Project is complete

Unfortunately I experienced firsthand the effects of violence.

Please watch my brothers story at www.sav-ed.co.uk/sav-film.htm. If you feel strongly about the need to reduce and prevent violence as I do then please make a pledge by clicking on the facebook support button above.

Getting individuals like you involved across the UK, in one voice and for one cause we can make a Stand Against Violence together.

Please pledge with me.

If you have any questions, get in touch through the @O2UKThinkBig Twitter channel with #askadam.

You can also like our Facebook page www.facebook.com/SAViolence or follow us on Twitter @SAViolence

The film contains graphic scenes that some viewers might find distressing.

So, all the new dates are booked for the next academic year (sept 2011 - 2012). All the venues are confirmed and we have found one cheaper one. I have decided to stick with the YMCA occasionally because it's a wonderful space so I figured what we save on the cheaper venue we can use for the YMCA. The new marketing materials are ready, the prices are set at £25 per pupil after securing a £1000 grant from the local high sheriffs charity 'crimebeat'. So far it's all looking bright. I have published the new dates on the website so I'm now just waiting for bookings! I will keep this page updated but for now the O2 think bigger project milestones are complete!

I will post the promo vid up soon!

Evaluation complete! Time to relax briefly and then start finding some new cheaper venues, plannin costs and charges, then booking and filling the next lot of days!!

For comments and feedback from the evaluation see the blog http://standagainstviolence.blogspot.com/2011/05/saved-project-complete-temporarily.html

I will post up the promo vid when its complete!

Well im not sure about focusing on the attendance of pupils. I think we should maybe focus on the schools attendance at events like the workshop days. Out of a confirmed 60 places on each day only half the numbers turned up and some pulled out at the last minute (the day before). Most of the schools that did turn up turned up 10 minutes late which made us pushed for time.

I also noticed how unengaged and uninterested many of the teachers were at engaging with thier own pupils. Some disappeared, some were playing on their phones and some turned up for sessions without their pupils! You have to laugh as its rather scary to think modern day kids have these people to guide them!

However some were VERY good and involved and all the tutors commented on how much of a difference it made to the pupils level of engagement in the sessions. It goes to show that a teachers have a significant influence over their pupils and its a shame some cant be bothered.

It will be included in marketing materials that it is expected that teachers get actively involved and are responsible for their pupils. This is a delicate issue though as without schools on board theres no point in the project continuing so care should be taken.

On the other hand the pupils were wonderful.

thoughts on violence

first aid

workshop day

Today was the last of the project days. We learnt from the last one and made some minor adjustments to timings and on the whole it was considerably better and more relaxed.

There are still a couple of adjustments to a couple of the lessons to get it perfect but this will come with time as we intend to continue.

So the next step is evaluation. We have collected all the feedback and a promo video is being made which i will upload when it is complete.

We are looking at using the Somerset TA centres for the next workshops as they are consideably cheaper.

On the whole a damn good day and pupils have benefited greatly.

Thanks to a lovely friend of mine it looks like we may be able to base our workshops at TA centres. They are dotted around everywhere and sound perfect for our purpose not to mention they are cheaper.

After reviewing costs once our funding sieses the ideal cost would be £40 minimum per pupil, but according to school feedback they would only pay between £20-30 per pupil (some said less than £20 which really annoyed me as no day like this can be provided for that price). Schools seem to want the earth for free and then when you give them something for free they disrespect it and dont make any effort to turn up! Its very sad.

Anyway this is good news and it means we can provide more of these days at a reasonable price. I do need to look at pricing structures though as i think there may be a better way of doing it than per pupil.

There were a couple of things that need reviewing such as timetable structure and timing but thats the point of a pilot and we are on the case. A couple of the schools dropped out the day before which was very nice of them (sarcastic tone)! We managed to get about 40 pupils out of 60 through the day which is still a good number and the reactions would lead me to think that there would be interest if there were more workshop days.

Our next day is 55 pupils full as one of the schools got confused with the days and sent their pupils on this one. The ability of schools to organise and structure their pupils days is fantastic (sarcastic tone again)!

Anyway despite this it was a good day and i think the pupils got a lot out of it. Just need to send on the certificates next week.

more pics

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

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

Another pic from self defence

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.

What a bloody fantastic day! I found out i have been 1 of 4 chosen by O2 to benefit from a large PR package and i cannot wait to get started! Thank you O2!

Hurray! All the workshop places are full!!! I thought i was going to have to accept defeat with 16 places outstanding on the first workshop on the 6th May (next Friday!) but as of 5 hours ago all the spaces are now gone!! Milestone 2 is complete!!!!

