Monday 25th September 2017 - videos, Jordan; handouts, meetings

Posted 11:45am

Wow!!  Is it seriously a whole week since my last blog entry?? Where does the time go? So much to add in this entry.

Just come back from a terrific meeting in Hackney, where I met up with a fantastic lady called Lauren, who now works at Hackney Council in the Employment department, but I first came across at Business In The Community, when she was part of the team that ran the Ready For Work program. We discussed our Ajani, and how it could possibly fit in with the work they do in Hackney. I asked about the possibilities of doing a pilot in one part of the Borough, and we are going to discuss this more very soon. I have to send some paperwork through. But it ended very positively. It was great catching up too.

I was going to chase Jordan this week - the amazing US guy who posts fantastic videos about fitness and life on Youtube, and who we followed on our pilot program. I chatted with him a week ago and he promised to send us a video. Well, it came this morning. And I am so grateful to him, and it is terrific. It will definitely enhance our next program, and it is three and a half minutes dedicated to HMHB and its users. I find it difficult to actually put into words just how special this feels.  Truly amazing!!!!  YAY!!!

Stunning work from Kacper, our website guru and social media magician - we have intros and outros on our bespoke fitness videos - and they are all on our Youtube channel now (hmhb2016). Again, it is difficult to describe how it feels as it is something I have thought about for quite a few years - and talked about a great deal.  To actually see it happen is truly emotional. However, it is me being trained by Dean and shows me just how out of shape I have become and how hard I must work to regain my old shape and fitness. It's a terrific incentive (I describe myself as fat and camp I think - must do better!!!).  But thanks to Dean for training, Luke for filming, and Kacper for the computer magic!!

Last Tuesday I met up with Nasir, the borough relationship manager for DWP in Camden, and had a terrific discussion about our work and how we can perhaps do more in Camden. He has agreed to come on our course on one day to talk to the people about opportunities around employment when they have finished recovery, which is amazing. We also spoke about the DPS system and getting ourselves on there.

On Wednesday I had the opening day of our year long Capacity Building Project with Voluntary Action Islington. I think it will greatly enhance our work knowledge and proecdures moving forward, especially around monitoring and evaluation , as well as business planning.

Monday 18th September 2017 - progress; board; professional help

Posted 4:30pm

Definitely back to the daily grind today following a nice day off for domestics. And we are gradually making progress.

We have got a definitive date and time for our Islington CCG meeting - the 6 November - it's a massive meeting for us. I have asked Scott, Luke and Dean to attend - as well as Fateha from HGMP and Joe from SHP (we would have just about finished our second program by then). Fantastically, Rosemary on our board will actually be in Islington on that day for meetings to do with her company, of which she is CEO, and we are hoping there will be time for her to also attend.

We have had to postpone our meeting with Hackney Council to next Monday morning, due to they being busy, but that is fine. It is just an opportunity to discuss our program with them, and see if we can start negotiating some kind of dialogue in getting us involved in their own employment support.

Funnily, I know the contact we will be meeting,  They were part of the management team of the Ready For Work program run by Business In The Community when I went through it three years ago. Ironically, I have just organised a meeting with BITC for next Monday afternoon. I would like to see if they could promote our program with their business contacts to see if anyone would contribute to our GoFundMe, or even sponsor us for a small time.  In return, I was hoping they might give us a chance to help them with the RFW program.  No harm in talking.

I met earlier with Luke from the Big Alliance, and after yattering on for ages (the poor man) we discussed ways that they could help us. The BA create terrific links between organisations and working professionals.  We said we would like to see if we could get an Islington business leader on our Board - someone who has not been associated with either myself or the creation of HMHB - that way someone who can maybe see things from a different business point of view.

We also asked about getting some help towards advice on HMRC issues and social media marketing. They do have people who give their time pro bono to help local projects. Luke said he would put our request about and see what comes up. (I have to complete some forms, but they are a charity and thankfully there is no fee).

Finally, we will be getting out finished Youtube video intro and outro later today - which is very exciting. It's things like that which will hopefully allow us to stand out from the crowd.

Saturday 16th September 2017 - Jordan; videos; program; handouts; CCG

Posted 3:55pm

Another strong week for us - of progress and work. For people trying to start a business, there can be sites online that seem to say it is quite easy. It definitely is not. The amount of preparation, and the amount of paperwork can be daunting.

