The Beginning of Summer

The Season of Good News!

Sharon Clack meeting Aston from JLS

The last couple of months there has been a buzz in the Jigsaw4u offices. We have had some exciting new appointments, a brilliant art day with some lovely children, our staff have been meeting celebrities and there has been some inspiring fundraising!

Art Exhibition

We held another fantastic art workshop in the May half term which included children and young people of all ages from many different projects at Jigsaw4u; including Home School Links, Young Runaways and Disabled Children’s Participation. They created some amazing art using paint, clay, pencils, collages – and it was all based around the theme of ‘Putting the Pieces Back Together’. Many of the pieces were inspired by our modern art presentation from Jacqui, one of the brilliant volunteers we had on the day. We had some scissor drawings, Picasso like paintings and even Jackson Pollock inspired art going on. Luckily we had great weather so everyone could play outside and enjoy a pizza picnic! We wouldn't have been able to run the day without the dedication of the staff, and the help of our fantastic volunteers - Jacqui, Kathy and Jane.

Some of the lovely art produced at the workshop

The exhibition in Merton will be held in the Morden Civic Centre and the opening will be on Wednesday 3^rd July 5.30-7pm. It will be opened by Bev Selway the Virtual Behaviour Service, Strategic Manager who has always been a champion for Jigsaw4u and especially the Home school Links service.

Children and young people at the art workshop

New Jobs 

We have a few exciting additions to the team at Jigsaw4u; after our funding bids in March we received new funding for various different projects – Emma Webb our former Domestic Abuse Family Support Worker is now the new Volunteer Coordinator for the Domestic Violence project we are delivering in partnership with Sutton Women’s Aid. In her previous role we now have Michelle Mullarkey who is also our current Disabled Children’s Participation Officer. Laila Morgan will be taking the helm at our new Merton Advocacy Project and we have two new positions on our Home School Links team. These will not begin until September so we will have more news on our new members of staff when they start!

Peter Webb at the finish line

Fundraising 

Peter Webb took on the mammoth task of defeating Hadrian’s Wall over the weekend. Before he set off he told us that he had increased his target to £3000 which he had very nearly met before he’d even started, which is an incredible achievement. Now after finishing the race, in just over 16 hours no less, he has already exceeded his target and had this to say on finishing the race -

'After 16 hours and 6 mins I crossed the finished line after 69 miles (plus an extra ½ they seemed to add on) at 23:06 in Newcastle. The body made it but with the help of a lot of Ibuprofen and mental challenges to keep it going.

This lived up to all that I thought it would. The training alone meant that I pushed my body to it’s limit. 

Peter Webb and his two proud sons

On the day I had great support from my wife, Alex at various stages, as well as my Mum and her partner and of course my 2 boys. This was a great motivator over the miles but as I always said at the beginning, this was a personal challenge as well.

I purposely had my IPOD in my bag but did the race without any music, I had to keep running when I was in pain for miles 50-55 (Mile 54 was in memory of my father), you will be glad to hear that mentally I ran mile 67-68 for all at Jigsaw4U. It was only through breaking the race into these challenges that I was able to get to the finish.

Hadrian's Hill

I am so pleased to have raised over £3000 for the charity. I have found by working for a charity that covers a lot of topics and areas of support I could have personally benefited from when younger has given me a great sense of achievement. The fact that through the support and great work of your team that others in my earlier position will become stronger is very rewarding.

At the same time inadvertently, it has helped me look at my own feelings, thoughts and goals for my family.'



As Peter mentioned he has reached his target but hopefully in the coming days we can help him to raise even more money in recognition of his fantastic accomplishment, here's the link to his Just Giving page http://www.justgiving.com/WebbHitsTheWall

Flourish Foundation

Missy and Zoe from Flourish Foundation 

Flourish Foundation launched last night, a foundation raising money and awareness of small charities who use the arts to support children.  We are lucky enough to be the first charity supported by them and last night raised £1320 in sales of the Flourish Foundation necklace, 100% of profits coming to us.  You can purchase the 14c rose gold necklace online from their website.  Thank you to Missy & Zoe at Flourish for their support of Jigsaw4u.

Claire and Ann attended the launch of the Flourish Foundation on June 27th at 45 Park Lane-aka the baby Dorchester.  Missy knows of us after volunteering during her counselling training and so chose Jigsaw4u as the first charity to benefit from the proceeds of their events. According to Ann and Claire there was much ado about what outfit one might wear to the baby Dorchester, here at Jigsaw4u HQ we are excited to see pictures of the final ensembles!

As to be expected at such an event they enjoyed champagne (responsibly!) and canapes.

Claire made an impromptu and moving speech to the event goers, which included a few celebs from Made in Chelsea! Most importantly they met lots of lovely people who are really interested in supporting Jigsaw4u.

Everyone here at Jigsaw4u is looking forward to working alongside Flourish over the coming months.

Claire and Kathy opening Tesco Express Sutton

Tesco Express Sutton
A new Tesco Express has opened on Lower Road in Sutton and Jigsaw4u were invited to be guests of honour!

Tesco kindly donated £500 to Jigsaw4u and we got to open their brand spanking new store. Here's Claire and Kathy representing Jigsaw4u, in the rain no less.

Tesco delivering their kind cheque

Other kind donations and fundraising achievements include - 

• A £25 gift voucher donated by Body Shop
• Battersea Parish Church kindly donated £1500
• Mr and Mrs Reid donated £20
• Coffee morning £195
• Croydon Logistics donated £178.94
• Godstone Farm collection box £137.44
• The Geary Family did a fundraising walk which State Securities bank matched so in total they raised £408 

Activities

The stage at The Voice

Some young people from the grief support project got the amazing opportunity of going to see The Voice live semi final!

Ann Marie tells us about the day –

Ann Marie, family and Lisa Maxwell

‘We were lucky enough to receive some free tickets  from a good friend who works in the media and so on Saturday 15th June I went along  with Niamh Butler, Hollie Egremont and her grandmother, Sue Read to see the live recording of the hit BBC show The Voice at Pinewood Studios

The contestants all put in amazing performances and also sang live with their team judges, Jessie J, Danny O’Donaghue, Will.I.Am and the legendary Tom Jones.

Karl and Mary Costello

As if that wasn’t enough excitement for one day, we also saw live performances by Robbie Williams,  Dizzee Rascal and Liam Gallagher and his new band Beady Eye.

We also bumped into a few celebrities along the way who were happy to pose for photos and hear about the amazing young people who access our service.’

Ann Marie and Ricky Gervais

So it's been a busy old couple of months here at 40 Mill Green Road. We hope you've enjoyed the round up of all our news and come back for more in a couple of month's time.

Lots of love,

Jigsaw4u Team. x