AGM

The first annual general meeting of SAV was held on the 7th June marking 1 year as a charity. It was a very positive meeting and people were impressed to hear of all our good work. Hopefully next year we will have a better turn out!

Press release evaluation of SAVed Day

Stand Against Violence ran two pilot workshops on violence and its consequences in May. Seven schools from Taunton, Bridgwater, Highbridge, Minehead and Wellington attended and 80 pupils benefitted from certified first aid training, personal safety and conflict resolution classes and the violence prevention workshops run by Stand Against Violence. The day included a powerful introduction by Adam Fouracre speaking about the devastating impact of the murder of his brother Lloyd Fouracre who was beaten to death in Taunton in 2005. 

 

The SAVed project days were supported by O2, local grant making organisation Benchmark and received some funding from Taunton Deane Community Safety team and Taunton rotary club. The days proved very successful and clearly had a profound impact on the pupils. Adam Fouracre, chair of Stand Against Violence said 'the SAVed project days provide not only powerful and positive violence prevention sessions but also teaches skills that will benefit young people in their future lives.' Pupils are also awarded ASDAN credit for attending and the days are hugely beneficial to schools and pupils a like. Lynne Roberts-Mudge from Brymore School, Cannington said ‘The boys haven't stopped talking about the day, they really enjoyed it and got a huge amount from it.  They are already asking if they can go again and I have had a number of boys also asking to take part next time.’ Stand Against Violence is currently planning more workshop days following the success of the pilots expected to start from September. Adam said 'we hope to benefit many more pupils by continuing these valuable workshops and opening them up to all schools in Somerset and Bristol.'

SAVed Project complete - temporarily

The final project day is now complete and the evaluation is nearly complete. All the days went very well with everyone both teachers and pupils have enjoyed themselves and taken a lot away with them


Some of the very positive comments;

‘the introduction to the day was excellent’, ‘Self defence was excellent as was the discussion part of ‘conflict resoloution’’ (Sedgemore Centre PRU)

‘really enjoyed the day. First aid was not quite so great – kids got a bit board & teacher was not great with the more difficult ones. Self defence superb both for physical lesson & for message it gave. All were moved by Lloyds story.’ (West Somerset College)

'The boys haven't stopped talking about the day, they really enjoyed it and got a huge amount from it.  They are already asking if they can go again and I have had a number of boys also asking to take part next time.’ (L. Roberts-Mudge, Brymore School)

‘Very hard hitting video with a strong message that needs to be highlighted’

‘An excellent day for all. Students identified with all the issues and came away from the day with lasting knowledge which they can use should they ever need to. Well done to all concerned’ (C. Roberts, Robert Blake Science College)

‘An informative and varied day which engaged a range of pupils’

The general feedback from pupils was that by the end of the day the pupils had learnt ‘that violence affects more that the victim’, ‘how to stay safe and be more aware’, ‘to walk away and protect myself’ and    ‘it has made me think about my actions’

The overall comment when asked what the young people will take away from the day was ‘to think about the consequences of my actions and to think before i act’. This is the message of the charity and the project so the fact that young people are stating this implies the days were successful.

When asked if there was anything the pupils would like to experience more of one pupil wrote he would like ‘SAV to come to schools for a day with the whole school’.

So it all went very well. Thank you and well done to all involved and i hope we can continue these clearly valuable and beneficial days.
 

1st SAVed Project day complete!

1st Project day completed! Thank god for pilots! The timing went a little off thanks to the YMCA clocks that need new batteries but we still finished on time. Other than that i think everything went well. The kids seemed to enjoy it, particularly the self defense. The teachers seemed happy with the day and the feedback has been very positive so far.
I need to review the layout for the next day and make some minor adjustments which will hopefully improve it. We could have done with 3 pilot days to get it spot on.

Self defence;
All the pupils said they really liked the self defense class and looked like they enjoyed themselves. Its difficult to get the balance right between teaching manouvers and teaching conflict resoloution and avoidance but i believe Matt got the mix right.
 
'Self defence was excellent as was the discussion part of conflict resolution' (West Somerset Community College.

First Aid;
Although some pupils felt this to be the least favourite lesson for various reasons i feel it is an essential aspect and will equip them with some basic knowledge for the future.

'Learnt the effects of violence and what i can do if it occures for example first aid' Pupil

Violence workshop;
Pupils seemed to get a lot out of the lesson and enjoyed the mix of activities and discussion. They all had the opportunity to ask Adam (me) questions about Lloyds story and all of them seemed gripped and interested.

'Taught me more about what my actions can cause' Pupil
'Think about my decisions more' Pupil

Table cloth evaluation;
The evaluation method didnt work quite as well as expected so we will have to adapt this for the next one.

From my perspective I thought the day went well for our first event and it can only get better. All those teaching were wonderful and our volunteers were life savers (i overlooked the need for manpower until the day before so im very grateful to those volunteers who helped out at short notice).
At one point i have to admit i felt a little emotional to see the day coming together and i really hope to see this continue.

Advertising campaign

Remember last year when we/i was on about awareness raising through advertising? This was not to be due to the extortionate cost despite playing the charity card! However, just when i thought all was lost along come O2! Not only have O2 provided funds and valuable support in the projects we are running but they also selected 4 projects to benefit from a large advertsing and PR package they are putting together. After an application and a presentation SAV has been chosen of 1 of the 4!
I hope this will be our opportunity to get proper use out of the advert we made with fixers! It is such a great piece and its something that i hope/know will have a big impact. Fingers crossed. I find out more next week.