I am so excited to see how our video intro and outro come out - I know Jack has been working on them today - now all we have to suss out is how to put them together - another challenge for us. It will be interesting to get opinions on how they look. We are trying to do things in a different way. But it is important to look as professional as possible - so a header showing who we are, as well as directing people to our social media, is vital.

The program is coming together very nicely. The seven sessions are set - and we are still just finishing off the handouts. As a group we will be working heavily in the next two weeks to ensure we deliver the weeks in a fun way. I am thrilled to see how it comes out. I am also happy with the handouts we are preparing - around fitness, nutrition, mindset and health.

We had a terrific telephone chat with Jordan Syatt last night - I honestly could not believe he had give us this time. As I have said before, his online videos pass on a similar message to the Ajani and HMHB concept. We talked about the Ajani program, the people we are working with, and the aims of the organisation - and he is going to do a video just for us - which is absolutely brilliant. Not only that, I asked if he had contacts in London he felt might be able to assist us, and he came back in a positive fashion.  This is a super contact - and I hope in the future we may be able to do more.

Finally, it looks like we will be meeting with the Islington CCG in the first week of November. And we are also hooking up with Hackney Council on Monday. We are really pushing hard to progress.

Tomorrow? A day off for domestics me thinks!!  :-)

Friday 15th September 2017 - videos; meetings; program timetable

Posted 12:10pm

These weeks go so quickly. Sitting in Upper Street at the moment as we are meeting someone from Islington Council in a couple of hours. So time to update the blog again with news (and quite a bit of it today).

We have found someone to do our video intro/outro for our bespoke fitness videos for Youtube - a guy called Jack, who is out of London. Looking forward to seeing what he produces. It is the first time we have outsourced any work - mainly because we have had no funding and people do need paying!!!  But although we have managed to do most things ourselves, this was a bit beyond us. On occasions it is better getting in the professionals.  He does understand our budgets, but also likes what we are doing. Maybe the start of a budding work relationship as I am sure we will need other things going forward.

Meetings galore at the moment - but the biggest is the Islington CCG (commissioning group). We are just finalising a date, but it looks like it will be the first week in November. It will be a massive one for us - and thankfully we will be bringing a small delegation with us (more news to follow).  In the meantime, we have lots of other meetings coming up - including both Hackney and Camden council, Business In The Community, Islington Big Alliance, and our exciting telephone meeting with US based fitness consultant Jordan.

Now we have the date for our next SHP program starting on the 3 October, I am very busy building my timetable of extras. We have several talks, several outings, personal training sessions, a first aid course, and a couple of other things all to be organised - and in very little time.  Stress!!!  We completed all the pre-course evaluation stuff for users and sent that off to SHP. We also sent our invoice, and a contract we would need signed - it is important to us that we are as professional as possible, and we provide a quality services - but need to be protected by a legally binding contract.

So plenty of progress.

Wednesday 13th September 2017 - arsenal, october program, cripplegate

Posted 5:05pm

It's a glorious hot afternoon here in Marble Arch, and I am just about to head round to my elderly friend's flat as he is off to watch Tottenham v Dortmund in the Champion's League tonight at Wembley. I am sitting for his brother.

Whilst there I will be working on the funding spreadsheet to accompany another funding application that I completed this afternoon (I have sent it off to my board and HMHB people to review - there must be things that need changing and I always happy to listen to views).  This funding is a maximum of £5000. I imagine few get that though. Generally, if you are successful on applications it tends to be around half of what you ask for. Although, it would be nice to get anything at the moment. It does not cover salaries of course. But it does cover "core" costs - which are vital for us at the moment to provide a quality and professional service.

We met with Arsenal on Monday at their fantastic "Hub" building next to the stadium.  Fantastic layout and great for the local community. We have a terrific chat with Samir and Alan from their Gunners Fund who said they really liked what we are doing, but they didnt fund core costs - which is what we applied for.  Although naturally a bit disappointed, we totally understand all that. But they might actually fund a program. We are going to approach Change Grow Live.

Finally, a terrific meeting last night with Single Homeless Project re our first ever paid program which will now start on the 3 October - 7 sessions (six on consecutive Tuesdays, the seventh on the following Saturday).  We talked about structure and all the chat was positive. We both looking for various outcomes and are also anxious to get good numbers.  I feel we are offering a huge amount.

