Latest News From The FOD Children's Opportunity Centre
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2011 |
2012
This year promises to be an exciting one for the Centre...it's our thirtieth birthday!!! Keep your eyes peeled for details of all the exciting things we'll be doing over the next twelve months to celebrate.
Finally, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who supported our fundraising in 2011...our total from donations and events currently stands at a fantastic £26,748.35 which could not have been achieved without all our wonderful supporters.
2011
The Christmas Fayre was enjoyed by those who came and took advantage of the last minute Christmas shopping opportunities provided! The delicious refreshments were particularly popular. Father Christmas also paid us a visit and children were able to visit him in his grotto in our multi sensory room. Overall we raised just under £500 for the Centre. A big thanks must go to those who ran stalls on the day, everyone who came along to support us and all those who donated the many wonderful prizes for our Grand Christmas Raffle.
Our second Jumble Sale of 2011 was held at Lydney Town Hall on Saturday 15th October; once again, there was a huge range of clothes, toys, books and bric-a-brac to go bargain hunting through. There were also lots of delicious cakes to have with your tea or coffee when you needed to rest after all the rummaging. A Bags2School collection of clothes and soft toys took place on Friday 11th November bringing the total from these events up to just under £300.
The Centre was the first UK venue to launch the music therapy group Sing & Grow on 30th September. The programme has been running successfully in Australia since 2001. Through songs and musical games, the programme helps children develop a variety of skills in a fun and engaging way alongside their parents. The programme will run for ten weeks in small groups facilitated by fully qualified music therapist Daniel Thomas and Centre staff member Kerry Smith. A further 20 programmes are scheduled to take place across the country in 2012 with different community based host organisations. The Centre hopes to continue offering Sing & Grow sessions into the next year.
Following our beautifully sunny Fun Day on 2nd July we are pleased to say that we've raised in excess of £1200 for the Centre. The Fun Day is the Centre's biggest fundraising event so MANY THANKS go to all those who supported the event on the day, made donations and offered their services. Special thanks must go to the team who put in such hard work to organise it.
The GSK team completed the Three Peaks Challenge in just over 23 hours. Sponsorship money is still coming in but the total is set to be reaching £4000! Go here to see more details as the team tackled the tough peaks!
3 Charities Bike Ride...TOTAL!
Just to give you an update on the Bike Ride funds that are coming through over £6000 has been raised so far with some still to come in as well as claiming the Gift Aid. The final total will be divided between The Forest Of Dean Children’s Opportunity Centre, The Milestone Holiday Activity Scheme and The Nigel Hunter Nursery.
If anyone out there is still collecting monies for this event could they please forward asap to Fee Knowles, Oakhouse, Norton, Malmesbury, Wilts, SN16 0JW
For more details about the Bike Ride see our past events page.
The FOD Children's Opportunity Centre will be amongst the first charities in the country to use its own, unique personalised text code, OPPC01, to raise funds using JustTextGiving by Vodafone.
This is a brand new, free service for charities that has no set up or fundraising costs for charities, no network charges for people making donations and every penny donated goes to charity. Gift Aid can also be added to donations.
From today, supporters of the Centre can make donations of up to £10 by texting OPPC01 and the amount they wish to donate, between £1 and £5 or £10 to 70070.
April 2011 - Centre Celebrates OFSTED Result!
During the Easter Playscheme, the Forest of Dean Children's Opportunity Centre received a visit from Ofsted, who inspected not only the Playschemes (as before) but all of their Early Years Provision.
The staff and volunteers were delighted with their overall rating of good with a number of outstanding features including:
The report particularly praised the “very good progress” made by children in the setting and the “warm and friendly atmosphere where children feel cared for and valued.”
A copy of the report is available at the Centre, or can be viewed in full on the Ofsted Website.
February 2011 - World of Difference
The Forest of Dean Children's Opportunity Centre have been awarded a grant through the Vodafone Foundation's World of Difference Programme. This programmes awards funding for 500 volunteers across the UK to work at their chosen charity for a period of two months. Louisa Davies, who has been volunteering at the Centre for a year and a half, was one of 11,000 applicants who sent off their applications in November 2010 and has now been awarded the funding to work at the Centre as Fundraiser. Louisa is one of only four people in Gloucestershire to be offered the grant.
Louisa will begin her placement in March following an Induction Day in Birmingham where all 500 winners will be able to meet each another, the team behind the programme and World of Difference Ambassador, Gok Wan.
Louisa Davies (holding the 'Gloucestershire' sign) with other winners from the South West region and World of Difference Ambassador, Gok Wan.
