A long overdue update

Its been ages since the last post! So heres an update.

Anne Frank - SAV went to London to the Emirates Stadium to talk to young campaigners last month. It was an interesting day. The idea was to share our experience with young people who are starting out on their own campaigns. Im hoping it was valuable for them.

School talks - I attended 2 schools in Plymouth over 2 days to speak about what happened to Lloyd and show the SAV film. It had a brilliant effect as per usual. Im suprised at how much the DVD keeps its impact no matter where it is shown.

TrueTube - A website for films made by young people on topics important to them asked me to travel to London to interview a lady from the Department for Social Justice. They write policies and recommendations to Government based on crime. Their last policy was one on Gang Crime which was quite impressive. Providing the Governement listen it should be effective. They focus on short, medium and long term which is brilliant as most are short term solutions. They also base their policy on what the people of the UK think by doing polls and gathering opinion. Thats key to success in my opinion. They are currently working on youth justice at present to focus on youth violence and anti social behaviour. There may be opportunity to work with them which will be a great way to influence change on a Government scale. I will post the link when the interview has been edited.

Fireworks fundraiser - I am looking to team up with a local fireworks display to raise some money for SAV in November.

Summer Fete 2011 - Vivary park has been booked and we are starting the planning for this community event. Theres a lot of work involved but i have no doubt that we can pull it off!

Sponsored walk - Kirsty's Kilimanjaro walk is coming up next month and we are making good progress on sponsors. Thank you to everyone that has donated and to anyone that wishes to donate bear in mind that £1 from each of our facebook members will raise over £2000. So please sponsor this amazing challenge.

Kirsty's fundraiser - As well as the sponsored walk Kirsty is also organising a fundraising day in Taunton for the start of June. Its all ready just a case of encouraging people to attend.

Trustees - We have welcomed a new trustee to the SAV charity who will be our official treasurer. We are also going to be making Kirsty a Trustee to manage fundraising as she is doing a fantastic job and it would be great to have her continue.

Grants - We have received a conditional grant offer for £2500 from the Awards for All lottery grant program. This will enable us to attend an Education Show next March to promote SAV and our resource. We have 2 further grant applications pending.

ITV fixers - Im awaiting an edit day for the advert and hopefully it should be ready by the middle of next month! The task of finding places to show the advert then begins!

Website - Our website is being revamped which should be ready soon. We hope to have another page for feedback where i can post up some of the brilliant feedback we have received to demonstrate the positive impact our resource is having on young people.

I think thats it for the time being. Thank you for reading and i will post further updates soon. If anyone wishes to sponsor Kirsty please click the link: http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/kirstygough
If anyone wishes to join in on fundraising and promotion of SAV we are looking for volunteers. Please get in touch if you believe in our work.

Final day of filming with Fixers

Last day filming with ITV fixers today. We were at the Bristol medical simulation centre and everything went very well. We got some great shots in a great A&E setting. We even simulated a cardiac arrest, clever technology! We start editing next within the month, cant wait! This advert should be pretty impressive and hard hitting, well thats the plan. It will be up on facebook, youtube, the SAV website, crime stoppers affiliated website and hopefully it can be used by the NHS, Police, Cinemas and possibly TV. Its going to be a hard slog to encourage profit making organisations to take it up though. Hopefully we can do it.

Up coming events

I have been asked to attend Red Banks Community Home in Merseyside to give a talk in June sometime. The campaign is really reaching places now although traveling such a distance is pushing my comfort zone!
I will be giving several talks to year 9 groups in Plymouth on the 18th and 19th of May. The request has come from the Children and Young peoples services in Plymouth council.
Now we are a registered charity we have joined with the local CVS (Community Volunteers Service) who will help us find volunteers, find funding and any other advice we need. Im attending a funding fair on the 6th to speak with various funders about what they offer.
Its taking time but we are moving forward and i hope it continues!

Im waiting on a cheque from the Fox Glove trust who have kindly donated £700 to cover music license expenses. Once that comes through we can pay for the outstanding licenses and manufacture some more DVD's which we are in need of. Cant believe we got through them all!

We are adding new sections and revamping the website which will take a little time but Discover Websites are working on that. I will update everyone when its ready. The old look site will remain active so for those who want to use the film it shouldnt be a problem.

New lesson plans are expected to be received by the end of next month which will be added to the website for other teachers to use.

Kirsty's Kili walk

Kirsty Gough's sponsored walk up Kilimanjaro is fast approaching and she has currently raised £320 for Stand Against Violence. She is aiming for £1,500 so more emails will be going out on facebook! If you want to donate please visit http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/kirstygough and show your support.

Our first day of filming for the advert

Our first day of filming was tiering but enjoyable. We started at 9.30 and wrapped at 23.00. We filmed pretty much all the scenes including a fight scene. We had a 2hr break around 17.00 so we all piled back to a house to have a BBQ and chill out in the remaining sun. All in all we achieved a lot, it was enjoyable and is looking absolutly fantastic. We have one day of filming left for the 5th at the Bristol Medical Simulation Centre where will will film the A&E, intensive care and care home scenes. That day we dont expect to be quite so long. Everyone was extremly professional and it was wonderful to work with them all. Im really looking forward to the edit now. Got to go to Winchester for that!