Monday 11th September 2017 - funding; video intros

Posted 1:45pm

I am sitting have a coffee off the Holloway Road at the moment, all ready for a meeting with Arsenal Football Club to talk about our funding application for their Gunners Fund - which helps local community projects around the area.

We put the application in around five/six months ago, and since then some of our funding necessities have changed, and a couple of things on the application are no longer needed.  We are hoping to still get the £2000 we applied for, but have sent a new list of items - some of them are the same - that we have prioritised.

This includes a new laptop (there are two of us delivering and preparing for the project but only one laptop between us) with updated Microsoft Office software. Also anti-virus software. All of the costings are from the internet.

Plus we want to get accounting software now we are trading, in order to comply properly with Companies House and the HMRC. I like Sage, and we have contacted them to get the costings for this.

On top of that we have put in for travel, insurance for Personal Trainer, stationery, and first aid.

Scott was invited by Arsenal to attend too - so I am very hopeful that we could get the £2000. However, they might not like the fact we have adjusted the items. We will wait and see, but I am excited to attend - we will put another blog posting to update.

We sent off an application yesterday to the Local Initiatives Fund - which is managed by local councillors for projects within their wards. We have already chatted with Osh Gantly and Caroline Russell about this - in fact both of them mentioned this fund.  We asked for around £880 to really push the Izzwalkz CP, and I am hopeful that we will get something - if not all of that.  It would be great to be able to really publicize it and build up numbers - as well as get some fitness equipment and volunteer clothing and items.

We are starting three more funding applications this week - Cripplegate, Trust For London and Awards For All. Plus investigating other opportunities.

Finally, we really need to get our fitness videos onto our Youtube channel. But we need to have "intros" and "outros" on them - and none of us have the slightest clue how to do.  So i went online and found a website where professionals advertise themselves, showing their costs too.  I have left and advert, but contacted a freelancer who does animations and videos. So hoping something comes back for that.  We have put that cost (£75) into the Gunners Fund application.

Saturday 9th September 2017 - persistence and self-belief are key

Posted 11:00am

Just reflecting on a very positive week.  We are definitely moving forward with pace, but this has been years in the making - and we have had to go through many pitfalls on the way.

I liked the graphic at the top of this blog posting. That big "confidence" surrounded by negative words sums us up perfectly. We have always believed we had a concept that would work, even if we have adapted it a lot of times along the way. Its format has been fluid and we have changed direction a few times, often because of small conversations when we have been networking.

I do think we have got a good program now - and we are having fun developing the small changes and improvements for this second project with SHP starting in October. But it has taken persistence and self-belief.  There have been numerous occasions where people have told me to drop the project and move on - "it's a great idea but nobody will give you funding as you need to prove your outcomes first" - this, in different ways, has been said to us a lot.  But i have carried on emailing, phoning, and meeting. Always trying to find influential people, top people, people who can affect money and decisions. We are finally emerging into a new era - and are so close to finally getting ourselves going properly.

This week coming I have at least eight meetings organised - all of which will be influential in the direction we are heading. I know I have a further two already booked for the following week, and intend on getting at least another three added to that.

This weekend is a vital one with paperwork. I want to complete at least another two of the funding applications - one is completed already. By next Friday I want to have got five off to their destination. Would be amazing to get two or three of them. Only one of them covers salaries though. That is the biggest issue at the moment. How long can we carry on without earning?

By the end of this week I also want to have a majority of all the handouts prepared - that we will be distributing in the October program. I have a couple of booklets I also want to prepare (an evidence one and a fitness one) but cannot start those until I have got our handouts ready.

I also need to work on the service user evaluation/welcome papers, the contract, and the information papers - all for our SHP meeting on Monday - we have some very exciting additions to this program and I am thrilled to be offering them.  

Friday 8th September 2017 - Handouts, plus accounts

Posted 2:05pm

Just about to head off to the gym to do some gentle cardio - this bubble in my eye jumps up and down if i exercise heavily and is very annoying!!

I have been very busy preparing various handouts for our next program - and we will be keeping these, and probably adjusting them, for future courses too. I still have many to ocmplete.