SAV has signed contracts to be an awarding body of ASDAN credit! I also gave a presentation using Skype to O2's PR company to try and get SAV some professional PR and media promotion. Find out tomorrow if I was successful! Finger crossed!

Ooh and i won a local Citizen of the year award 2011 from the Taunton Deane council!

This update is rather overdue but spaces on the project days are filling up nicely. We have 2 available dates which are the 6th and 20th May. The 20th May is fully booked now and there are only 16 places left on the 6th. As i anticipated it has been the tougher aspect of the project getting schools to commit but now they have we have to put on a successful day that they will be keen to repeat!

I have decided to not offer up evidence for the ASDAN awards but instead I have managed to gain some additional funds to become a registered centre for ASDAN and we can give each attendee one ASDAN credit that can go towards whichever award they are working on. This is a much better option and as the money is available we may as well do it!

The next step from here is to fill the remaining places on the 6th May and then send out the schedule for the day and a request for a list of attendee names for the certificates. The form is all ready to go so they will all be sent out shortly.

I must say a huge thank you to O2 or telephonica. What a truely amazing company to support young people with their projects so freely, willingly and trusting. All i can say is dont change, dont add restrictions and red tape as other companies do. The think big projects are a pleasure to be a part of and im pleased to consider myself lucky to be involved and have the support. I guess in some ways the money is an extra bonus. I find the support much more valuable and to be honest you really cant put a price on the expertise being offered to us for free. So thank you to you O2, thank you to Helen for running think bigger, thank you to Libby for your wonderfully posh but friendly telephone manner, thank you to Katie for your chattyness - even despite the fact we were balancing on a wire you were still chatting almost totally oblivious - it was hillarious looking back on it. Thank you to Becky for your support, kindness and general loveliness. Thank you to the experts that did our masterclasses, thank you to the Avon Tyrrell team and thank you to everyone i havent managed to mention (unfortunatley i think im getting repetative strain from typing 'thank you' so much!!!). So THANK YOU to you ALL.

Im happy to announce Milestone 1 is complete. Reflecting on this first stage im pleased to say that it has been smooth and a pleasure to work on. I expected this to be the toughest part getting it off the ground. However i was wrong. So onto the next milestone. I guess this will be a tough one though, getting schools to commit and get pupils to the venue. Oh well. We will do it! Lloyd will help us!

I have contacted all schools in the appropriate areas and the interest is MASSIVE! I have been keeping a call sheet so i know who to chase and when. Ive been speaking with the deputy heads and the heads PAs in the main. Our marketing materials have gone out.

Just one day after the info landed in inboxes i had a call from one school asking for it to be delivered in their school to 160 pupils! One other school has been given a booking form and another variation on the lessons have been booked in with a local school that we also hope to entise to this event.

So far so good. Just need to follow up and secure some bookings now. It helps that we are offering accreditations and certificates which can enhance portfolios, count towards ASDAN programs and ultimately benefit the personal development of the young pupils.

I had a few set backs with venues and dates. St John Ambulance kindly offered the free use of their training rroms but unfortunately they were booked up. After shopping around and continually coming up against £300 per room at cheapest i was losing hope. I then stumbled across Bridgwater YMCA. Good pricing, amazing new building and just wow, perfect rooms.

Dates were a pain too as we were going for a date in April and one in May but the day we decided on in April given that we have school term time tables to content with as well, turned out to be the one off bank holiday due to the royal wedding! Damn Kate and Wills! Haha.

Anyway the dates are now set at 6th and 20th May.

So the place and date is set. The structure is in place. Funding has been secured and we are good to go. Just got to fill the seats now. Space for 60 pupils per day so better get going!

We have managed to team up with Kapap self defense and St John Ambulance to deliever complementary workshops on first aid, personal safety and conflict resoloution. Our day is now properly structured.

Ok so the residential is over and i have to say it was a very enjoyable few days and meeting the other project developers was very inspiring. The residential has started me thinking about my milestones which are now ready to go and i have already made a good start. So i started with the name and logo. So introducing the SAVed Project (Stand Against Violence Education Project).

Our awareness advert.

The film was a hugely successful and powerful resource used now on a national scale. Lloyd's death has not been in vain.

The start of our educational venture.

Heres how we began

He was loved and respected and he will never be forgotten. In loving memory of Lloyd William Fouracre (26th September 1987 - 26th September 2005)

The end of the trial but not the end of the grief

I thought i would add some YouTube videos to demonstrate why Im doing this project and running SAV

Stand Against Violence (SAV) is an existing charity that aims to reduce violence in UK communities through education and building awareness. I started SAV following the murder of my brother Lloyd Fouracre back in 2005. My team and I have produced educational material based on my brothers tradgic story which is proving successful in many educational establishments around the UK.

