London
Book your festive challenge now!
Our ZCT elves have been super busy sourcing a sack load of projects for you and your teams to pick from! Whether sprinkling trees with tinsel, wrapping presents with ribbon, or spreading joy with a jolly party - we have lots of ways you can make it a tree-mendous Christmas in your community!
With a mixture of virtual and face-to-face projects, and up to £500 provided per challenge, it couldn't be easier!
To book, please call Ben Wainman on 07896 508303
You'll find everything else you need in our Challenge Team Leader Toolkit! >
LOND1F Give a Gift
The Challenge
Mind in Haringey is running a Christmas Grotto on Saturday 16 December from midday-4pm. Mind will be inviting 50 children, up to age 11, who would otherwise not receive a present this year. They will come along to meet Father Christmas, receive an age appropriate present, and take part in fun Christmas games or activities, like decorating gingerbread men and making Christmas cards. Your job will be to purchase a mixture of Christmas presents for the children. This should include boys and girls toys, from ages 0-11 years, making sure they are inclusive, as the population Mind in Haringey serve is very diverse. If some of your volunteers can help on the day, they would love to welcome you - it's sure to be a real heart-warming day!
Mind in Haringey
Mind in Haringey provides information, advice and support to people affected by mental health problems, primarily in Haringey. They work to prevent mental health problems, promote mental wellbeing and ensure those with mental health problems are respected and included in the local community.
Team size = Flexible
LOND2F Coming Together
The Challenge
Each dementia café holds a festive party in December. They would love some volunteers from provide a personal gift to each of the users at the Dementia café. You will work with CAD to identify a cafe, find out how many users they have and source presents for each of them. You will wrap the presents and bring them along to the cafe's Christmas party, where you will get to spend the afternoon talking with the users, enjoying the festive fun and handing out the presents! This event will bring them joy and a sense of worth. This can be booked by multiple teams.
Community Action on Dementia Brent
Community Action on Dementia Brent (CAD Brent) works across the London Borough of Brent, supporting people diagnosed with dementia, encouraging them to access the network of dementia cafes (13 at present), helping them to stay well and connected with their community, allowing them to stay well for longer. They also support the dementia cafes by helping them remain sustainable, providing regular access to new information and activities and by being a source of support, as well as introducing newly diagnosed clients into the network. They currently have some 300 people accessing the cafes in Brent each week and this number is growing.
Team size = Flexible
LOND3F Light up the Streets
The Challenge
The festive period can be particularly challenging for shelter guests, so the charity would like a team to provide them with Christmas presents this year. Each guest will write their gender, age and a short wish list of items. This means the items you buy will be personalised gifts, which the guests actually want or need. You and your colleagues will be able to go along and visit a shelter to give out the presents - you can even stay to help with preparing their evening meal. The visit will happen in the last week before Christmas.
C4WS Homeless Project
C4WS Homeless Project exists to support those without a home to rebuild their lives. Their main project is a winter night shelter, which operates between November and March every year. They help around 80 people during this time, supporting them around mental and physical health problems, addiction issues, immigration matters, welfare and housing advice.
Team size = Flexible
LOND4F Quizzie Quizmas
The Challenge
BlindAid would like a team to welcome some of their users to Mark Lane for a Christmas quiz! We have had their users attend before for afternoon tea and a quiz and it went down really well. This time it would be festive themed, with mince pies and some festive treats - the quiz itself could also have a festive round! Usually they have around 25 people attend, mainly users with a couple of staff or volunteers from BlindAid.
BlindAid
BlindAid's vision is to ensure that no visually impaired Londoner is left living in isolation. As London's oldest charity for blind and visually impaired people, BlindAid works to improve quality of life and promotes independence for Londoners with a visual impairment. They provide individualised practical and emotional support to reduce the social isolation that many people living with a visual impairment can experience.
Team size = Medium (6-10)
LOND5F A Whole Lot of Toys!
The Challenge
You and the team will be tasked with using your £500 budget to purchase as many toys for the appeal as you can. You will be given a list of children's names with their age and suggested toy. All you need to do is purchase the gifts and send them back to AAA, ready to be distributed in time for Christmas. Each child that receives a present will be living in poverty and experiencing their own bespoke difficulties, including poor housing, educational under-achievement, disruption at home and poor wellbeing. Your presents will really make their Christmas!
