What would we do without UnLtd?
May 25, 2010 by Simon Berry · 8 Comments
We’ve made three applications for funding to organisations which support start-ups. The first one failed because we were ‘not advanced enough with the ColaLife project’. The second one failed because ‘we were too advanced’. The third application was to UnLtd and today we heard that this bid has been successful. They have agreed to provide us with an award of £15,000 to cover living expenses to enable us to dedicate ourselves full-time to ColaLife. The award is a joint award to Jane (my partner in ColaLife and life!) and me.
This is wonderful news. Like so many people say “What would we do without UnLtd?”. The money is one thing but the other benefits are just as important:
- Getting an UnLtd Award is a highly competitive process and knowing that our plans have been scrutinised by some of the best brains in the social enterprise world and been approved will help other supporters see us in a more serious light.
- UnLtd has a cracking reputation for spotting winners and helping them get started. Our aim is to enhance this reputation further.
- Then there’s the UnLtd support network that we are now part of as an award winner (actually, UnLtdWorld and SETAS are open to all).
This couldn’t have come at a better time. There has been an atmosphere of excitement and anxiety at the prospect of me giving up my job to focus full-time of ColaLife. But as the date approaches, the anxiety was definitely getting the upper hand over the excitement. But not any more!
We will publish our UnLtd/ColaLife plans tomorrow but right now I’m going to have a beer!
Thank you UnLtd. We will reward your trust in us.
Onwards and upwards.
If you devote your time & attention to the highest advantage of others, the Universe will support you.
Buckminster Fuller
Getting the kids on board
May 22, 2010 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
I picked up a message last night while clearing my Facebook inbox from Jon, an old friend who is now a teacher. He has also run the fabulous Warwickshire Youth Jazz Orchestra (WYJO) for many, many years and really knows what makes kids tick. The Head at his school is desperate to find a way of overcoming the ‘charitable apathy’ they are seeing these days amongst youngsters and the school is looking for new ways to get them motivated:
‘These lads respond far better to interesting projects than to the standard requests for charitable giving!’
So, Jon’s wondering if ColaLife can help. Little does he know but, fingers crossed, help may be just around the corner:
In our recent bid for support to UnLtd to develop young people’s engagement with ColaLife through work in Universities and schools, we said:
1 in 5 developing world children (1.5 million annually) die before age 5, often from treatable causes (diarrhoea, malaria, poor nutrition/sanitation). Poor awareness is compounded by scant local availability of simple, cheap medical and health supplies (eg Oral Rehydration Salts, vitamins). With poorly developed rural transport and distribution systems, it is simply not economically or logistically viable to set up dedicated distribution systems for vital medicines and other social products for remoter places. Yet commercial products get there.
The UK population, meanwhile, have ‘donor fatigue’; the daily death toll from diarrhoea scarcely figures, when we are constantly bombarded by war and disaster appeals. We lose sight of what could be solved or prevented. We risk switching off the interest and creativity of the next generation of designers, thinkers and problem solvers: the social entrepreneurs of the future on a small and finite planet. It is time to share that there are simple ideas, paradigm shifts, ways to do things differently. ColaLife puts that into practice, showing it is possible to create unlikely alliances to alter thinking and action, harnessing changes in corporate responsibility, changes in medical patenting, new media and mobile communications, and ‘carbon footprint’ awareness in transport.
Thanks, Jon, for another bit of real life evidence that we’re on the right track! We will know if we’ve been successful in our bid to UnLtd next week, and the first step will be piloting work in a couple of schools to see where it can enrich the curriculum and turn kids on to what they can do. We really need those resources, UnLtd Judging Panel, so I hope you’re watching!
How are you going to buy food?
May 1, 2010 by Simon Berry · Leave a Comment
Food parcel distribution. Image credit: British Red Cross
As the day approaches when I give up my day job (4/6/10) to concentrate full-time on ColaLife the excitement is building but this comes with a degree of anxiety especially among family members. Jane, my partner in life and ColaLife, is channelling her anxiety into researching and applying for appropriate funding to get us underway - so she’s effectively full-time already.
We had a set back this week when we heard that ColaLife did not make it from a semi-finalist to a finalist in the 2010 Buckminster Fuller Challenge (BFC). JenJoy at the BFC broke the news gently saying:
While your project was not selected, the jury was quite impressed with your work and all of the semi-finalists and we wish we had the resources to award prizes to everyone. Getting this far is no small feat! If there is anything we can do to help you further your work outside of direct financial support, please let us know.
So we will be following that up and wish all the finalists the best of luck. But, on the very bright side we have also just heard that we are through to the final interview stage for a ‘Level 2 UnLtd Award’. We’ve applied jointly and if we are successful this will give us £15,000 towards our living expenses to help us get the next phase, the implementation phase, of ColaLife off the ground.
So, Mum, in answer to your question, ‘How are you going to buy food?’, I’m not quite sure but the UnLtd thing looks quite promising! Oh, and if that fails I’ve just had reassurance from a friend collecting for Children in Need that the neighbours will bring some around.
What others are saying about ColaLife- ColaLife on Flickr
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