The SMASH team will be taking a well deserved break over the Christmas period and as such the office will be closed on Thursday 24th December through to Friday 1st January. We will return refreshed and rearing to go on Monday 4th January.
In the event of an emergency please contact:
EDS: 01793 436699
SMASH: 07825 264864
May we take the opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas from all of the SMASH Team and thank you for your continued support.
The Swindon Advertiser have been very good to us at The SMASH Youth Project over the years, and most recently have been right behind us in our quest to find funding that will take the project beyond March 2010. We need to turn the heat down just a little however after the very optimistic headline “Charity is rescued - SMASH is saved by big donation from company” which appeared in the 17th December edition. Rumours of our salvation, we are afraid to say have been much exaggerated.
Alcatel-Lucent’s kind donation of about £25,000 over the next two years is extremely welcome and will go some way towards securing our future. As quoted by Rob Chappell, Project Manager in the article there is light at the end of the tunnel and indeed there is, but it’s still a long way off and we need the best part of another £250,000 a year to be certain we can continue to offer the high quality , vital service that is so desperately needed here in Swindon. We have bids in with various different trusts, companies and foundations and are working on several more. Most of these are not likely to yield an answer until February or March next year, and until then we cannot say with any certainty what our future will look like or even if we have one come to that.
Times are hard for everyone and money is difficult to come by but we are determined to do everything we can to survive. If anyone out there was about to send us a cheque for several thousand pounds please rest assured that we do still need it, and if you don’t have your cheque book to hand please continue to keep an eye on our blog for details of up-coming fundraising events.
In short then, thanks to the Advertiser for their continuing interest and support and thanks to Alcatel-Lucent for their much needed Christmas present but please don’t uncross your fingers for us yet. We’ll save the big headlines for a little while longer, and if we may presume to write our own headline “we remain concerned but optimistic, salvation we hope is just around the corner”
As you are aware our current funding ends in March 2010 and we are not willing to go down without a fight. We are looking into holding some fundraising activities and events in the forthcoming months (watch this space for further updates)
To ease us into the swing of things gently we are running a Christmas Raffle, prizes include:
Tickets are available from the SMASH Office at cost of £1.00 per strip
Please help us in our attempts to sustain this valuable project
Our Backtrack Project funded by the Heritage Lottery aims to look at the working, living and social conditions of young people over the years. We are learning about the exploitation and abuse of young people and why measures have been put into place to safeguard and protect our children and young people today.
On the 18th October a group of our young people and some of their mentors visited the Swindon & Cricklade Railway where they met Ken, a retired railway worker who spoke to them about his memories and experiences of life on the railways. After a tour of the workshops we finished by enjoying a ride on one of the service trains alongside one of the drivers.
This was followed on the 22nd November by a visit to The Big Pit, Britain’s leading mining museum. The tour began with us being kitted up with helmet and cap lamp by a real miner and descending down a 300ft mineshaft by pit cage!! We heard first hand what life and working conditions were like for the thousands of men, women and children who worked down the mines.
As you can see a good time was had by all and we would like to say a huge thanks to the Swindon & Cricklade Railway and the Big Pit.
If you would like the opportunity to meet some people or have some fun or share your ideas on places we could visit on our project contact your mentor or Caroline at the SMASH Office
Ex mentor Norman Butler, who has raised thousands of pounds for SMASH with his marathon running exploits (you may have seen the 6ft 10′ pink fairy in a previous Blog) is at it again.
His “white collar” boxing match will take place on either Saturday 16th or Saturday 23rd January, TBC in the next couple of weeks. According to Norman his opponent is Nathan who is “big, tall and keen”.
If you would like to come along to support Norman, we will publish regular updates on the Blog or you can sponsor Norman by clicking on Norman’s Challenges as featured on our Blogroll.
Good luck Norman from all at SMASH
P.S. If you are wondering why Norman is pictured in a rowing boat, this is because he once rowed across the Atlantic so Nathan should be a pushover.
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