The many ways to support IBC

How to help us change people’s lives through the medium of sport

For many people living in Islington and the surrounding areas, day to day life can be challenging for varying reasons and the Covid-19 pandemic has only served to exacerbate these challenges. However, Islington Boat Club provides more than just a recreational hobby to its service users, it provides support and a lifeline to ensure that people know they do not have to face any form of hardship alone.

 

Through the support of our funders and various individuals who share our belief that ‘To be given a chance is sometimes all anyone needs’ we have been able to sustain and develop the club over the last 50 years and enable us to genuinely change people’s lives for the better.

 

Now more than ever we need to find ways to ensure that we can continue to sustain our club and develop in order to meet the ever changing needs of the cosmopolitan community in which we serve.

 

There are many ways you can give your support to Islington Boat Club:

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• Fund one of our projects

• Pledge money

• Take part in a volunteering day as a company

• Hold a teambuilding day at The Club

• Hire our venue for company training/seminars/functions

• Buy a corporate package

 

If you are interested in getting involved with Islington Boat Club then please contact info@islingtonboatclub.com

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Recent development and current funders

The Covid-19 pandemic has meant that we have had to relook at our income and expenditures and develop ways to make cost savings wherever possible whilst accessing new means of generating income.

Our fundraising efforts have been instrumental in helping us to refine and develop our strategic plan to ensure that we continue to work with young people, people with disabilities, older people and the wider community. It is imperative that we continue to work towards ways to become independent and to achieve sustainability.

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Having undertaken research, consultation, fundraising and outreach work, we managed to deliver the following:

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• Developed, consulted, raised funds and outreached for the implementation of a programme called ‘UpperDeckers’ for isolated older people aged 50+ to come along every week for a paddle and/or cup of tea. Each year we aim to work with 100 + older people in this project alone;

• Developed, consulted, raised funds and achieved full funding for a five year programme of activities called ‘All On Board’. This started in July 2016 and is currently in the last year, aimed at encouraging people with disabilities to participate in watersports which under normal circumstances would be unavailable to them.

• Developed and implemented Islington Boat Club’s volunteering strategy crucial to the club’s future sustainability. This included producing a volunteer handbook with role descriptions and volunteer agreements.

• Designed and delivered a fund raising project whereby we were able to purchase our own minibus.

• Raised funds to renovate the onsite flat in order to rent it out and gain a stream of income.

• Developed the holiday inclusion programme – ‘One for all and all for one’ whereby our mainstream and our specialist youth groups are integrated for a shared half term holiday inclusion group.

• Successfully run a summerversity project which works with over 40 young people each summer to provide a digital free outdoor experience whereby real adventures could be had and real memories could be made.

 

We received funding for our 2020/21 campaign from:

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• Islington Summerversity

• The Johnnie Johnson Trust

• The Jack Petchey Foundation

• Thames Water

• The Whirlwind Trust

• The William Wates Memorial Trust

• EBM Charitable Trust

• Peabody Stay Connected Project

• Argus Media

• The City Bridge Trust

• Sport England

• The Worshipful Company of Insurers

• London Community Response Fund

• Waterways

• Tesco Bags of Help

• Waitrose Community Matters

• The Garfield Weston Foundation

• The Grange Farm Centre Trust

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So, despite the previous core grant from Islington Council coming to an end in 2015, Islington Boat Club has made excellent progress. We believe that we are on our way to achieving our current objective which is to become a sustainable community hub for all - regardless of age, background or ability. It is imperative that this project continues in the longer term.

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Coming up in 2021

This year our focus is all about reopening the club and delivering our core projects of:

Youth Group, All On Board and Upperdeckers in a Covid secure manner. We aim to reintroduce our service users to the water and instil in them a confidence to live in a post-Covid world.

 

We are also launching a campaign in the near future whereby we will work to raise £50,000 as a way of commemorating our 50th Birthday (which due to the Covid pandemic was postponed in April 2020). These funds will be put towards ensuring that the club can continue to meet the new demand for its services and continue its existence for the next 50 years and whatever that may hold.

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