First of all – Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you lovers, dreamers and closet romantics out there! Hope you’re all looking after yourselves and making sure to give your love away, be it to a partner, a family member, a good cause or something you believe in. xxx
Exciting things are happening in the Academy, so here’s an update for you all: As of Monday 16 February we have a volunteer fundraiser!! John and I are proud and happy to say welcome aboard to Kate O’Donohue who will be the Project Co-ordinator for fundraising. Obama based his whole presidential election campaign on small contributions from ordinary people who believed in his cause. Education, as you probably know, is a costly exercise, but if Obama could make it to the White House we can raise the funds we need to make a difference in our own corner of the universe! I’m sure we can look forward to info and updates from Kate in the near future. In the mean time, please help us spread the word and forward the link to our brand new fundraising page.
We are equally proud and happy to say welcome aboard to Donna Armitage, who is volunteering her expertise in youth work as a member of our Advisory Board.
At the moment we have two discussions going on in the facebook message board: “Are Black Kids Less Academically Driven than White Kids?” and “Do We Need Special Schools for Black Kids?“. Please, feel free to join in the discussions and to start new ones! We’d love to get your feedback on our projects, on education and youth work, on the worries we face as parents and teachers today etc.
We are currently looking for more volunteers as we need mentors for our young people and project co-ordinators to help get our Community Outreach projects off the ground. We’re setting up a MySpace page where we will be targeting young people and showing what we have on offer for them. There are also plans for a fundraising fête with a talent show and, possibly, a party during the April school holiday.
Last but not least, we’ve started a mailing list for our supporters. Email us on info@atkinsacademy.co.uk if you want to be on the list and we’ll add your name and make sure you never miss out on an update.
Well, that’s it for now. As you can see we have loads of stuff going on, and you’re more than welcome to join in the fun! Every little helps and together we can make a difference!
//John & Evalena
