The I Can, We Can Challenge

In 2004, I founded "The I Can We Can" project, which was set up to deliver a major community initiative in Bradford-on-Avon in September 2004, and for which I received funding from The Scarman Trust, under their "Community Champions" scheme.

The "I Can We Can Challenge" brought together the local community together in a "can do" spirit of participation and creative expression. I co-ordinated a group of twelve committed local residents, spanning a wide range of age and experience, from teenagers to pensioners, and we worked together over a very short period of time to deliver the two-day event. We attracted around fifty facilitators, offering workshops including pottery, singing, parachute games, storytelling, yoga, juggling, puppet-making, football skills, public speaking, belly dancing and creative writing.

Each facilitator offered their time and expertise for free and over 1500 people from the local community took part in the event. We had a lot of family involvement, with a lot of support for young people, and we had several teenage facilitators. We had a big celebration event in the evening to celebrate everyone who had taken part and in the process we raised over £2000 for a local charity. People who took part said it had really helped to foster a greater sense of cooperation and community participation in the Bradford-on-Avon district, and a number of collaborative projects were born out of that event.