Ambition Aspire Achieve
Ambition Aspire Achieve provides fully inclusive opportunities and experiences for children and young people in the London Borough of Newham. They deliver a wide range of projects and activities based out of theit play and youth hubs in Canning Town and Newham. Their annual Christmas Toy Appeal aims to support up to 3,000 vulnerable children growing up in poverty, providing them with a stocking full of gifts to open on Christmas morning.
Team size = Flexible
LOND6F Caribbean Christmas
The Challenge
One Housing would love a team to host a Christmas party for their older customers living in their Protheroe House service in Tottenham. Christmas can be a very lonely time for some of their users and they may possibly be on their own for the festive season. You are tasked with creating a Caribbean Christmas themed event. You can include music from the Caribbean/Windrush generation, decorations to complement the Islands and tea and cakes; perhaps some sweet potato pudding! This would be a memorable event which will bring a real smile to their customers' faces.
One Housing Care and Support
One Housing supports vulnerable people living with mental health problems, older people, young people with complex needs and the homeless. They endeavour to aid their recovery, support them to sustain their tenancies for when they leave the charity. Their wish is to empower the people they look after, so they feel confident to access the wider community.
Team size = Medium (6-10)
LOND7F Walking in a Winter Wonderland
The Challenge
The Soup Kitchen would like to challenge a team to walk from the Royal Arsenal in Greenwich to London Bridge. The walk will take place along the Thames Path, covering 15 miles and will take approximately 5-6 hours to complete. They have asked participants to donate one article of clothing, or one most-needed food item, to the Soup Kitchen for each mile walked. For example, if you complete the 15-mile challenge, you agree to donate 15 items (15 pairs of socks, 15 jumpers, 15 boxes of pasta, etc.). If you can only walk five miles, you agree to donate five items. Don't forget you have £500 budget to purchase such items!
The Soup Kitchen
Since 1986, Soup Kitchen London has been a resource for the homeless, elderly, lonely and vulnerable. They provide healthy free meals, clothing, toiletries and a sense of belonging to nearly 200 guests each day. With the help of hundreds of volunteers each year, they aim to provide a nutritious meal in a safe and warm environment that welcomes everyone.
Team size = Flexible
LOND8F A Whole Lots of Toys Two!
The Challenge
You and the team will be tasked with using your £500 budget to purchase as many toys for the appeal as you can. You will be given a list of children's names with their age and suggested toy. All you need to do is purchase the gifts and send them back to AAA, ready to be distributed in time for Christmas. Each child that receives a present will be living in poverty and experiencing their own bespoke difficulties, including poor housing, educational under-achievement, disruption at home and poor wellbeing. Your presents will really make their Christmas!
Ambition Aspire Achieve
Ambition Aspire Achieve provides fully inclusive opportunities and experiences for children and young people in the London Borough of Newham. They deliver a wide range of projects and activities based out of theit play and youth hubs in Canning Town and Newham. Their annual Christmas Toy Appeal aims to support up to 3,000 vulnerable children growing up in poverty, providing them with a stocking full of gifts to open on Christmas morning.
Team size = Flexible
LOND9F Winter Wonderland
The Challenge
Stockwell Garden, an Evolve Housing unit, would like a team to decorate their foyer and outside area to create a Winter Wonderland which will be enjoyed by the 27 young families over the festive season. They would like you to create lovely sense-stimulating and magical areas, strung with LED fairy lights, some light sculptures (e.g. stars, snowmen and reindeer) for the garden. Perhaps you and your team have some old lights or sculptures at home you no longer use? If not, you have budget to buy some fabulous light displays! If there is any extra budget, they would love to offer small Christmas gifts, chocolate treats or little toys.
Evolve Housing + Support
Evolve Housing + Support is a homelessness and community support charity. They support young people, young parents and adults impacted by homelessness in the London Boroughs of Croydon, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Merton, and Sutton. As well as accommodation, they deliver personal support built around each persons unique strengths, aspirations, and goals. By doing so, we help them move away from homelessness and into independence, for good.
Team size = Flexible