Bounce Forward celebrate 10 years and 10,000 teachers

26 November 2018

When Big Change first met Bounce Forward we knew them as Thrive in Life – a perfect fit for our own values in supporting young people.

Last week marked their 10th anniversary (wow!) and official launch of their new name ‘Bounce Forward’.

Bounce Forward puts an even more positive note into the idea of ‘bouncing back’ and learning to be resilient. Resilience is what Bounce Forward is all about – offering training in schools to teach students resilience skills so that they are better able to cope with and be more prepared for life’s difficulties.

Resilience doesn’t always mean staying strong and pushing through. Sometimes it means learning when and how to ask for help, how to change your perspective and how to deal with what life throws your way.

Check out their great video, which perfectly explains resilience and resilience training:

Not only are Bounce Forward celebrating ten years, but they’re now able to say that the programme has reached 10,000 teachers and half a million young people!

Thursday evening’s event took place at the House of Commons and included a fantastic group of people involved with and supporting this project.

We snapped this pic of Jo Owen, founder of Teach First, and Bounce Forward Chairman, Sir Richard Layard, and Bounce Forward’s Lucy Bailey:

Bounce Forward 10th anniversary

At Big Change we were delighted to get a shout out from the team for our support for this project partner who we funded in our 2017 cohort!

We were also happy to hear that their new School Engagement Consultant, Dawn Smallwood, found out about Bounce Forward through our STRIVE Challenge social media – so thank you to our fantastic Strivers you really do make a big difference!

On LinkedIn Dawn talks about how she came to Bounce Forward through STRIVE:“I decided to follow a few key people including Richard Branson, who had always been a bit of a hero of mine so I started to read his posts and follow his links daily. At that time he was in the midst of a STRIVE Challenge which I found really interesting especially as it was to support ‘Big Change’, a charity run by his two children to help young people thrive in life. I totally got what they were trying to do and, after reading about different projects they were supporting, I stumbled upon ‘Bounce Forward’. It was as if someone had switched the light on – they were specialists in delivering resilience training to schools and not just to students, but adults too! They put adults (school staff, teachers, Headteachers, parents) at the heart of their training because they felt that adults mattered. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t heard of them before so, completely out of character, I sent an email telling them this, how I felt that they would be a fantastic support to schools and colleges and, if there was anything I could do to help, let me know.”