Festive Offering

Festive Greetings Little Green Pig friends and followers,

Welcome to our final newsletter of 2023. We hope this edition can bring you some hope, joy and cause for celebration this winter. Read on for news on our fundraising success, how the young writers' words continue to shine bright and a special invitation to our next quiz event!

Let us take this moment of reflection and pause that the festive season offers to extend our warmest thanks to you for your ongoing support and interest in what we're doing across Sussex.

From Nikki, Jo, Nicky, Sally and all the Little Green Pig team

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING AT LITTLE GREEN PIG

A trip to the Turner Prize at Towner!

"Before today, I didn't know that art could be more than just drawings on paper." A young writer during their visit

Children from our After School Club at Langney Primary Academy were excited to explore contemporary art at Towner Eastbourne this month. During their visit to the gallery (for many their first time), children got to feel flowing fountains, puzzle over mixed media sculptures, and imagine the stories behind powerful portraits.

Whilst not all children may have agreed with the winning artist, they all voted for their favourite from the four shortlisted artworks and have created a zine (with artist Eva Louisa Jonas) that expresses their experiences.

Thanks to the learning team at Towner for welcoming the children so warmly! We think they're keen to come back again soon.

"Here at Little Green Pig she can be herself and let her imagination grow. There has been a real change, thank you!"
Parent of a Little Green Pig After School Club member, December 2023

Eastbourne Transitions

Little Green Pig's Eastbourne Transitions project invited a group of 15 children to use animation and creative writing to support their move from Year 6 at Langney Primary Academy to Year 7 at St Catherine's College in Eastbourne, a time which can be full of many different hopes and fears. Workshops took place in Summer and Autumn Term 2023, led by artist Lara Leslie of Press Play Films and writer Eleanor Walford with project support by Laura Halliwell and story mentors. You can watch a series of their amazing stop motion short animations with an Ocean theme here. With thanks to Arts Council England, Ernest Kleinwort Foundation and Magdalen Hospital Trust.

Writer Alinah Azadeh visits Longhill

"Thanks for the opportunity to work with the students and connect more with Roy McFarlane. Some powerful work came out of this session." Guest creative Alinah Azadeh

Young writers at Longhill High School met guest Alinah Azadeh, as part of our weekly lunchtime writing club. Alinah is an artist, writer, performer, and cultural activist based in Sussex. She shared her work with the young people, including recent piece We Hear You Now, a spoken word audio commission embedded across 6 km of the Seven Sisters and Sussex Heritage Coast landscape. This was curated and co-written with other writers of colour, including fellow Little Green Pig collaborators Georgina Aboud and Akila Richards.

The students were invited by Alinah to create their own ocean themed environmental writing, which they've since performed at the end of term for fellow students and staff.

Our fantastic Youth Board met together at Jubilee Library this month. The group of young people, aged from 14 to 21, discussed ideas for future projects and how their roles will develop in 2024 with Little Green Pig Chair of the Board Pete Lawson and new Volunteer Manager Sally Woodcock (pictured). You can find out who is on our Youth Board here. We will be recruiting for more Youth Board members early 2024 too!

Also, as part of our Youth Leadership programme, our newly trained Mini Mentors got into action! Children who left our primary aged writing clubs for secondary school were invited to return as mentors, and received training to take up this new role. Mini Mentors have recently helped at clubs including hosting festive events and supporting younger children in the rehearsal process.

Save the date! Friday 26 January 2024, 7.30pm til late = our quiz night returns. Put it in your new 2024 diaries now and get ready for tickets to go on sale on Wednesday 3 January at 9am. Tickets to our legendary fundraising quiz event always sell out speedily - you have been warned! "The Whole Hog" quiz returns for its 8th outing. Prepare for a night of fun fundraising for Little Green Pig. Tell your friends and get a team together! Raffle prizes are also welcomed - get in touch if you have anything to donate, please?

FUNDRAISING CELEBRATION

We smashed our target for The Big Give Christmas Challenge - thank you!

Thanks to the generous support of our friends and followers, we not only met our £4000 target for The Big Give Christmas Challenge...we exceeded it!

A grand total of £5000 was raised in just one week, thanks to the magic of matched funding and doubled donations! These funds are invaluable to us as a small charity to keep carrying on with our big ambitions to support young writers across Sussex in 2024.

Thank you for everyone who donated and spread the word, including local companies Creative Bloom and ThoughtShift- we really appreciate it. If you missed the deadline, but would still like to share a festive gift with Little Green Pig, you can donate throughout the year here.

We welcome Sally Woodcock to the Little Green Pig staff team as our new Volunteer Manager!

Whilst the role of Volunteer Manager is new for her, Sally is no stranger to Little Green Pig. In fact Sally has been involved in the charity for 7 years in different ways. She has been a regular Story Mentor, zines workshop leader, podcast producer, Mini Mentors trainer, and creative designer for our BrightStar schools residency amongst other tasks! We are thrilled that she is taking over from Samreen to look after our volunteering programme. Her favourite word? "Lux"

Fancy a new adventure for the New Year? For 2024, we'd love to welcome new volunteers to our team. We're recruiting now for new Story Mentors and Illustrators across Brighton, Eastbourne and Worthing. There's no better time to sign up to find out more and get involved! Join our team of 40 current volunteers. Find out how you can train to become one of our amazing team of Story Mentors on the website here, or get in touch with Sally, our Volunteer Manager - sally@littlegreenpig.org.uk. Full support and training, travel expenses, and DBS checks are provided.

Mentors often feedback on how much they learn and gain from the experience of supporting young writers too - it's a two-way learning process!