Last month, as part of the Local by Social tour, we headed to Coventry where we worked with officers, councillors, police, techies, social innovators and most importantly local residents to design and start to build three projects to help make the web work for the citizens of Woodend.
It was great to see so many people from the local area give up their weekends to get involved. One of these residents was Kieran Armour. Kieran is an active member of the community, volunteering as a peer mentor for Connexions. Earlier this year he applied to Raleigh for the opportunity to volunteer in India, his application was successful – but he had to cover some of the costs. Impressively he’s manged to raise enough cash to head out early next year, and we thought it would be a good opportunity to have a quick catch up to see how he did it:
“I honestly could not have done it without the generosity of people in the local community, as well as those online who found out about me through Local by Social. I know that money isn’t the easiest thing for people to give away at the moment, which has made the support I’ve received even more incredible.
It’s been hard work raising the money, but I’ve enjoyed it and it’s been a good way to get to know people in my local area. I’ve tried all sorts of things to get the cash, even dressing up as Santa at work! The support from the community centre has been great, allowing me to run a week of fund raising events -from bric and brack stalls to just carrying out odd jobs.
It’s also been great to see people donate who I haven’t even met, but found out about my story through the Local by Social programme. I think it’s been a really good example of how social media can allow your support network to grow. I”d like to thank each and every person that donated through my Just Giving page. I was blown away by the amount raised. I’d like to especially thank Ingrid and Dominic getting the word out!
I’m heading off in late January, and will carry on fundraising for Raleigh until then. I’m going to be helping with some building work in a village and helping children at the local school. I’ll be writing a blog while I’m out there to keep all those who are interested up to date with what I’m up to and how I’m hopefully helping the community in India.”
We’re delighted for Kieran and glad that all his hard work has paid off, and we’ll let you know when his blog documenting his adventure is up and running. In the meantime it’s not too late to donate to his cause – head over to his Just Giving page if you’d like to help out.
Want to get involved in the Local by Social South West edition? You can book your free place here. See you there!
