Pitch 4 Change London

Pitch 4 Change 2010 was a great success with all seven Envision teams receiving funding from the Dragons to deliver their projects next year. Over £2000 was awarded on the day with a further £750 banked for Teams to claim when they develop their projects even further.

Hosted in the fabulous Clifford Chance offices in Canary Wharf the teams got a real sense of what it would be like to work in the city and it was also a great opportunity to meet some of the staff that work there.

All the teams picked up great advice for their projects and some of them even secured personal offers of support from the business Dragons.

The seven teams that took part in this year's Pitch 4 Change were:

• Central Foundation Boys’ School, Islington
  Challenging negative stereotypes of young people.
  Update: The panel loved the teams T-shirt designs and awarded them £500 on the condition that they fulfilled a number of requirements listed by the Dragons, including setting out a target for their fundraising and establishing the values of their campaign.

• Highgate School, Haringey
  Addressing the inequalities in the education sector by redistributing unused educational resources to other schools in London.
  Update:The Dragons were very impressed by Highgates ambitious project and awarded them a first payment of £105 with the offer of further funding once the team finalise the second and third phase of their project.

• Our Lady’s Convent High School, Hackney
  Raising awareness of the effect of imprisonment on whole families.
  Update: The panel were impressed by the way the girls had approached such a senstive issue and awarded them £494.23 on the condition that they continue to work closely with prison charity PACT and their school.

• St Martin in the Fields High School, Lambeth
  Addressing Children's Rights and encouraging young people to share their views and opinions with Government.
  Update: The solid pitch that the St Martins team delivered not only won them the full £250 that they had requested but also the support of Director General of the Dept for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in sourcing speakers for their conference.

• Clapton Girls’ Technology College, Hackney
  Improving the image of Hackney by campaigning and promoting the Borough, and also by leading positive activities within the community.
  Update: The Clapton girls were commended for their creative approach to improving their local area and received the full £500 they had requested.

• La Retraite Girls’ School, Lambeth
  Raising awareness of domestic violence through film and by setting up a peer mentoring scheme in their school to help young people find support.
  Update: The Dragons congratulated the girls on tackling a very sensitive issue and awarded them £150 to host their awareness event. A further £350 was banked to enable the team to continue developing their plans and widen the impact of their campaign.

• Preston Manor School, Brent
  Raising awareness of the effects of recent funding cuts on the homeless.
  Update: The panel congratulated the team for their professional delivery and awarded them £234 to create and distribute their film which would challenge people's perceptions of homelessness and raise awarness amongst their peers.

You can read about last year's London projects and get some inspiration here...good luck!