We have now been officially recognised as an Industry Partner for the University’s School of Creative and Cultural Business. We have received a certificate and the above logo to confirm this partnership along with being invited to events within the University.
The Event Management course at RGU runs a ‘Main event’ module for their final year students where they are asked to organise a fundraising event for a local charity. They are split in to groups and partnered with a charity representative who mentors the students through the project. It is an opportunity for the students to put all the skills they have learned in their course to practical use. It is also an opportunity for the charities to raise vital funds and awareness along with gaining new contacts.
As dates-n-mates Aberdeen are a small team and we don’t have a fundraising department like many other charities do, the support from the students over the years has been very valuable. The extra funds allow us to continue providing new experiences for our members which help them to build meaningful friendships and relationships.
The first 2 groups together raised over £3000 and our 3rd group has big plans to increase this. This year’s group are organising a battle of the bands event with a friendship theme in March 2020. The event will include live music, a friendship quote wall, photobooth, charity awareness talks and more. The 2019-2020 student group are already linking with other external contacts in their fundraising such as securing a fantastic prize from Experience Days UK.
More information will be announced soon on their Facebook Page – Encore Events.
Our Project Coordinator, Louise is also a graduate of the Event Management course at RGU and took part in the Main Event module during her studies too. She now represents dates-n-mates as the mentor for the groups.
“Taking part in the Main Event project as a student has been valuable for my career in charity events. I now love being able to come back as the professional and mentor existing students. I believe that charities working alongside students is a fantastic idea as it gets young people involved in supporting charities. It also allows the charity to reach a new audience and raise funds.”
Our members enjoy being a part of the projects too by attending the fundraising events and also taking to the stage to lead talks about what we do. It provides an opportunity for our members to connect with other people they perhaps typically wouldn’t otherwise meet. The events and partnership allows students and other members of the public to get to know our members and see adults with learning disabilities in a much more inclusive way.
We would like to thank RGU for allowing us to be a part of this and all the students that we have worked with so far.
You can read more about this in our Press & Journal article or read about the first student-led fundraising event here.
If you would be interested in organising a fundraising activity for dates-n-mates, please get in touch on 01224 974730 or [email protected]
]]>
Fortunately, despite the rainy weather we have had this June, we were lucky enough to dodge most of it and have had a fun month of events and activities.
Kiltwalk Aberdeen
You will have seen from our previous month’s updates we were preparing to take part in our first ever Kiltwalk!
A group of us gathered to participate in the Wee Wander 5+ mile walk. The team included dates-n-mates’ members, C-Change staff and our National dates-n-mates Scotland Director John Paul came all the way from Glasgow to join in with us.
The day began with rain but quickly cleared up once we began walking and we had sunshine the rest of the day. It was a lovely walk along the old railway line walkway from Camphill to Duthie park in Aberdeen. It was a fantastic atmosphere on the day, and we had a lot of fun!
Members did an amazing job fundraising for us, so far raising over £700. We are still collecting some funds and the Kiltwalk adds on a further 40%, so we will announce our final total in a couple of months.
We would like to say a very big thank you to everyone who took part or donated. We really appreciate your support and were pleased to see members have fun in the process. We plan to do more fundraising later in the year!
Bowling
We went to Codonas for an afternoon of bowling with members. This was popular as usual, and we had a great afternoon. Members have said they can’t wait to go bowling again soon.
Meet & Mingle Disco
Our dating disco was held at the popular venue, Cotton Club. Member’s had a great night of mingling and dancing, then for the last half hour we decided to do some karaoke too!
4th Anniversary Party
Dates-n-mates Aberdeen turned 4 this month! We were delighted to see members and dates-n-mates’ supporters, along with some from Glasgow, join us for an evening of celebrations at Copthorne Hotel. Our evening began with close up table magic performed by magicians from Allans Magic, then our 2-course meal followed by a disco and raffle.
Between courses we had an awards ceremony. We presented certificates to those that participated in the Kiltwalk and awarded our member Marie with a prize for raising the most sponsorship money. We also took the opportunity to thank members; Chris, Liz and Joan for attending the most events over the last 4 years.
We would like to thank the following companies for the amazing prizes they donated towards our raffle for this event: Aberdeen Performing Arts, Bravissimo, Copthorne Hotel, Flash Photography, Foodstory and Transition Extreme. We would also like to thank the venue staff, magicians and DJ for a fantastic night!
Ellon Day Out
Our bi-monthly Aberdeenshire trip was out in Ellon, a place many members on the trip had never been to before – exploring a new place is always a fun adventure, isn’t it?
We had lunch at the New Inn then spent the rest of the afternoon browsing round shops in the town and treating ourselves to a few nice things. Some members had not met each other before this day so it was nice to see new connections being made and friendships forming.
Other news…
- We interviewed a new potential volunteer, with another lined up for next month
- Invites for our July & August events were sent out to members
- We celebrated our fabulous admin officer, Michelle’s 30th Birthday with some cake in the office.
- Our Director Sarah appeared on That’s TV to talk about celebrating our 4th anniversary – You can see a short clip of the video on our Facebook page
Now roll on more fun in July! We have our fabulous afternoon tea event planned at the end of the month – stay tuned for the next update!
