Greetings Little Green Pig friends! Have you got that summer holidays feeling? We sure do. We're positively buzzing with all of the brilliant imaginative ideas that Little Green Pig young writers have created this term. Grab yourself a long cold drink and settle in as we share our top stories and news with you!

In our final newsletter of this academic year you'll find:
- Wild Words: postcards from our latest projects around Sussex from gardens to pizza parties
- News of our next big fundraising campaign and how YOU can get involved as a Pledger!
- Magic Moments: Mentors share their best bits from the past term of Little Green Pig clubs
- Curious creatures and heritage tales reporting back from 2 new projects.

Enjoy the read and have a fantastic summer! From all of the Little Green Pig team :)

The Big Give Christmas Challenge - can you help us get it off to a flying start? Become one of our pledgers, please!

Forgive us for mentioning Christmas when we're at the start of the summer holidays, however we're excited to be taking part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge again this year.

This festive season Little Green Pig will embark on our biggest ever Christmas campaign.

Together we raised £5,000 (£1,000 more than our original target!) in the 2023 Christmas Challenge towards our work. With your help we want to go one step further this year and raise £6,000 in vital unrestricted funding to ensure our writing programmes for children and young people can continue.

There is a high likelihood we will secure match funding from the Big Give - meaning for every £1 someone donates £2 will go straight to Little Green Pig and double the support we can give to our young writers!

But to be eligible, we need to find up to 10 generous individuals who are willing to get behind our campaign and pledge £150 or more by 30 August.

By becoming a Little Green Pig Pledger you will:

Amplify the impact of our campaign: Your pledge funds, combined with Big Give match funds, will double the value of every donation made during the campaign.

Be Part of Something Special: You will join a select group of 10 supporters who are deeply committed to making a lasting difference in the lives of the children Little Green Pig supports.
Ensure every child has the chance to tell their story: Together, we can raise the funds needed to keep building a community of young writers who can positively influence society in the years to come.

If you're ready and able to join us as a Little Green Pig Pledger please get in touch with our Director Nicky on nicky@littlegreenpig.org.uk

Rest assured, pledges won't be collected until after the online campaign concludes in December, but we do need to secure all pledges before the 30 August deadline.

Thank you so much for your unwavering support for Little Green Pig!

Mahima Yasmin joins us as Little Green Pig's Evaluation and Communications Intern.

A University of Sussex student, Mahima is pursuing her passion for Psychology. She has already been busy improving our evaluation methods, making new connections and learning fresh skills every day with us. Her favourite word? "Ukulele".

WILD WORDS & WORLD BUILDING

PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS

Discover what we've been up to this term from writing in nature to world building...

Unearthing Stories was a Little Green Pig creative heritage project exploring the history of Saddlescombe Farm on the South Downs, near Brighton. The project was created by twenty young writers, aged 7 to 11, from Moulsecoomb, Coldean, Whitehawk and central Brighton who have imagined the voices and stories of those not captured in traditional histories due to class, gender, status, age or ethnicity. Supported by the National Trust and the Changing Chalk Community Grants Scheme, and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Children worked with a team of adult creatives across six workshops and visits, to respond to the farm with audio stories, analog photograph portraits and a zine which you can explore online here.

HEAR AUDIO TALES FROM THE FARM HERE

You can explore a digital version of their poetry and stories in a new publication - Imagination Explosion online here. Thanks to Fonthill Foundation for funding this club!

READ IMAGINATION EXPLOSION ONLINE

Our Tuesday Club children love mixed media making so explored comedic characters last term using upcycled materials. A highlight from this term for this group was also visiting Moulsecoomb Forest Garden again to celebrate the end of term with families plus a pizza making party in the outdoor woodfired oven.

OCEAN WONDER: Eastbourne childrens' writing by the beach!

Part of our Ocean Wonder publication is now proudly on display on the beach at Pevensey Bay. Thanks to the Pevensey Bay to Eastbourne Coastal Management Scheme for sharing the children's words with the wider world in this way.

Here's an extract from their Marine Manifesto:

"From the jellyfish, the clownfish, the small fish, the sad fish, the long, wavy seaweed, from the whales and the bottlenose dolphins, from the millions of mistaken waves, from the great big Ocean and from the wise children, the incredible, passionate angry children come to save the day!"

Have you ever heard of curious tiny tree-dwelling creatures called Inklings?

We hadn't encountered these magical beings before either but this Spring and Summer Term we heard reports from young writers at the Laurels Primary School in Worthing about the Inklings. They told us that they shared messages inside eggs and had taken up residency in their playground! We are still learning about the stories of what they found and we will share more in the autumn. The children tell us that their words and writing saved a tree from destruction! Watch this space...

MAGIC MOMENTS - HEAR FROM OUR MENTORS THEIR BEST BITS THIS TERM

Our team of dedicated volunteer Story Mentors and Illustrator Mentors support young writers across our weekly clubs and projects. Thanks to a new app called Volunteero, we have been able to gather even richer reports back from our Mentoring team about their observations and tales of the charity's impact. Hear more of their magic moments on a blog post by Volunteer Manager Sally Woodcock here.

FIND OUT MORE MENTOR MAGIC MOMENTS

GET INVOLVED - UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES

Spaces available at our After School Clubs for September!

If you’d like your child to join a free Little Green Pig After School Club next term, we have places available for our Monday, Tuesday and Thursday clubs that start after the summer. Running in venues across Brighton and Worthing for children aged 7-11 years old, children can do creative writing, storytelling, games, performances, illustration, puppetry and more. Spaces are prioritised for children in target local schools and those who qualify for Free School Meals, have SEN/neurodivergence, are looked after children or are experiencing other challenging circumstances – find out more on our website. You can sign your child up here, to help support their imagination, develop their communication and confidence through a free, fun club.

SUMMER SOCIAL FUN

Burgers, bingo and time together by the beach! Little Green Pig volunteers, Youth Board, Trustees, workshop leaders, staff and friends came together for a Summer Social last week at Yellowave Beach House. As these shots show, we shared lots of laughter and some silly games to celebrate the end of the school year. Kindly captured by photographer Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin.

We're pleased to share that Little Green Pig has become an accredited real Living Wage Employer. Director Nicky Crabb is featured here in The Brighton & Hove Living Wage Campaign blog.

The real Living Wage is the only rate calculated according to the costs of living. It provides a voluntary benchmark for employers that wish to ensure their staff earn a wage they can live on, not just the government minimum. Since 2011 the Living Wage movement has delivered a pay rise to over 460,000 people and put £3 billion extra into the pockets of low paid workers.