Last July’s event was a smashing success, raising the most-ever money in YTFN’s illustrious three-year history. On November 16, we’re going to try and top this.

So come one, come all to the last event of the year! All the details are on the book of face, including the three projects that will be bidding for your love and your money. What are you waiting for?

Get ready to have your whips cracked and your rings mastered, because in just two weeks, on Wednesday 13 July, YTFN is going CIRCUS!!! Why? Y The Freak Not!!! So gents, squeeze yourself into some spangly tights, ladies, strap on a beard or two, and come on down to the City Arts and Music Project at 70 – 74 City Rd, EC1Y 2BJ (just by Old St Tube). Doors at 7 and projects at 8 (although you are of course welcome to come down early and raise a glass with the team.)

We are delighted to announce that three freakin’ fiiiine projects have been selected to present to you on the night:

London Citizens Living Wage Campaign working to persuade employers across London and the UK to pay their staff enough to keep them out of working poverty; the African Innovation Prize teaching young Rwandan students how to start badly-needed businesses to create jobs and futures for young Africans; and People and Planet empowering student groups in the UK and Canada to organise and campaign against the rights-violating and environment-destroying Canadian Tar Sands.

As always there will be lovely people, tasty treats (CAMP is definitely a contender for best burgers in London), fun and games, merriment and frivolity all round, with a healthy dollop of inspiration and the chance to support the fantastic projects above.

As always, your £10 entry donation goes directly to the project of your choice, and there will be volunteering opportunities too.

So put it in your diaries, invite all your friends, and come and help us put the fun in funding (and the us in circus?).

Love, hugs and robust and transparent governance,

Sophia, Liz, Annabel, Andy, Kelvin, Tillie, Matt, Aphra, Selin and Helin

The YTFN Team

We hope you are all doing fabulously wherever you may be, and we are delighted to announce that yes, it’s that time again, on Wednesday 13 July the next fantastic YTFN event will take place at CAMP, 70 – 74 City Rd, London, EC1Y 2BJ, and WE WANT YOU to come along for a jam-packed evening of fun, funding and frolics. Once again you will have the chance to meet and mingle with charming and debonair YTFN attendees, eat, drink, dance and be merry, and hear from three awe-inspiring social change projects who are going to go out and change the world with our support. All for a bargainous entry donation of £10, which goes directly to the project of your choice.

So put it in your diaries, and get ready to get fundy – you know it makes sense.

Any questions, give us a shout at: youthtfn@gmail.com

Love, hugs and evidence-based policy,

The YTFN Team

Yo yo yo YO!!!

People – you were the bomb! You came, you saw, you partied and you were bodaciously generous with your time and your cash – we big up you all massively!

You raised over £6,700 for our three incredible and deserving charities, Ayitimoun Yo, Tender and Most Mira. You were inspired by their  presentations (videos below in case you missed it) and offered not only your hard-earned cash, but volunteered your time and for that we are extremely grateful.

So many people jumped up and got down to make this night happen – we would like to thank the great John P Morgan for his help crafting the presentations. Aminah for being amazing and volunteering on the night. Our fantastic DJs Looz Change for spinning tooones, Viv for capturing your ghetto poses,  the wonderful people of CAMP, our crib of choice, and of course Shak and Sep from Goodfoot for breaking out the breakdancing. (Shall I stop now?)

Other people liked it too:

http://newphilanthropycapital.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/feel-good-philanthropy/

http://biobuzz.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/one-extra-ordinary-weekday-evening-kindness/

A wild rumour is going round about July 13th – watch this space. People this one is going to be freaky….

Love and respect y’all

Tillie, Liz, Aphra, Sophia, Helin, Selin, Annabel, Matt, Kelvin and Andy

Ayitimoun Yo – Providing professional psychological therapy to members of an orphanage for street children in Anse-a-Pitre, Haiti, to help overcome the trauma of sexual and physical violence.
Tender – Addressing the issues of sexual pressuring and violence amongst young people in London, using an interactive new film made by and for young people that promotes healthy relationships based on equality and respect.
Most-Mira - Promoting understanding and a peaceful shared future among young people from all ethnic groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina through a weeklong festival of creative workshops for 500 children from ethnically segregated schools.

Come on down to support these three amazing projects…AND a night of boomtastic 90s hip hop classics, breakdancing, pose striking, and damn fine food, drink and company. From 7pm 22nd March at CAMP.

We would like to thank the wonderful Loose Baker for her incomparable comparing and charming party games (some of us are still finding errant clothes pegs on hems…). The angel voiced Nike Jemiyo soothed us with her soulful sound and the wonderful DJ Chablones who kept us hopping with electroswinging beats till way past our bedtimes.

Thanks to Selin and her team of wardrobe mistresses for making everyone look amazing, and Viv Morris our trusty snapper with his frame, for capturing all your gorgeous faces. A special thank you to the CAMP staff for their cocktails, gaffer tape and good humour.

As always the projects were the stars of the show!

Just Do It: whose brilliant film is already inspiring people to get off their arses and realise they have a voice and can make a real difference when it comes to climate change.

Handprint Theatre: who not only signed during their own presentation but throughout the evening! And whose brilliant productions are allowing deaf and hard of hearing people to enjoy theatre across the country and bringing the incredibly watchable and entertaining skills of signing and mime into the mainstream.

The Abolição Trust: who firstly blew us away with a spectacular demonstration of capoeira, before explaining how vital this stunning martial art/dance form has become to a remote township in South Africa, offering young people both a fantastic training, interest and a way to realise their ambitions in a wider world.

The amounts you raised is already helping make a huge difference to these organisations and the individuals they are working with, and we love that you loved giving!

If you weren’t able to make this spectacular showdown, but would like to help one of these organisations or simply like to know more, do not fret – simply jot us a line at youthtfn@gmail.com and we will sort it.

Keep an eye on the site for news of the next event – coming up end of March, watch this space….

Ladies, gentlemen and everyone in between,

YTFN is going CAMP!!!

You are cordially invited to an extra-ordinary evening of festivity, funding and fabulous frolics, Monday 29 November from 6.30pm at the City Arts and Music Project (CAMP, geddit?).

As always there will be three tip top social change projects sharing their amazing work, you’ll have the chance to support the project/s of your choice with your £10 entry donation, and to volunteer too if you’re that way inclined. There will be cheap drinks, tasty food, tasty boys and girls, and some very special CAMP entertainment…

So save the date, tell your friends, and get ready to get CAMP!

See you there!

Liz, Matt, Selin, Sophia, Tillie, Annabel, Aphra & Helin
The YTFN Team

By coming together and giving so generously on Wednesday we actually all raised over £5,500 for Boom Bus, Cecily’s Fund and Hackney Pirates!

We hope you all feel as warm and fuzzy as we do for being part of the solution, that will make a massive difference to many young people’s lives in the UK and in Zambia. Basically…you rock!

If you left the event thinking ‘rats, I wish I had given a little bit more’ or offered to volunteer then never fear, there is still time to do both! Drop an email to youthtfn@gmail.com and we’ll be able to sort that out – project presentations below!