Six Reasons your business should support Dreamcatchers

Large companies often have programmes for social responsibility and community involvement, and it is a great idea for your businesses too.

Here are six reasons you should support Dreamcatchers to continue offering their amazing youth work provision in your community:

1 The opportunity to give something back.
This is the top reason to support Dreamcatchers. It allows you to share and pass on some of your success and expertise to your community. This will encourage people to do business with you as they see you’re as a socially responsible partner in their community’s future.

2 Community support and buy in.
Being part of a community is vital for a small business. In the days of the super stores and the Internet, it can be difficult to sustain a small business; one way to ensure that your business is to help build a thriving community.

3 It creates genuine Marketing and PR opportunities.
When you donate money, time, products or services to Dreamcatchers you automatically join our Champions Network.
Having your business name included is fantastic PR. It is one of the reasons you see our football teams with business names on
their kits. People are more likely to support businesses they feel are part of and understand their world.

4 The opportunity to support causes you believe in.
It is great if you can tie your business purpose to a particular social interest, but if you cannot, support Dreamcatchers to do it for you. Ask us about our project areas to see which one you are most passionate about. We guarantee to invest your money in the project areas you care most about.

5 Contributions don’t have to drain your bank account.
We need your time and services as well as cash. Contact us and discuss how you would like to support our work and explore our individual and team volunteer opportunities. Your donations are also tax deductible! speak to your accountant to see how much you will save.

6 Being involved is free market research.
As you get to know your community and work with them, you will not only have fun, you will be directly investing in their communities development, which will help you understand the specific needs of your community (buyers!) and enable you to find direct ways to meet those needs. It’s difficult to buy that kind of market research anywhere, but almost impossible for small businesses.

When you have decided to support Dreamcatchers please consider how specifically you would like to help, we need pro bono services as well as actual money.

Professional support we need
Graphic designers to create business stationary, brochures, flyers and young people's workbooks
Printers to print the stationary, brochures, flyers and workbooks
Fundraisers to put on an event, do some sponsored activities. Make Dreamcatchers your nominated charity for 2010. You can have great fun, raise moral and your public profile by raising money for Dreamcatchers at the same time!

You could even dedicate a product or product line to Dreamcatchers where we receive a % of every unit sold.... think of the leverage of advertising a product that actively supports a local charity PLUS being mentioned in all our advertising both printed and on line!

Get in touch by contacting us on champions@dreamcatchers.ltd.uk to discus how you would like to get involved. or if you would just like to make a donation visit
Our Website to donate quickly and effortlessly.

Dreamcatchers is an amazing charity with the audacious aim of inspiring young people to catch their Dreams. We believe too many organisations that work with young people get hung up on meaningless targets set by people who will never meet any young people let alone learn their names.

I founded Dreamcatchers in 2005, as I believed that traditional youth provisions were no longer meeting the needs of young people and made the decision that I had to something about it.

Dreamcatchers is a step beyond traditional Youth Work; we are better and different in 7 ways:

1. We operate on a purely Needs Led and Solution Focussed basis.
In short our work is based on the needs of the young people we serve, we never deliver a project that is not needed and wanted by young people. We focus on the here and now and towards the future, we cannot change the past so we never start there!


2. All our workers are trained Youth Coaches.
Success coaching has been a perk of the rich and famous for many years, we believe if it’s good enough for businessmen and sports stars its good enough for young people. We have worked with market leading training providers to create young people centred models for Youth Coaching and Learning Coaching. Our workers offer a complimentary blend of formal and informal Coaching to the young people and Schools we serve and support.


3. We are the pioneers of Progressive Youth Work.
The most successful people in our world understand and utilise the various methodologies that make up “Human Development and Success Psychology” We have translated these complex theories into easy to understand models and practical tools young people can use immediately to make rapid and lasting changes in their lives. All our workers are trained as Progressive Youth Workers.


4. We focus on rewarding Pro Social Behaviour.
We understand that whatever you focus your energy and attention on is what you get. Therefore when you focus on Anti Social Behaviour you get more of it! By concentrating on encouraging, celebrating and rewarding Pro Social Behaviour we achieve fantastic results with some of the most disengaged young people from amongst the most deprived communities. Our projects offer a safe and positive alternative to Gangs as we structure the projects based on the support mechanisms that young people tell us is the reasons they joined a gang in the first place.


5. We are Solution Finders.
Traditional ‘problem solving’ techniques start by identifying what is broken or doesn’t work and then trying to figure out how to fix it. We concentrate on one phrase “what do we want instead?” Once a positive alternative has been agreed we work towards achieving that. As what you focus on is what you get surely you would prefer to get more solutions.


6. We deliver Appreciative Community Development.
When working with communities we utilise an appreciative approach. Regeneration projects often simply rip down and rebuild communities based on what has worked elsewhere. There is no one size fits all in community development or regeneration. We start by identifying what already works, what are the community proud of and what THEY want for their community’s future. We then support them to create a exciting vivid representation of how it will be once it is how they want it and a goal driven action plan to make it happen.


7. We DO rather than just talking or writing reports.
Many organisations carry out extensive research, and then write long reports with broad sweeping recommendations hoping that people will take action based on all their work. For Dreamcatchers just knowing something isn’t good enough. Our work is based on Action Research. If we need to know how to better meet the needs of the people we serve we have a very straightforward approach… We ask them and create positive actions to achieve positive results with them.


We need to do three things in order to ensure Dreamcatchers becomes the organisation it has the potential to become.

1. Stabilise by building the financial infrastructure of the organisaton,
2. Sustain our current work to ensure we continue to meet our objectives
3. Share our methods by developing tool kits and training programmes

We need to raise £30’000 to ensure we can make these three things happen.

How could you help us achieve this? Could you offer a contribution, grant or work in partnership with us to raise these funds?

With the right support Dreamcatchers will revolutionise how Youth Work is delivered. We want to share our methods with similar groups so they can achieve the same level of success.

I hope you will consider Dreamcatchers worthy of supporting and developing to inspire and enable the Young people with whom we all work.

Please contact me if you would like more information or to arrange a meeting.


Yours sincerely



Andy Jackson

Founder of Dreamcatchers


Phone: 0161 973 3778
Email: andy@dreamcatchers.ltd.uk

Dreamcatchers is a registered charity (1121203)
And a company limited by guarantee (5507801)

http://www.dreamcatchers.ltd.uk

Dreamcatchers - The Future of Youth Work

• Sports sessions
• Street dance classes
• Encouraging healthy eating habits
• Support projects on substance and alcohol misuse

• Anti bullying projects
• After school clubs
• First Aid courses
• Self defence classes

• Drama and dance classes
• DJ workshops
• Music Production workshops
• Personal development programmes
• Accreditation and training opportunities

• Recycling projects
• Conservation projects
• Environmental improvement projects
• Mentoring projects
• Reward activities linked to Pro social behaviour

• Accredited personal development courses
• Preparation for work and training
• Financial literacy support for Young People
• Opportunities to learn budgeting skills