Our Think Bigger project is to host 2 educational days which schools can send their pupils to. We will focus the days on issues of violence, anti social behaviour and alcohol. Our aim will be to provide a powerful, effective, enjoyable and life enhancing day which can be repeated for many more to benefit from in years to come.

£300 project complete

All our milestones are now complete. The councils were by far the biggest struggle but finally we have what we need!

So to the future...SAV never stops and despite completing our O2 project we have many other burning ideas to get off the ground. We hope to gain support from O2 to achieve this.

Its time SAV started thinking like a business if we want to progress so our next venture is to create a solid and structured business plan before setting off on our main crusade of recruiting teaching facilitators to visit schools and facilitate lessons using our resources. If we get through to the next round of O2 think big this will be our next project.

So fingers crossed we get the help we need.

Our website is now on 4OD's database meaning we will be added under related links on any program related to violence!

We seem to be hitting brick walls with the councils as i half expected. The problem is that the further outside of Somerset we go the less councils are likely to support us. That said we have just managed to gain Plymouth City Councils logo as we have worked with them in the past. Its all about finding a link! So their logo is on our site now. One more council to go until we can tick off our next milestone. We are trying West Sussex as we have a link and will be sending out letters to all the South West County Council community safety leads. Just waiting for our research report to be completed then we will have figures and stats to back up our claims of success and impress the big wigs.

Although they are not a County Council we now have support from NHS Somerset. Obviously the NHS are relevant to alcohol and violence awareness and education so this is great. Their logo is now on our website www.sav-ed.co.uk

After a meeting with Somerset Learning resource centre, an organisation who supply and promote educational resources to Somerset Schools, we now have our resources as a part of their library and they will be promoting our product in their newsletter soon to go out to all Somerset schools.

New link to fearless website. http://www.fearless.org/fighting-murder they have a link to our website, our recent awareness advert and i have just finished writing an article for them which they will be putting on their site soon. I shall update and add the link when it is complete.

A website link;

Dear Adam

many thanks for your email with details about the charity you have founded. We have included the information you sent and your website address on our pages about the organisations which help young people deal with the effects of violence and bullying - unfortunately these pages are only available to our members so I can't show you where you are placed but can assure you that you are in good company with links to Kidscape and Childline among others.

Again, many thanks for sending the information.

Yours sincerely

School Library Association

Update to say we now have county council support from Somerset. Their logo is on our website at the bottom of each page www.sav-ed.co.uk! Moving on to the next lot of councils next.

We have the support of one Somerset newspaper who have agreed to ask us as a charity for comments which will publicise and increase awareness of us! They said they cannot print the logo and website but at least this is progress and with one paper on board we can use this to gain support from others. A step forward!

Just wanted to post this as it could be quite an interesting development. I have been gradually directed towards th North West Observatory who do a lot of research surrounding violence and its effects. I had a very interesting chat with a lady there and i proposed we might work together which she seemed keen about. So fingers crossed this could really benefit us and not only give us more credebility but also increase national awareness!

We have acheived our 1st milestone and have managed to get our local council behind us. We are in the process of speaking with the county council who have verbally agreed but we are waiting to complete on this.

Following our trustee meeting we have all been allocated tasks to do including finding out the relevant people to target in the various county councils.

We have been involved in making a video showing our educational resource in action. I have recently recieved a copy which i have posted here.

Just an update to say our website has now been revamped. Please have a look.

www.sav-ed.co.uk

We will be having a meeting tonight to discuss our new project. With a bit of luck we should come up with plenty of ideas to achieve our task.

Please visit our website (our centre for the resources and charity we are promoting in this project) www.sav-ed.co.uk.

We also have a facebook page;

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=502387058#!/group.php?gid=37906759509&ref=mf

Please join us.

We have managed to get our website link on the following websites:

pshe association

teachernet

teacherstalk

I am amazed that we have made out first steps already without spending any money at all. This £300 is a fantastic gift to give us some additional support but im very stingy and used to wheeling and dealing to get things for free so it will be very interesting to see how much of it is actually spent.

Wow, another successful talk with Somerset County Council. They have agreed to support us by providing us with a logo. Im just waiting for them to send me the logo now.

I have a funny feeling it will get more challenging from here on out as the further a field i go the less the charity and its background will be known.

We now have official backing from our local Taunton Deane Borough council. This is the first councils logo to be added to the website. I was expecting it to be much tougher to get through to the right people but wow it was relativly easy! Hopefully with one council on board it should be easier to persuade others. Next up the county council!