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.

Thursday 31st August 2017 - important weeks ahead after crucial month - plus Izzwalkz cards

we introduced a "cards" exercise into our

Clissold Park Izzwalkz today - details below

Posted 3:45pm

Another month has passed along - and what a significant one it was for HMHB.

We have been commissioned to do our first paid Ajani program (doing seven sessions over six weeks, plus all our extras - it's going to be very busy). It's a start. And one we are relishing.

We have applied for some money to expand the Izzwalkz initiative to include five/six weekly health walks all over the borough - and I know we are on their short list, due to questions they have been asking us - but naturally we are up against a lot of other projects so we can wait and see. It would be terrific to get this opportunity to show what we believe we can achieve.

We have ascertained several other funding streams, and over the next two/three weeks will be completing at least four more funding applications to various bodies - for small and large amounts. We will also be contacting other influential people in the borough within the NHS to talk about the project and its inevitable outcomes if we are allowed to do our programs/

We have identified a few people who could help push our social media, in particular our GoFundMe page, and are very hopeful something can come out of that.

September is therefore going to be very busy. We must finalise the time line for all the program activities, as well as prepare the extra paperwork we are intending to distribute for our service users. We will follow up on the funding applications we will be submitting, as well as the one we are currently waiting on - Gunners Fund.  We will continue to negotiate for partners on our new walks, and start looking at a target date to get them all up and running. Plus I need to draw up another to-do list - which I am sure is still going to be long.  Crucially, I must start looking at major funding. Another twelve months has gone by without any salaries - and I now have Luke and Dean to think about as well as myself.  They are relying on me to come through.

Today, it was terrific too welcome back Babs to our CP Izzwalkz, and we were lucky enough to get some warm sunshine too. I introduced the group to a new exercise routine called "cards" - hence the playing cards.  We didnt use the whole pack. Instead we pulled aside 20 cards (without knowing what they were). Each suit was allocated a different exercise - spades was high knees: cards was a standing crunch bringing elbow to opposite hip; diamonds was squats (or touch toes for those with knee issues): hearts was punches.  So a mix of arms, legs and core. The number on the card indicated the number of reps you did each exercise - with the Jack then 11, Queen 12, King 13 and Ace 15 (if you pulled a Joker you repeated the previous exercise).  It was good fun, every joined in, and commented afterwards they enjoyed it - even bringing some laughs and a little sweat.

Tuesday 29th August 2017 - some great communications - part 2 - Tanni Grey Thompson

Posted 1:00pm

Around 18 months ago, Scott and I were very privileged to be invited to the House of Lords by Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson.  She is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met. In total, in her paralympic career, she won sixteen medals (eleven gold, four silver and one bronze) as well as thirteen World Championship medals (six gold, five silver and two bronze). She also won the London Marathon women's wheelchair race six times between 1992 and 2002.  Incredible!!!

I had contacted her following an article in the paper. She was commenting on the lack of access to professional fitness advice for people out of work - either on JSA or ESA. It resonated immediately with me as I had been talking about HMHB for several years, with early intervention for people out of work on health and fitness.

Following a telephone conversation with her, we were invited to meet and chat about what we were doing, our concept, and moving forward.  I felt very honoured as I know just how busy Tanni is on many different campaigns - she is probably one of the hardest working people in the House of Lords.

We got some terrific advice, but especially she pressed on us the need to actually start working with clients, even if that meant unpaid voluntary work. We also developed the concept further, and it was one of the reasons we approached organisations to run a pilot - which of course we did earlier this years with Single Homeless Project.

We have kept in touch, just updating her with what we are doing.  With that in mind, we communicated this week as we are trying to raise some money through a GoFundMe page, and are hoping that she may be able to help us promote that.  I don't know if that will happen. She probably gets a lot of requests to support a large number of projects and programs, so if nothing comes from it then so be it. But I know she read the email and she texted me to say she would contact this week. Any assistance would be incredible. We are just a small little enterprise, trying to establish ourselves among some huge companies as well as the NHS. It can be daunting. But we have a foot in the door finally, and we are determined to get heard.

Tuesday 29th August 2017 - some great communications - part 1 - Jordan Syatt

Jordan Syatt

Posted 12:45pm

Please excuse any spelling errors as I have just come back from my two-week check up following my eye surgery on the detached retina - all going well apparently, but they had to introduce drops that have left me light sensitive and my vision in both eyes slightly blurred.  I'll struggle on!! :-)

We have had a few very interesting and exciting communications lately that I would like to share.

The first is with Jordan Syatt - pictiured. On his website it says:

For those interested, I am a 5x World Record Powerlifter as well as a Precision Nutrition and Westside Barbell Certified coach. I’ve been featured in a variety of media publications including CNN, The Huffington Post, Men’s Fitness Magazine, Schwarzenegger.com, T-Nation.com and I have a Bachelors of Science in Health & Behavior Science with a focus in Strength & Conditioning.