]]>- Hollywood Hits Fundraiser (Organised by RGU students)
- Relationships training
- Blind date/Pub evening
- Tie dye t-shirt making
- Kiltwalk information session and practise walk
We started March in style with a Hollywood themed event organised by RGU Event Management students fundraising for us. This was a fun night which raised £1257. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the students for all their hard work and for raising a fantastic amount of money which will go towards providing more social and dating opportunities for our members.
At the Hollywood Hits event, we presented member Joan with her Champion Winner prize (as the member who has earned the most volunteering points with us over the last year) and a ‘Rising Star’ award to runner up Liz who also made a speech about dates-n-mates at the event.
A new training workshop was introduced to members this month focusing on the stages of starting a romantic relationship – we are now taking members feedback to create more relationship and dating training.
Members made their own tie-dye t-shirts which looked amazing and we hope to wear them when taking part in Grampian Pride in May.
Other News:
Also this month we held a small evaluation focus group for members to provide feedback to external evaluators on what they think of dates-n-mates. We are looking for some more feedback so will be sending evaluation surveys out to members and their families soon – if you are a member of if you are a related to a member please keep an eye out for these surveys or get in touch to discuss. Family and support can also fill in this online survey.
Louise and Laurie held a stall at Robert Gordon University advertising some of our volunteering opportunities.
Our lovely Project Coordinator, Laurie has now gone on Maternity Leave to have her baby. We all surprised her with some leaving gifts on her last day and wished her all the best.
Louise attended the Platform by Kiltwalk event organised for charities by the Kiltwalk organisers – we now know more about the event and will be releasing some further sign up information and motivation soon! If you would like to sign up to take part in the sponsored walk for us please get in touch at 01224 974730 or email [email protected]
]]>On February 24th, 2018 – a fantastic fundraising event was held for us by the students at the end of their project which raised £1933 for dates-n-mates Aberdeen.
Every year the fourth year Event Management students at RGU work with a variety of local charities to showcase the skills they have learned on the course by organising a new event for their charity partner. In small groups the students must design their event concept and manage all aspects of the event planning and delivery process – with events aimed to raise funds and awareness for their charity.
This Main Event student project began at RGU five years ago with our very own Marketing & Events Coordinator, Louise, participating as a student herself in 2014/2015. Therefore, she was in a good position to be the mentor for the dates-n-mate’s student group over the last few months.
The students linked with dates-n-mates well by attending one of our events and coming to the office to meet with some members. They interviewed 2 members and our Director, Sarah, creating promotional videos of them talking about what dates-n-mates means to them. These video clips can be found on both the dates-n-mates Aberdeen and ‘Tastes O the Shire’ Facebook pages.
They raised awareness for us by participating in a range of pre-event fundraising in the local community including doughnut sales at the University, bag packs in local supermarkets and a car boot sale, where they were able to help spread the message of what we do. They also raised awareness at the event with information on what we do made available for all attendees.
The event itself was a food tasting evening at Hazlehead Park Café with live musicians and an opportunity to win some great prizes. Staff Louise & Peter attended with 12 members/support alongside members of the public mostly friends, family and fellow students of the group organising the event. Tastes O’ the shire consisted of a 3-course tasting menu:
- The Starter where people were encouraged to wear blindfolds to taste 3 of the items and try to be the first to guess what it was to win a prize. A few of our members took part in this and enjoyed it… even if they did get a shock when one of the items was spicy! One of our members sister won a prize voucher for guessing first with this one!
- Then the main course with a variety of taster items to enjoy from mini steak pie to cod & cheese bites.
- Followed by a trio of desserts including sticky toffee pudding!
The event also featured 3 local musicians performing which dates-n-mates have already booked again for a future event (our Summer party) as they were very talented. The evening was hosted by Kenny Luke who led games such as heads or tails where people could win prizes donated by local business’s. Overall the event was a success with everyone enjoying the evening.
The students were able to raise over £1900 for dates-n-mates Aberdeen through this project/event. This is a fantastic amount that we very much appreciate and will go towards providing more great experiences and opportunities for our members. Therefore, we would like to say a very big THANK YOU and well done to the student group – Anna, Erin, Maja and Emma! We wish you all the best of luck in your future careers now that you are finishing your degree. Thank you also to Robert Gordon University especially lecturers Rachael Ironside and Craig Leith for allowing dates-n-mates to be one of the charities chosen for the students. The overall Main Event project worked with 9 charities this year and raised over £14,000 in total which is an amazing amount for local charities!
The student group said the following: “Organising the event on behalf of this inspirational charity is something the group will never forget! We all really enjoyed working with the staff at dates-n-mates Aberdeen and meeting the wonderful members throughout the project. Louise has been a fantastic help in helping us to plan and make Tastes O’ the Shire a successful event!”
It is great to have local support and funds/awareness for dates-n-mates raised by others… we would encourage more of this in the future. If anyone would like to discuss how they may be able to link with us, please do get in touch at [email protected].
]]>Dates-n-mates Aberdeen can now confirm we have collected a cheque for £200 today from ASDA Aberdeen Beach Superstore.
ASDA nominated dates-n-mates in to their Green Token fundraising scheme for the beginning of this year and we were successful in securing £200 funding from this.
We would like to say a very big thank you to ASDA and all the staff and customers who voted for us.
It is fantastic to see the local community support what we do and the money will help us do great things for our members!
ASDA have also offered future fundraising support which we hope to discuss further with them soon!
See below our Marketing & Events Coordinator, Louise, collecting the cheque from Erin at ASDA Aberdeen Beach.
]]>