Find out about our new award scheme and amazing online resources from our partners Jack Petchey Foundation Newsletter May 2020 Jack Petchey Community Awards In our last newsletter we told you about our new programme rewarding young people who are supporting others during lockdown. Now we want to showcase some amazing winners and inspire you to nominate someone! In addition scroll down for some free positive thinking and mental health resources brought to you with BTS Spark. Jack Petchey's Community Awards Jack Petchey’s Community Awards programme recognises young people contributing to their communities during lockdown. Anyone aged between 11 and 25 from London or Essex can be nominated. You can nominate someone for many reasons. Some of the nominations we've received have helped large groups of people whilst others had a big impact on one person. If you know someone who has done something special nominate them! We promise to read every nomination we get. We've already had over 300! We'll highlight several winners every week, who will receive £50, a certificate, an award and a letter from Sir Jack. We'll also shout about them to the local newspapers. Some have even appeared on radio! "At the Jack Petchey Foundation, young people inspire us all the time with the incredible work they do and that has not stopped in the current situation. We want to recognise more young people across London and Essex doing inspirational things to help their community and hope these community awards will motivate others and truly showcase the positive things young people do every day.” Trudy Kilcullen MBE, CEO of the Jack Petchey Foundation Jessica keeps her family fit Jessica from Croydon was nominated for continuing to motivate her family during these difficult times. Jessica’s dad had a kidney transplant so is shielding, as is the whole family. Jessica is very active. But as she is not able to go outside she's been creating video workouts to help keep her family fit and support their mental health. She has posted them on YouTube and these have already been viewed quite a bit! Jessica said: “I’m really pleased and honoured to have won the Jack Petchey Community Award. In these uncertain times, it was important for me to keep active and help others at the same time. My dad has had a transplant so has to shield and we are shielding with him. I decided to do a fitness video with my sisters to help motivate people in the same situation to keep fit and remain positive. Winning this award has spread joy to my family at this difficult time – thank you!” Ali's keeping morale high! Ali, aged 17, from Kensington and Chelsea was nominated for the award by his Volunteer Police Cadet unit. Ali has severe asthma and has been self-isolating since the beginning of lockdown in a flat with his family. Despite not being able to go outside himself, he has supported his fellow Cadets remotely and risen to each task set by his unit. PC Jayne Richardson, Volunteer Police Cadet Leader, said: “He has maintained the morale of the other Cadets. He is constantly coming up with new ideas, keeps in regular contact with the Cadets and there have been many tasks each week from our Cadet Central Team in the Metropolitan Police Service and Ali has always stepped up to each challenge." Ali said: “This award means a lot to me and I would like to continue to help my Police Cadet unit during this difficult time.” Joshua helps NHS staff Joshua, aged 11, from Havering was nominated for going the extra mile to help the community by baking cakes for NHS staff and fundraising. After hearing from a family friend working at Queen’s Hospital that morale was low among workers there, Joshua spent his Easter break baking cakes and delivering them to staff along with tea, coffee and a thank you card! Joshua also found out St. Francis Hospice was struggling with funding due to charity shops being closed. He immediately started working with his family to gather donations in the form of toiletries and hygiene products to make the lives of live-in doctors and nurses a little more comfortable there. Joshua said: “I am very honoured to receive this nomination. I feel that giving back to the community is very important, especially in this difficult time and to be recognised for this is wonderful. Thank you!” Joshua decided to donate his £50 to his Scout Troop: 2nd Collier Row and Lennox Children's Cancer Fund which is a charity Joshua is involved with. Delivering food parcels across London Tata, aged 18, from Harrow is a young asylum seeker and youth leader at Barnet Refugee Service. He has organised and delivered food parcels to 119 refugees across London with the help of others from Barnet Refugee Service. Tata said: “First, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the recognition and I would like to say thank you to Robyn and all members of staff of BRS for nominating me for this award. I am enormously proud of myself. Helping people is one of my hobbies. Everybody must do good things for others as we want good things to happen to ourselves.” Communicating: from radio to pen pals Lachlan, aged 17, from Basildon is a member of Gateway 97.8 Radio Club, who now meet online. The young people broadcast every week from their own homes. Lachlan decided to set up a pen pal scheme in which young people from the club write to care home residents to keep them company while in isolation. Lachlan has been writing to Marjorie, aged 93, which has inspired others from the club to do the same. Danny Lawrence, the club leader, said: “It’s such a lovely thing to do and helps people that are in isolation, giving great communication between people. We hope this little project set up by Lachlan will give others the chance to do the same and indeed we think it worthy of an award.” Lachlan said: “I am very honoured to receive such a fantastic award, which has come as a great surprise. I would like to thank the Gateway 97.8 Radio Club team for all their support and for giving me the opportunity to be part of their amazing radio club on a Saturday and helping many young people learn the ways of the radio.” Creating protective gear for the NHS! Ronnie, aged 15, from Colchester has been using his 3D-printer to print ear guards for the NHS from morning until night, every day! He has so far produced over 400 ear guards that form part of the necessary PPE kit and supplied them to Colchester paramedics, Colchester Hospital, cancer care nurses, various care homes and St Helena Hospice. He has had over 1,100 orders so far from different healthcare establishments across Essex. Helen, Ronnie’s mother said: “He printed the first 300 using his own filament but has some now donated. He's also just bought himself a second printer so he can double production. We are very proud of him.” Ronnie said: “I am honoured to be given this award, it’s great to be able to help people during this time of need. I will be using my award to purchase more materials so I am able to keep printing.” Keep your spark at home We also wanted to tell you about some amazing new resources to support your mental health. We've teamed up with leadership experts BTS Spark, to bring you a new programme that you can do from home. It’s all about helping you to keep your spark and be at your best. Whether that’s feeling energised and motivated to pursue your goals, staying resourceful when life feels stressful, or bouncing back when the going gets tough, the programme will give you some simple tools to help you. There will be ten Spark at Home sessions for you. These will be released in batches during May and June. Each newsletter over this time will feature new sessions. Click on the button below to start the first four sessions: Mindset Matters, Being at My Best, Understanding My Triggers, Recognising My Self-Talk. If you're a teacher you can share these materials with students for PSHE home learning and if you have any questions email Denise.Barrows@bts.com Get involved with the Jack Petchey Foundation How are you coping whilst staying at home? What has kept you positive and motivated? We want young people to blog for our website about their experience and advice for staying at home. If you are aged between 11 and 25 and live in London or Essex, email pr@petchey.co.uk if you would like to write a blog for us! We'll even give you guidance on how to write the blog. As you know we're 21 this year! There are a number of ways to help us celebrate: We want you to see the positive in where you live. Enter the #TheGoodInWhereILive photography competition. Send us a birthday card! Find out more about our full range of opportunities At the Jack Petchey Foundation we have a wide range of opportunities for schools, youth organisations and young people to be a part of. We have various schemes for schools and youth organisations to run, which award young people and leaders as well as offer grants to enhance learning further. We also work with many partners to deliver programmes, from art to vlogging and engineering to dance. |