I came across his name when I researching for the Ajani pilot - I was looking for short videos about mindset and fitness and health - and on Youtube Jordan is very active - I would urge people to check out his site, especially around fitness and training.  I was more interested in the analogy towards life in general - for example we play one of his videos around "it's ok to fail".

I know they went down well during the program, and it enhanced our own delivery. And his American accent is awesome too. Another reason he came over well is that there was not arrogancy. Some fitness professionals can appear to be "look at me" - "look at my body" - sort of people. Jordan very much is someone you would welcome sitting down and chatting to.

With that in mind, I contacted him to say how much we had enjoyed his videos and used them during our program. And, maybe being a bit cheeky, I asked if he would be prepared to have a chat about possibly doing a bespoke video just for our Ajani service users. I feel, especially for people going through issues and recovery, they very much like to feel that the course or program staff really want to help them, and not just anyone.  I certainly responded better to people when I was recovering from depression a few years ago if I felt they were trying to help me, as Lawrence.

Amazingly, as I know how busy he must be, and probably gets a lot of requests, Jordan has responded and we are setting up a telephone conversation in the next two weeks. If anything comes from that, well that would be terrific.

He says a lot of the things that Ajani stands for. About responsibility, choice, taking action etc. I feel very flattered.

Friday 25th August 2017 - funny videos, guest speakers, new blog news

Posted 1:45pm

It's a lovely bright afternoon - so I am sitting in my "office" (local place having a coffee, where I can plug in my laptop and work) catching up on project work. I am recovering well from the eye surgery - although it still feels like I have a drop of water on my eye, with a little bit of grit (the urge to give it a good rub is overwhelming - but I am being very good).

Our Ajani program is all about being positive, taking action, but also lifting your spirits and confidence. With that in mind, on our pilot we started each session with a small funny video - this could be a celebrity anecdote on a chat show, or a comedy sketch from an iconic series - something along those lines.  It went down very well too - in fact one of our users said how much she liked the videos as it put a smile on her face right from the start.

We are building up a good archive of videos to pick from - and this week I enjoyed several trips through Youtube, selecting a few new stories that literally made me laugh out loud.

We also brought in some guest speakers on our first pilot - one from the Oral Health Team, and another who completed a First Aid session.  Again, I wanted to expand that for our next program, and have already established three more professionals that, we feel, can enhance our own concept.  We will put guests on at the end of program days, so that it does not interfere with our own delivery.  I do not want to put the subjects here at the moment, but I can say they cover topics on health, employment and volunteering - all of which are important.

Finally, we are going to launch our two new blogs in a couple of weeks.  They will be specifically covering the topics around Ajani and Walking - This will correspond with our new program, but also I need time to add some content onto them first.  I think both will be informative and exciting for our users, as well as relevant to anyone going through issues, and the general public too.  These things take time to grow, so patience is required.  Everyone has to launch at some stage.

Wednesday 23rd August 2017 - Izzwalkz initiative

Posted 1:50pm

I have really been concentrating on our Izzwalkz project the last few days.  It is something I am very proud of, and the potential is huge.  We want to have at least five weekly health walks a week in the borough, in five different destinations.  In order to achieve this, we have applied for a small grant from Cloudesley - but to be honest we will find a way of doing it in some form if we do not get the money - but it will be quicker, and of a high quality if we can get the funding.

We will be partnering with several different relevant organisations in the borough, which will enable us to market each walk to the largest number of people.  I want people to think "Izzwalkz" when they think of a health walk. The dream is to have walks in maybe seven or eight venues every week - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. But that is for the future.

Meanwhile, we are running our successful one with Highbury Grange Medical Practice every Thursday in Clissold Park. And we are proposing a new walk in several places:

Highbury Fields - looking to partner with Islington Central Medical Centre - I have chatted with them in the past about this and they were very interested. There is a new operations manager there now, and I am hoping to meet up with Ryan very soon.

Finsbury Park - looking to partner with Park Pharmacy - they like to involve in the local community and their manager likes this kind of project very much.  It will also give us an opportunity to link with other pharmacies in the borough - and it is also close to Finsbury Park Job Centrre.

Whittington Park - looking to partner with Islington Mind, Age UK Islington, and Whittington Park Communitty Centre - it's  a great park near Upper Holloway, and even has an outdoor gym we can utilise.

Kings Cross - looking to partner with Single Homeless Project and Better Gyms.

We are also meeting up with the local NHS Health Trust and Public Health to discuss marketing these walks better.

I had to send in some more details to Cloudesley on several matters, and hopefully that is a sign that they are seriously thinking of awarding us the funding for a year to run these walks - it would be amazing, but I know how many organisations must apply each year so we need to be prepared to be told in the negative.  It would be fantastic for someone to see our potential and give us a chance though.