We will be giving out four handouts each session - one on mindset, one on fitness, one on health, and one on nutrition - all relevant to what we were discussing on the day.  It is great fun preparing them, to be honest.  We want to make them bespoke to us - but naturally I am trawling the internet for relevant pictures and wording - which we can then adapt more to the language that we want to put over. When I used to get computer software I loved the "Idiots Guide" books you could get, as they spoke plain clear English. So we are looking to provide evidence like that.

I am also reviewing accounts software. I did mention it a week or so ago, but it is important that we start when we mean to continue, and I will be buying Sage software - which you can get for a monthly fee - but that depends very much on funding.  Thankfully we are meeting Arsenal on Monday, and a years worth of accounts software will be part of that package we are requesting. We also want to buy some more fitness equipment to go along with what we have. If we have five walks and bi-weekly pt sessions, we need to ensure we can build up a good base.

Thursday 7th September 2017 - walks, cooking and fitness

Posted 2:30pm
Second blog entry of the day, as more news on a few subjects.

Had a nice walk this morning for our Izzwalkz CP.  Need to pick up numbers, but we still have a lovely chat and laugh. A new member joined us today - and that was through AGE UK (so it is nice to know that we are recommended by people). It was nice to chat to him, and we were also able to direct him to some other services in the area.  Hopefully we can get the funding we have applied for to really establish five/six healthy walks in Islington.

We heartily recommend another service called Bags Of Taste - who demonstrate cooking various recipes on a budget - in a very proactive way. They are running another course in Islington (Canonbury) starting in a couple of weeks. Sadly just too early for our next Ajani customers. But I will be attending two of the days with Rosie, who came through our pilot with great success. I met her this week and she is starting a college course in a couple of weeks and is pushing herself forwards fantastically. Yay!!!

Dean continues to run our Saturday personal training session. It is now every Saturday, meeting outside Highbury Pool and Gym at 12:30pm, and then going up to Highbury Fields for an hour. Sadly I am unable to go this coming weekend, as I have benefited well from these sessions myself.  We are looking to start a midweek session nearer to Camden - probably on the day of the course - for our service users.

Thursday 7th September 2017 - lots of meetings; very busy time

Posted 2:00pm

The diary is filling up quickly as we are organising a lot of meetings over the next couple of weeks. Together with my incredibly lengthy to-do list I fear I am going to be working a few nights too!!! But I would much rather have it this way than be sitting down twiddling my thumbs. Nothing like a challenge!

We currently have meetings organised in the next two weeks with:

Hackney Council Employment Team

Islington Council

Borough Relationship Manager for Camden Job Centres

Practice Manager for Highbury Grange Medical Centre

Single Homeless Project - re our October program

Rosemary from our board - down from Scotland - hoping to catch breakfast (please!!)

Telephone meeting with American Fitness expert Jordan Syatt

Voluntary Action Islington - as we start our years Capacity Building Project with them

We are trying to organise meetings with:

Islington NHS CCG - just waiting for a date

Arsenal FC - re Gunners Fund application - just waiting for a date

The BIG Alliance - just waiting for a date (logo at top - details below)

Clarion Housing Group

Peabody Housing Group

British Library - re possible tour

The BIG Alliance (Business for Islington Giving Alliance), on their website say:

"Since 2012, almost 1,000 business volunteers have been placed into a wide range of roles including one-off and ongoing opportunities providing business support in areas such as HR, marketing, legal and business planning, mentoring roles, acting as new board members, and 1,308 have taken part in team challenges. 

This support has been delivered to 124 community, voluntary and not-for-profit organisations across the borough. In addition, through the education programme, 399 pupils from eight institutions have benefited from mentoring relationships.  

As a result of its piloted employment work, the BIG Alliance has also helped 148 people into work"

We feel that we can network with them, as we also need volunteers to help with the expansion of our Izzwalkz initiative.  I am hoping we can have a good relationship.

Tuesday 5th September 2017 - news updates

British Library:

between Kings Cross St Pancras

and Euston stations

Posted 2:30pm
Second posting of the day - but some exciting updates to share as we progress.