O2, ASDAN and the SAVed Project day

So the SAVed Project days are nearly upon us. We have managed to fill both days with only 16 out of 60 spaces outstanding on the 6th. SAV is also now an accredited ASDAN centre offering 1 credit for the day course!

I have just given a presentation to the PR company in O2 over Skype to try and gain SAV an expensive PR campaign involving celebrity endorsement, support and cinema advertising. So fingers crossed we will be successful. I should find out tomorrow.

Just to add to the recent pleasant supprises I won a Citizen of the Year Award 2011 from the local Taunton Deane council! Hurray!

So there's the latest. Whats next!

Oh the annual accounts and the trustee report will be ready soon. They will be uploaded to our website for public scrutiny!

Education Show 2011

The Education Show was a great success. SAV gave out over 7,000 leaflets and pens to educators, reporters and council workers. We had over 150 in depth discussions and made over 12 links with similar organisations with a view to working together!
We were also informed by an EMAP representative (the show organisers) that there was a lot of mention about our stand, charity and the work we do and people were discussing it all over the NEC. The stand stood out nicely and given that the furniture had been hand made it all looked wonderful. Five trustees attended including myself and we stayed up there for 3 nights. I think im safe to say that despite being totally exhausted we all had a wonderful time!!
Heres just a few pictures to sum up the success we had.

Well done and thank you to all those who supported and worked hard to make the stand the success it was!

 

O2 Think Bigger and SAV project

What a great weekend with UK Youth and the O2 Think Bigger team. It was brilliant to meet other inspiring people who are all doing fantastic projects in their areas.
So following the weekend i am now equipped with more knowledge, money and even have a notebook PC!

The new project is now underway and dates are booked. Its now a case of getting the schools along!

Following the TKAP event in Plymouth which was a huge success and had a positive impact of the young people that attended i am using this as a starting block for the basis of our workshops.

 

With the help of O2 Think Bigger and working in conjunction with St John Ambulance SAV is launching a new project that is desperately needed by young people in today's society. Continuing to use Lloyds story we will be starting workshop days to educate young people away from school. Young people are our future society and the people that can make a difference. We will be educating them about the consequences of violence and equipping them with the skills to think before they act and stay safe.

 

The Stand Against Violence project pilot will invite schools to send a group of pupils from a group of local schools to take part in a day workshop where Lloyds story will be used to challenge attitudes and increase awareness. We will also be providing carousel workshops to include an hour of first aid training, an hour of personal safety and conflict resolution and an hour of more in depth discussion around the topic of violence and alcohol with the option to quiz myself.

 

 

The first aid training will be provided and accredited by St John to enhance CV's. We hope that some basic first aid will enable young people to be more equipped to deal with experiences they may encounter if they go out in the evenings and the personal safety training to enable them to be a little wiser and more protected on nights out.

This project meets all of the following;

• Healthy Schools
• SEAL
• Every Child Matters outcomes

and is an essential element and fits perfectly into the PSHE curriculum. To add to this we are looking into the possibility of this workshop meeting a required outcome or contributing to an ASDAN award and I have volunteered myself to train as a Youth Achievement Award assessor so we will be able to offer the hours spent on this day workshop as a contributor to pupils working towards the nationally recognised Youth Achievement Award.

 

The day will be supported by St John and will be held in their Head Office in Bridgwater on the 29th April and 26th May. We have room for 60 pupils on both days including a couple of school support workers from each school which we would ask them to send. All those working with the young people will be enhanced CRB checked.

 

Our first two workshop days will be provided free of charge to schools following successful funding bids secured from Benchmark and O2 but future workshops will be charged at a low rate. All profits will be put back into the charity to help us continue our work and develop new resources.

 

These one day workshops will be hugely beneficial to schools, their pupils and they have the potential to save a life. Im asking for the support of the Somerset County Council to support and promote this in Somerset and in particular to schools.

 

Ill look forward to updating this blog on the progress!

BETT show 2011

SAV attended the BETT show at the London Olympia on the 13th Jan.

A very successful day, lots of interest and between two of us we managed to hand out nearly 1000 leaflets and some pens and wrist bands to our target audience.

This experience has also put us in very good sted for the Education Show in March and adjustments to the SAV stand have already been made.


Brilliant opportunity. Thank you Kudlian Software!

STAND AGAINST VIOLENCE UNVEILS NEW SCHOOL CAMPAIGN

Local Taunton based charity Stand Against Violence launched plans to start violence prevention lessons in schools across Somerset and Bristol.

Brooke Kinsella will soon be releasing a report on tackling youth violence in the UK with the expectation that she will advise the Government that schools should include lessons on youth violence as a part of the national curriculum. The Big Society mentioned by David Cameron PM focuses on services being provided by the voluntary sector. With this in mind Stand Against Violence has geared itself to face this new challenge by starting a facilitation service for Somerset and Bristol schools.

A fully trained local teacher who has in depth experience in PSHE and has previously used the Stand Against Violence educational resources has joined the charity as their first 'facilitator'. Stand Against Violence spokes person said 'this is a long awaited step in the right direction for the charity. We have played with the idea of providing schools with a service such as this and now seems the perfect time'. Stand Against Violence will be starting lesson facilitation in the coming months with promotional material being sent out to schools already. Services on offer will include school assemblies, PSHE/Citizenship lessons and full day sessions. The service can also be individually tailored to meet each schools needs. This service is also available to Youth groups in the area. Issues focused on will be violence, alcohol and the law. Stand Against Violence hopes that this service can be rolled out across the South West in coming years.

For more information please email c.anderson@sav-ed.co.uk, a.fouracre@sav-ed.co.uk or call 07599688896