Tuesday 30th January 2018 - exciting news: edging closer to funding

Posted 1:15pm

Yes, I admit I have been a bit lax on the social media front - especially this blog. But that is not because we have been sitting back.  In fact, we are so so close to maybe finally getting our big break.

We had a massive meeting last week with the Islington CCG, who it appears are looking to "potentially seed fund HMHB" for a year. We have to provide certain paperwork - including full details of programs, as well as funding spreadsheets. A report will then be put together by the CCG representative to go to their board. It is very exciting. We know what we need, and what we feel we can achieve.

Not only that, we have also approached the Islington Giving Fund managed by Cripplegate to run an Ajani program with Highbury Grange Medical Centre - which would be very exciting. This would aim to start towards the end of March, and would be a precursor to the work with the CCG.  Again, this is very much at planning stages, but is very exciting too.

We also are meeting with SHP at the start of next week to discuss a further Ajani program with them, that we would be looking to start around the same time as the one with HGMP. It would prove we could manage multiple programs at the same time.  We enjoy our  relationship with SHP, and feel this enhances the work they do.

Finally, re Ajani, we are also talking with a community centre in Crouch Hill. They are keen for us to do a program, and we would like to apply to the Gunners Fund to pay for that one.  We are arranging meetings as soon as possible.;

We also met with a representative from Islington Council, alongside Public Health, last week. They want to see if they can improve physical activity within the Council Estates in Islington. We discussed the possibility of expanding the Izzwalkz from one walk to five, as well as getting a Personal Trainer into the estates.  This is a wonderful opportunity.

So we are moving forward on many fronts. An exciting time - but still we need to know we can get salaries for at least a year. Yay!!

Monday 22nd January 2017 - Exciting news!! Lots of work ahead

Posted 12:25pm

Maybe, just maybe, we have finally got our foot in the door. Persistence, as well as developing a good project, has paid off.  The CCG has come back and "potentially" there is a pot of money that "can seed fund" HMHB so that we can prove outcomes.

There is a lot of work ahead, but already meetings are being arranged.  This week I have several. Tomorrow I am hooking up with business mentor Scott, and I am looking forward to planning our upcoming moves. Wednesday is our next meeting with the CCG. This will go over the whole project - how if fits in with the NHS, what we are proposing, plus providing detailed costings.  They need to prepare a report to go to their board for commissioners, but they are also aware of our time constraints. We know what we want to propose, and hopefully it fits in with their thoughts.  But exciting times.

On Friday I am meeting someone from Islington Council's Chief Executive office in regards to a review on how to improve current physical activities in the borough estates. I think we can be heavily involved in that too - and have several ideas to put forward - and surely they must have some kind of budget for that (I want to see if we can use that to expand our Izzwalkz initiative).

I had a solid meeting with Personal Trainer Dean on Saturday, and we will be looking to restart our weekly weekend Personal Training session in February. I am also looking to have one going midweek, and we were both excited at the thought of producing more videos for our Youtube channel.  I am particularly looking forward to improving my fitness levels again, and losing some weight, after a quite sedentary couple of months.

Finally, we submitted our final lot of dormant accounts to Companies House for the last year we were not trading.  It is terrific to know that finally we are a trading business, and one that looks to be growing now.

This is or chance.  Obviously this is still discussion , but it looks like we will get our funding finally and be able to show what we can do. It's taken a few years, thousands of hours of work, and many many meetings. Yay!!

Monday 15th January 2017 - remaining positive

Posted 2:30pm
What a start to the year - we are now two weeks in and it has been very difficult.

I am not scared to admit it was hot with a massive amount of self-doubt. After the incredible progress of last year, we suddenly seemed to have run into a brick wall. Funding is obviously the biggest issue - and it has to be the the most incredible frustration - as we know we have something that is good (people tell us). But being new can make people nervous.

This caused a huge "what's the point" outlook in me - which I could not understand - which of course then caused issues.

Thankfully, I have managed to overcome that. It is a big lesson in what we are trying to achieve ourselves, Firstly, it is not easy to talk about, When people ask how you are feeling the obvious reply is "fine" or "I'm okay" - even when you really want to say "help me, I don;t know how to deal with it".  We guide people towards a growth mindset, and I have had to use all our own actions to help me too.  It also shows that it can hit anyone at anytime.

Today I have been working on emails, and will continue to do that. We must get some meetings going and develop a funding strategy.

But thankfully I have moved away from the "easy" self-pity thinking, back to the "harder" let's relax and see what we can do, and how to achieve it.

Thursday 4th January 2018 - Thoughts for last year, and the future

Posted 8:00pm

Well, we have not posted in the blog for a while. This has been down to illness, Christmas, and the New Year.

Firstly, a Happy New Year to anyone who reads out blog. Welcome too. Hopefully some new people, as I will be pushing this on social media.

We had an amazing year in 2017. After years of planning, development, research and a lot of hard work, we finally ran a couple of our Ajani programs, with incredible feedback and success. All of this without funding - we did get a nominal fee for the second program at a big discount after running a free pilot earlier in the year.

Ajani is a program around mindset, health, exercise/fitness, nutrition and routine, but in a new unique interactive and fun delivery. It can help people out of work, as well as those in employment. We particularly like to aim at people going through issues or stress - as we promoting a growth mindset and building confidence.