Firstly, Arsenal in the Community have asked to meet with us over our application on their Gunners Fund.  We applied in April, and part of it covered a proposed course in June with the Job Centre, which did not happen in the end.  But we would like to see if they will allow us to use it on a different program this autumn.  We also asked for money towards marketing/admin/stationery; first aid training; insurance for our Personal Trainer; as well as travel. Hopefully we will be meeting with them next week - with Scott. I need to sit down and reevaluate the amount to cover our needs as of now.  Naturally there is no guarantee, but it is a good boost that someone has seen what we are doing and is considering granting us some money.  I am also hoping that we can persuade them that they could get even more involved in the future.

We have organised our telephone conversation with Jordan for next week too. This is the American fitness expert and I feel very excited. We also will be asking him if he thinks he knows any contacts in London that could possibly assist us - I know he has dealings all over the world.  But the fact he has agreed to chat to us, after seeing our email and our online links is another terrific boost.

I have completed our funding application on the Local Initiatives fund - this is the one that local Islington Councillors can distribute in their wards to projects directly affecting their area. We met with both Osh Gantly and Caroline Russell, Councillors for Highbury East - and will be applying for just over £800 towards the Izzwalkz CP walk.  Again, no guarantees, but it must help that both of them encouraged us to apply.

I have contacted the British Library about bringing our Ajani group on a visit. It is a very interesting building. SHP themselves have asked us to target "employability" a bit more for our next course, and I feel that this could help - it can be used for job search and research.  I am waiting to hear, but I do know they run tours - I just hope they do not charge!!!

Finally, Voluntary Action Islington gave us an excellent contact at Islington Council, and I will meeting with her next week too. So it is getting to be very full - and I am hoping to get a few more organised too.

Tuesday 5th September 2017 - mindset, corporate - and to-do list

Posted 12:55pm

I will be very happy when this eye is sorted - the gas bubble is diminishing but it is causing many sight issues. It means having to concentrate heavily when reading or typing.  But this has been a good test of my own mindset - which our program is centred around.

I drew up my to-do list yesterday - it has 56 items on it at the moment - which is mind-boggling - and I am almost certain to have missed off a few. It looks daunting, but the quicker I attack it the quicker it will be done.  Prioritising the items is the real trick.

Had a really good meeting this morning with Scott, going over many issues, but mainly looking at the opportunities around adapting the program for Graduates and Apprentices, and the general needs and outcomes that big companies would be aiming at achieving. We would call this a new name, which we will have to devise, and we need to research exactly how we would approach it all. I think this could be an exciting addition to HMHB.

Friday 1st September 2017 - funding opportunities, plus personal

Posted 1:00pm

This weekend I am concentrating on looking at as many funding opportunities as possible - as in all honesty we can only continue properly if we can show people we are worth investment - be that grants or sponsorship or commissioning.

We currently have two applications being processed - £2500 with the Gunners Fund, and £6600 with Cloudesley. The former is more on HMHB itself, and the latter concentrating on expanding our Izzwalkz project.

I have already got my eye on four other applications, all of which we will be submitting in the next two weeks The Local Initiative Fund is administered through local borough councillors, and can be up to £1000 on projects in their own ward - we are Highbury East and our Clissold Park walk comes under that - and after meeting two of our councillors (Osh Gantly and Caroline Russell) we are quite confident we can get something.

We will also be applying to the Islington Giving Fund administered by Cripplegate - to a maximum of £2500. We did apply last year, and were turned down, but that was mainly because we were not actually providing assistance. Now we have the walks and the programs we are more hopeful.

There is a local charity called Trust For London - this is a larger amount and we will be looking around £60,000 to £80,000 over two years - so £30K to £40K each year.  This would be for Ajani and at least cover some wages - even if that is part time at the moment.  We have been encouraged to aply to them via Voluntary Action Islington.

Finally, we will be applying to Awards For All, managed by the Big Lottery Fund. I spoke with their representative twice, and she is very encouraging to us - again though this is a maximum of £10,000.

We will be looking at other opportunities too - but most funding does not take into consideration salaries - and we have three (myself, Luke and Dean) to think about - and they are relying on me to sort it all out.  But it is very encouraging.

I would also like to say that my eye is recovering nicely. I aim to properly get back to my fitness goals on Monday - I needed to take a couple of weeks following the surgery to relax and let the eye heal - which mean very little impact on the body - including running etc. I am anxious to start again as my weight can go up very quickly - which I realise is my responsibility, and action is down to me.