How to help

Can you help us?

It is probably easier to help us than you think! We receive funding for student placements through the schools grant scheme, but as a creative enterprise we constantly need resources, volunteer support and equipment every bit as much as funding.

Donations

• Fundraise for us – can you, your school, college or workplace raise funds to enable us to take young people out on trips and to art exhibitions, events and shows?
• Donations – contributions of any size are always welcome to help pay for anything from a few pencils right up to major events and outings.

Resources

• Stationery and writing equipment – pens, pencils, rubbers, rulers, paper, post-it notes, wall pins, highlighters, plastic wallets, good-quality A4 card for certificates to be printed on, envelopes, paper
• Art equipment – art brushes, paints, glitter, coloured card, glue, staples, A3 and A2 card, board markers, sharpers, painting plastic aprons, notebooks, sticky tape, marker pens, art pens and crayons, chalk, presentation wallets, water bottles, canvas boards, canvas boards, acrylic paints, paint pallets, plastic cups
• Unwanted gifts – we need handbags, clothing, health and beauty products such as make-up, face creams, nail polishes and removers, hand creams, hair products a hairdryer, jewellery-making equipment such as clips, beads and earrings
• Books – novels and information books
• Media – blank CDs for recording our students’ work
• Printer supplies
• Personal equipment – tea, coffee, sugar, tissues, hand sanitiser
• Media equipment – iPads, laptops, cameras, Dictaphones, external hard drive, chargers, mobile phones TVs, DVD and CD players
• Kitchen equipment – a small fridge, kettle and toaster, smoothie maker and an iron
• Food – healthy snacks, fruit and bottled water
• Printing free (or very low-cost) printing facilities - so that we can print the young people’s artworks and photographs of their performances. We also need to print leaflets for events, shows, graduation ceremonies and performances.

Your time

More than anything, we need people who can volunteer regularly to give us a few hours or a whole day (10am to 2.30pm) of their time once a week, between September and May to support our young people.

We also need people who can show them just how many choices are available to them in the world of work.

No experience is needed – just a desire to help and support us!

People we would particularly like to hear from include:

• Anyone creative
• Musicians
• Singers and choirmasters
• Actors
• Artists
• Magicians
• Dancers
• Personal trainers
• Circus performers and clowns
• Comedians
• Authors and poets
• Film and TV professionals
• Make-up artists
• Photographers
• Fashion designers
• Record producers
• IT experts
• Sports people
• Gardeners
• Midwives, nursery nurses
• Builders and trade professionals
• Fire and police officers
• Doctors, NHS staff and dentists
• Drug and alcohol awareness professionals
• Airline staff and people in the travel industry
• Shop managers
• Self-defence teachers
• Lawyers
• Driving instructors
• Video game designers
• Architects
• Mental health practitioners
• Therapists offering mindfulness, healing, CBT etc.
• Hairdressers
• Beauticians
• Nutritionists
• Personal stylists
• Chefs, cooks, chocolate tasters
• Handwriting experts
• Lego experts
• Graphic designers
• Vet, zoo-worker
• Anyone who can help with teaching interview techniques, providing life skills advice or just inspiring young people.

Creative space

We are currently in a small room in Kingston College, but would love to have a big room which we could use as an art room.

Ideally, we also need a smaller room for meetings and one-to-ones, perhaps with a small kitchen so we can run nutrition workshops.

We dream of a brightly decorated room with lots of natural light, ready to be filled with our young people’s art work and photographs of what they are doing each week.

We would love a big store cupboard to keep things out of the way and organised, with lots of small storage boxes and table coverings which could be washed or disposable so the tables never look grubby.

There would be recycling bins so we could teach about environmental issues. We also need the rooms to be in the centre of Kingston so easily accessible for our young people.

If you can help with any of the above, the young people we support would be very grateful. Please get in touch to find out how.