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.