteer Reading Help.

''I really welcome the opportunity to help local children have a better future.'

 

Dolphin Nurseries raise hopes (September 2004)

Dolphin Nurseries, who have made a committment to fundraise for Chance UK for the next 2 years have so far raised £2000  through a Balloon Race held at their Chigwell Nursery.

 

Big Lottery Fund (September 2004)

Chance is pleased to announce that we have received funding for the post of National Development Manager from the Big Lottery Fund. Please see our vacancies page for details of how to apply. Closing date friday 12th November.

New face at Chance UK (September 2004)

We would like to welcome James Bynner as our new Volunteer Recruitment Officer.  James has previously worked in South London as a mentoring co-ordinator and on various arts based initiatives with young people.

'I am excited about working with Chance UK because I strongly believe that the work mentors do has a major impact on young people's lives'.

James starts works on Monday 13th September after a weeks induction training. He can be contacted on vol@chanceuk.com or ext: 201.

Day of Indulgence raises over £2000 for Chance UK!

(August 2004)

The Day of Indulgence was a roaring success, raising over £2000 for Chance UK! 

Thanks to Amita Patel and Karen Weech who organised the whole event on our behalf. As well as obtaining a luxurious venue, sponsorship and raffle prizes, they  recruited and motivated volunteers to help and publicised the event.

The response was overwhelming...by noon all appointments were booked because of the amount of people who turned up to receive treatments in support of Chance UK!

Special thanks to all who volunteered their time, sponsored the event or donated raffle prizes.

Find out what happened on the day

ParentPlus Programme update (August 2004)

ParentPlus is changing…from the end of September we will now be using the brilliantly creative and supportive skills of our new ParentPlus Programme Manager, Barbara Sebti to support parents in improving their parenting skills.

Having used the fabulous resources of our volunteer parent mentors for the past two years, the project has been redesigned to offer ‘parenting consultations’ and mentoring sessions by the ParentPlus Manager. Barbara is an ex-parent mentor with Chance UK and understands very well how parents can be supported to effect dramatic changes in their family situations.

Barbara will start work in her new role on Monday 20th September and can be contacted on ext 203 or by email at parentplus@chanceuk.com

Ex-mentor joins Chance UK staff team (July 2004)

We are now for the first time able to welcome one of our ex-mentors to join our staff team after securing funding for 20 more places from Islington DAAT. Annie Ray starts work in her new role as Islington Programme Manager on Monday 9th August.

Contact her on ext 206 or by email isl1@chanceuk.com

 

3 peaks climbed to raise funds for Chance UK (June 2004)

Annette Pearson at the top of Mount Snowdon in Wales...still managing to smile after hiking up 3 mountains!

Annette decided to raise funds for Chance UK when she realised while training as a mentor that we would be able to work with more children if we had more funds, and that she would be matched with a child more quickly!

So... in only one weekend, Annette climbed the 3 highest peaks in the UK!

Here's her account:

"Saturday we climbed Ben Nevis at 1344 meters and a 16 km walk that took 6 hours in total. We had pouring rain on the way up and snow at the top.

Sunday we climbed Scarfell Pike in fairly nice weather. 978 meters and a 10 km walk that took 5 hours.

On Monday Snowdon at 1085 meters a 12 km walk in 4 hours, would have been the easiest as we had the best weather of the whole weekend except by then my legs had seized up and walking in general was quite difficult.

In total I received £450 in sponsorship!! Thank you everyone!! One of the best things about the weekend is that I got to spend time in some of the most beautiful regions of the UK.

Thanks to Anne and Adam for accompanying me.
Dom, who to be different, is sponsoring me by the foot - I did 38 kms up 3407 meters and I don't know what that is in feet!"

Well done, and thankyou to Annette!