We also launched our walking program we want to expand. Our first one in Islington - called Izzwalkz - currently has one weekly health walk, and has run for over a year with terrific success in partnership with a local Health Practice, who have been magnificent in their enthusiasm and promotion. I want to have at least 5 weekly walks throughout the borough, and in other boroughs too.

To be honest, it all comes down to funding - and as we are new boys in the business that makes it very difficult as, naturally, everyone asks for outcomes. It should be said there is countless research linking mental health and physical health with confidence and happiness, from NHS to Universities, but we feel we already can show the benefits.

We have several social media - please can people who read this do the following for us:

Like and follow us on Facebook - www.facebook.com/healthymindshealthybods

Follow us on Twitter - @hmhb2016

Follow our blog - www.hmhbinfo.blogspot.com

Keep an eye on our website - www.hmhb2016.org.uk  (we updating this coming weekend)

But most importantly - we really need funding;  We are hoping the Islington CCG will come through for us, but also applying for grants etc. But we could do with a company sponsoring us - even in the short term just so we can prove our outcomes with further programs.

We have a gofundme page. Can everyone who sees this page please share the page with friends and others on social media for us - facebook, twitter, etc. We would be very grateful.  It is:

www.gofundme.com/hmhb2016

Thanks everyone - we will post daily now on this blog, as well as our info blog. And we look forward to you being with us in this very exciting year ahead.

YAY!!!!!

Tuesday 12th December 2017 - LIF, Funding applications, future

Posted 4:15pm

It's a bitterly cold late afternoon, and I am sitting in the heart of London updating this entry.

I almost feel like we have met the biggest barrier so far. After over three years of concentrated work on foundations, paperwork, development and creativity, it all now boils down to someone having some faith in us, believing in what we can achieve, and giving us the funds to prove ourselves.  Will it happen??

Well, we have now invoiced the Local Initiatives Fund for the £883.90 awarded to us for the local Izzwalkz - which is great. We should get the money around xmas. This is great timing. We aim to be getting flyers, posters, some marketing materials, etc. from Vistaprint - and there should be a good sale on then, with discount. I am going to run the flyers and posters past the medical centre for approval first. I really hope we can pick up some new walkers.  The last three weeks we have gained two. I believe it can grow.

We also want to expand the walks throughout Islington, as people who read this blog know. For that we would need bigger funding - from Sponsorship or grant. It does not need a huge amount. I believe we could easily be managing daily walks - five a week - for around £1000 a month - you would need to pay a part time salary to someone to organise it - as well as provide insurance, equipment, volunteer costs, marketing etc.  But for the short and long term physical and mental health benefits I think that is money very well spent.  In fact I have just come up with an idea for that.

We have printed off various applications for funding opportunities we will be completing, but none of these would be immediate - which is where we really hope the CCG is going to help us.

The future has so much potential - but we now reliant on others to see it with us. Fingers crossed.

Friday 8th December 2017 - Izzwalkz CP funding:

Posted 11:35am

It's a bright sunny November morning - and I have been excitedly preparing for our £883 we will be receiving from the Local Initiatives Fund for our Izzwalkz Clissold Park walk.  The fund only provides money for projects in the ward where you live - I am in Highbury East - as are Highbury Grange Medical Centre where we partner with the walk.

I have been on the Vistaprint website designing a flyer and a poster - we will be ordering 2500 flyers to post around the area, and 50 posters to go up all over the place.  I think they look ok but I must run them past the Medical Centre to make sure we are all happy.  Also, the prices have gone down since we put the application into the funders. We cannot just spend the difference on other things without their permission, but I would like to see if we can get a large roller banner for events. That would be cool.  It has been fun doing the designs though.

I have also done designs for some caps and t-shirts for walk leaders, as well as some mugs I am going to give out to lour fantastic ladies for christmas presents.

I will be chatting to PT Dean about some more fitness stuff for our exercises.  I also need to look back online for a suitable first aid kit - which we should take along with us.  But, we have had aother piece of good luck. The Red Cross have said we would qualify for free training. So the money we claimed for that can also be used elsewhere - and it would definitely cover our insurance, which is up for renewal in the Spring. I will chat to the LIF about other spending possibilities.

Tuesday 5th December 2017 - funding, emails

Posted 3:40pm

It's been an incredible year. It was this time last year that we were presenting our program to various prospective companies - including the DWP, Public Health, etc.  It went down really well, and we have made huge progress this year. It was the dream to work with clients, and that has been fantastic. Results were terrific.

Now the dream is to get paid while we work. And that has to be this year.

We are waiting to hear from the CCG. Meanwhile, we continue to apply for funding elsewhere.  I have downloaded forms for Big Lottery Awards for All, and for Trust for London today. We tick every box for what they want to fund, but who knows? Our only real sticking point is that we are new and start up - but everyone has to start sometime? Right?

I have also contacted another funding stream today online and wait for them to come back.  All three of the ones I have mentioned can fund five figures. Which is what we need.

I am also trying to work out how to push our gofundme page. That could be a big one.

It feels like I just talk about money all the time now. I hate that. We want to be planning three programs to start in January - and I have started on that. It would just be nice to be able to do that from a secure footing.