Envision

Envision London is still reeling from this year’s Pitch 4 Change; a Dragons' Den-style event where ten Envision school teams pitched their plans for social and environmental projects to a panel of business and community leaders.

The teams pitched their projects to the panel on Wednesday 9th December in the hope of being awarded up to £500 to turn their ideas into reality. Each team of students made a 5 minute pitch with a further 5 minutes allocated to the Dragons for questions.
 
This was a brilliant chance for Envision teams to extend the scale of their projects and be more ambitious in their delivery. The teams pitching also benefited hugely from the process of preparing a professional pitch and having to present in front of experts and their peers.
 
We had a fantastic panel of Dragons for students to pitch to. They are;

	Henry Dimbleby Co-founder of healthy fast food chain LEON Former chef, journalist and management consultant. There are 9 Leon restaurants in and around London serving healthy fast food
	Alistair Smith Director of Corporate Risk, EDF Energy He has previously coached Envision teams in public speaking in preparation for their parliamentary speech to Schools Minister Diana Johnson on Green Britain Day.
	Liz Sklaroff Burberry Foundation Manager Liz looks after employee engagement, community outreach and in-kind giving with Burberry’s CSR team. Liz was previously a Senior Consultant at New Philanthropy Capital.
	Mike Anderson Director General Strategy & Evidence for DEFRA Mike leads on Defra’s Sustainable Consumption and Production Board Programme. He also leads on Corporate and Strategic Communications. Mike first joined Defra in 2007 as Director General for the Climate Change Group.
	Sophia Lewis & Amrit Kaur Lohia Graduates of the Envision Schools Programme Both Amrit and Sophia were part of successful Dragons’ Den team last year. Their “Future Proof Garden” helped integrate new Year 7 students into the school and introduced peers to conserving the environment. They have since mentored other young people & delivered workshops for groups of young people.

The 10 Envision School Teams who presented at Pitch 4 Change were:

 Forest Hill School:
The "Poverty Busters" team at Forest Hill is campaigning to raise awareness amongst their peers about the importance of education as a sustainable way to break the cycle of poverty. They are making a film about the issue that will be screened at their school and disseminated via the web.

Update: The Dragons were so enthused about the prospect of making a film that they awarded this team more than they asked for, to allow them to buy rather than hire cameras and produce the best film possible.

Further update: Poverty Busters has been selected as one of the official nine finalists in the Innovation category of the CHANGEit Awards. The team has been invited to an awards ceremony at the Ministry of Sound in April where they will be given training, certificates and more funds to make their film - congratulations!

Cherwell School (Oxford):
Students from Cherwell in Oxford travelled to the big smoke to pitch their idea of a community gardening project. They hope to bring their community together in an effort to improve green spaces at their local hospital.

Update: The Cherwell students charmed the judges by handing out sprigs of rosemary and showing they had considered patients, volunteers and allotment holders in their plans. The young Dragons suggested ways they could save money on materials to spend on more plants and offered advice on maintenance too. The team were awarded £500.

Camden School for Girls:
This team is tackling climate change through a ‘bike to school’ scheme. They will be offering cycling classes to younger pupils and organizing safe cycle groups for pupils to travel to school together. They will use this scheme as a base to campaign for more people to use sustainable transport and for a better cycling infrastructure in London.

Update: The Dragons loved the way this team had considered not only the physical equipment needed, but also the support of volunteers for their 'Bike Buddy' idea. They awarded the team the maximum £500 to be spent on equipment, and suggested ways they could find more money for infrastructure.

Further update: The team has seen their project make great advances thanks to the help of Mike Anderson, Director General, Strategy and Evidence at Defra. The school was so impressed by Mike’s confidence in the team that they contributed another £2000 to the team’s project, funding cycle racks and equipment within the school grounds.

Grey Coats Hospital School and Quinton Kynaston School:
This is Pitch 4 Change’s first ever cross-team bid! Both teams were interested in running a multi-media educational campaign on drug abuse, using film, the web and fashion. By teaming up for a joint project they hope to have twice the impact.

Update: The Dragons were impressed by the scale of this event and suggested ways the two teams could streamline and work together better. They were prepared to award the full £500: an initial payment of £100 to make their film and the balance for T-shirts and bags later.

Highams Park School:
The team at Highams Park have been working in consultation with Tommy’s (a maternal health charity) and Haven House (a children’s hospice). They will be holding a fete next year to bring the community together, to raise awareness of the work that these charities are doing and to raise some much needed funds to support this work.

Update: The Dragons agreed that an Easter fete would be a good way to bring people together, and suggested ways that they could maximise the fundraising potential by reconsidering the games and activities. They awarded the full £400 that the team had asked for.

William Morris 6th Form College:
This team will be holding a ‘Trashion’ show, using their own designs. They hope to invite local residents along to the show as a way of improving relations between the younger and older members of their community. At the same time, they will be educating the audience about sustainable living.

Update: The Dragons loved the performance-based pitch and the idea of bringing the community together. They thought the team could make their project's theme clearer, but awarded £150 towards the event. This would allow prototype t-shirts to be made and pre-orders taken, at which point the remaining £350 will also be paid.

St Martin in the Fields High School for Girls:
They are launching a campaign to raise awareness of domestic violence amongst their peers. They have already written their own play on the issue and have made a link with domestic violence educational charity, Tender.

Update: The team made quite an impression, turning up in their pyjamas! The Dragons were impressed by their awareness raising so far and were prepared to award the full £300 in two installments once they had confirmed their logo.

Woodhouse 6th Form College:
The A.R.T. (Artistic Recycling Team) at Woodhouse College are tapping into children’s creativity to teach about recycling. They are organizing an exhibition of ‘recycled artwork’ produced by children in their local area.

Update: This team made an impressive pitch including recycled props to demonstrate their plans. The Dragons commended them for their peer education plans but suggested they should spend less on their venue and more on marketing and publicity, awarding them the full £500 to do so.

St Charles Roman Catholic College:
The students at St Charles are making a documentary which looks at the pressures on young people to conform to certain body shapes, with a specific focus on the media’s representation of size zero as ‘beautiful’. They aim to showcase this documentary at local secondary schools and deliver workshops to younger students to encourage positive body image, no matter what your shape is.

Update: This team had prepared excellent montages and template slapwraps. The Dragons were so impressed by their message that they awarded the team £200 - £50 more than they had requested - to spend on healthy, ethical food to encourage students to attend their workshops.

 Stoke Newington 6th Form:
'Stokey H20' are looking at water scarcity, developing a plan that aims to provide clean water abroad where it is most needed whilst simultaneously raising awareness in Stoke Newington about water issues and informing people about how they can save water at home. They are going to create a water filtration system, and get companies to pledge to donate an agreed amount of money to a water charity for every litre of rainwater collected and filtered.

Update: This was a truly innovative project with lots of potential to make a difference to the school and further afield. The Dragons were happy to award £500 towards the filtration system and suggested ways they could make the most of corporate sponsorship and Council partnership.

Pitch 4 Change London has been kindly supported by Tellus Mater, Clifford Chance, Santander and a Gift from the Gods