Happy new year from all of us at ICM! We've got an exciting year ahead of us, but before we get started we wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of our highlights from 2024.
Video clips credits to Luke Tomlinson, Greyhound Creative and Pursey Productions.
We've grown so much this year; reaching new people, starting new projects, growing existing ones, partnering with new organisations, and meeting more of our incredible community.
Across the year we offered over 10,000 participations working with refugees, migrants, and young people in our Ipswich community - empowering people to transform their lives through learning and creativity.
2024 HIGHLIGHTS
We’re so proud of absolutely everything ICM and our beneficiaries have achieved, but here are just some of the highlights of 2024:
Back in the spring the young people from New Gen, our youth music project delivered in partnership with Out Loud Music CIC and Brighten the Corners, took part in the Britten Pears Arts 'Celebration' event performing at Snape Maltings.
South Street Kids performed their apple tree spring showcase, sharing songs they had written, dances they’d choreographed and lots of their favourite things! The project was delivered in partnership with Out Loud Music CIC and made possible thanks to special support from BBC Children In Need.
Our annual Health and Wellbeing Day was a huge success, thanks to the great efforts of our Integration Team, and the contributions of all the fantastic organisations that joined us. Across the day we had over 170 visitors looking to improve their health and wellbeing, 32 brilliant organisations participating as stallholders, and 40 people took advantage of the free NHS health checks available. We're looking forward to holding it again in 2025.
We had a busy summer full of events, plus we had the opportunity to organise some trips to the countryside for our learners who hadn't been before, visiting Bawdsey and Felixstowe, and Flatford Mill thanks to the Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths and National Lottery Heritage Fund's Landscapes for All Fund.
Our beneficiaries saw great success at the Suffolk Adult Learners Awards with our learner Bibi winning the Community Learning Award, long time volunteer and community champion Eric achieving Runner Up for the Learner Impact Award, and volunteer and community champion Romeo winning the Volunteer/Community Champion of the Year Award!
Our Making Waves project collaborated with 17 young people from Needham Market Academy to make a film all about the academy, the young people's experiences there, and what it means to the local community. Special thanks to East of England Co-op for their support.
Our biggest news of the year was the acquisition of a new premises for ICM at Westgate House, allowing us to expand our offering and get all of our ESOL projects under one roof. The 3 storey building provides two fully functioning classrooms, a small consultation room and space for our administrative team, increasing our teaching space by 200% and giving us the opportunity to grow our weekly ESOL learners by 50% and expand our Information, Advice and Guidance services by 50%. The team has done a fantastic job of refurbishing the building and getting our learners settled and we couldn’t be happier.
Autumn saw our Integration Team taking full advantage of the new space and hosting a series of fundraising activities for kids and their families. These included bracelet making, Bollywood dance with Dance Folks, storytelling with Lets Talk Reading, and art workshops with Romeo of Ipswich Romanian Community.
Finally, to round out the year, we held our Big Give Christmas Appeal - a week of fundraising to support our work. Thank you to everyone who donated, liked and shared our posts, and supported us through this campaign, helping us to reach our £8000 goal!
Thanks to the Spread Eagle and Woolpack pubs for hosting quizzes, Eastern Angles, New Wolsey, Red Rose Chain, Majestic Wine, Arlingtons and all the local businesses who donated raffle prizes, The Smokehouse for hosting our battle of the bands and all the bands that took part, all of our our pledgers including Hopsters, Love One, and East Anglian Sales, ShareGift for being our match funder, and many more! Thank you everyone that contributed to an incredible week of fundraising.
LOOKING TO 2025
We're looking forward to even bigger and better things in 2025, including out 10 year anniversary, so stay tuned!
Don't miss a thing this year and connect with our community by signing up to our 'Behind the Scenes' neswletter. You'll be the first to hear about all the latest news, community events, project updates and more from ICM. Sign up here.
From the whole ICM family, thank you for all of your incredible support.
Thank you to all of our funders this year including Ipswich Borough Council, Suffolk County Council, The National Lottery Community Fund, Activities Unlimited, European Social Fund, Education & Skills Funding Agency, Suffolk Community Foundation, Suffolk & North East Essex Neonatal Services, People’s Health Trust / Health Lottery, National Citizens Service, Ipswich & East Suffolk Alliance, EELGA Strategic Migration Partnership, and Arts Council England.
Comentários