Please feel free to pop into the local event taking place at Riverside Leisure Centre in Exeter on the 9th March from 4 – 5.30pm.

It will be a chance to hear about how Bike Club can work with your organisation to set up regular cycling activities for young people. You can also find out about how young people’s cycling can be accredited through the Youth Achievement Awards and hear what else Cycle Exeter are working on to make cycling more accessible to everyone.

Perhaps even take advantage of its nifty location on the lovely Exe Cyclepath and ride down to find out how groups can help develop their plans for after school and out of school cycling activities. This Cycle Exeter map might help…

So whether you are a teacher, a youth worker, a volunteer just someone with a passion for cycling that you want to share with those who are less experienced, come and find out how Bike Club can fit in with your work and activities.

Please let Lizzie Evered (lizzie.evered@bikeclub.org.uk 07825 983 465)  know if you can make it on the day.  If you can”t make it and are still interested, get on touch for a chat about ideas and what Bike Club can offer your group.

My last on screen TV experience was standing in an airport in Calabar, Nigeria reporting on the delayed flights for the traffic report at Cross River Broadcasting Corporation. In stark contrast to that, today I found myself sitting on 10^th floor of County Hall, Aylesbury answering questions about Bike Club for Leighton Buzz’s first pilot TV show.

Leighton Buzz is a volunteer led community group that will run monthly online TV shows on their website which will be dedicated to featured shows about the local community and interesting things going on around the area.

Leighton Buzz has caught the cycling bug and will be promoting the cycling activities, events and achievements of cyclists in the area in partnership with the Leighton Linslade Go Cycle Team and Bike Club.

Could Leighton Buzz have a Bike Club? I hope so.

There are loads of opportunities for your friends and family to get involved with being part of the production of material for the show. These could include cycling films and showing off the skills you have learnt on a bike. You could show off your BMX and mountain biking skills, document your cycling campaign idea, learn to be a cameraman (or woman!), try presenting a film or experiment with some editing software.

Leighton Buzz – http://www.leightonbuzz.com/

It was York’s Local Network Event, the chance for professionals and practitioners to find out how Bike Club can work with them to engage new young people in cycling. We had a varied attendance: from local councillors to young people’s advisors; from school governors to breakfast club staff, all of whom enjoyed the generous pastries on offer. The theme was “Building Partnerships”. It’s a feature of our work: the creative and flexible way in which Bike Club can partner other organisations to deliver real support to young people. The message wasn’t lost on those who came- they now want to be part of it too.

Big thanks to York City Council and their Cycling City York team, who helped support and promote the event- the first of many of its kind in York and across the country. Woking’s next on Thursday 11th March, as followers of our esteemed Bike Club blog will know.

The national scheme, led by CTC, UK Youth and ContinYou, helps groups of children and young people to benefit from learning opportunities through cycling and is officially launching in Woking with a networking event on Thursday 11 March 2010.

Woking now has its own dedicated Bike Club Development Officer to help you set up your own club. If you would like to hold maintenance sessions, go on organised bike rides or set up an off-road biking club, then Bike Club can make it possible and can even offer financial help, with grants of up to £2,000 available.

Rose Rickford, Woking’s Bike Club Development Officer, is hosting the Bike Club launch and networking event at Woking Leisure Centre, Woking Park, Woking, from 10am to 11.30am.

Find out how Bike Club can support you in setting up cycling projects for young people and families and chat to other potential partners at the event. Tea, coffee and cake will be provided.

For more information about Bike Club in Woking, contact Rose Rickford, Bike Club Development Officer, by emailing rose.rickford@bikeclub.org.uk or by calling 07826 927264

To take into account the volume of applications, we are introducing an additional application date in March, giving a further opportunity to submit your bid for Bike Club funding.

To apply for a Bike Club grant, email your application to Clive by midday on one of the following dates:

• Monday 22 March 2010
• Monday 26 April 2010
• Monday 24 May 2010
• Monday 23 August 2010

Application forms and guidelines are available online.

If you have any questions, email Clive or call him on 07717 721511

I’m really hoping he manages to do it- and I’ll be checking in with interest to see if it’s the storms and sharks he’ll swim through, the Siberian winter he’ll cycle (the rivers and swamps are passable only when frozen) or the perpetual pounding of pavement are his biggest challenge.

Somehow I think it’ll be none of these. The battle with himself will be the greatest. Thanks, Dan, for your inspiration. You’ve certainly sparked my ambition; for work, for life, and for the future. Oh, and thanks for tweeting me back!

As Bike Club extends its work into Scotland, we are recruiting for two new people to join the team:

Bike Club development worker based in Glasgow

salary around £24,000

Bike Club development worker based in Edinburgh

with a national remit -  salary around £28,000

Bike Club is an innovative new project to create new cycling clubs and activities for children and young people, funded in Scotland by the Asda Foundation.

In Scotland, Bike Club is delivered by a partnership of CTC (the national cyclists’ organisation), Youth Scotland and ContinYou.

We are looking for Bike Club development workers to be responsible for delivering the project, working closely with existing networks of staff and volunteers in formal and nonformal learning settings.

You will need to demonstrate a good knowledge of community-based
cycling or physical activity projects and programmes; work experience across a range of community and youth work settings; and a track record of developing training and learning programmes.

The closing date for applications is 12 noon on Monday 1 March 2010. Interviews will be held in Edinburgh on 15 and 16 March 2010.

For an information pack please contact Youth Scotland:

email:
office@youthscotland.org.uk
address:
Youth Scotland, Balfour House, 19 Bonnington Grove, Edinburgh. EH6 4BL
phone:
0131 554 2561

Or download an information pack from:
http://www.youthscotland.org.uk/vacancies/bike-club-development-officers.htm

These posts will require CRB disclosure at an enhanced level.

One of the first enquiries that Bike Club received was from an extended services cluster based around Milnthorpe in South Lakeland.

The Extended Services Cluster Manager for Milnthorpe area, Angela Franklin, decided that cycling was an ideal activity for family learning and she had the idea of offering various cycling related activities culminating in the chance to take part in the Three Counties Challenge ride in July.  I was delighted to support her application to become one of the very first Bike Clubs because of the opportunity it presents for whole families to enjoy healthy exercise and to learn new skills.  Young people between 10 and 20 years old can of course take a leadership role in planning, organising and helping to lead the activities.

The extended services concept is about offering opportunities to communities using school premises and resources outside of normal school hours for informal learning.  It is a government initiative which has been running since 2005 and has some really exciting links to Bike Club’s objectives and ambitions.  One of Bike Club’s key partners, ContinYou, are experts in the whole field of extended services.

The Milnthorpe extended services cluster consists of eight rural primary schools and Dallam High School.  The project will be a partnership between a range of organisations including the police, Cumbria County Council, Cumbria Tourism, Kent Valley Road Club and Bike Club.  I am really looking forward to working in partnership with these organisations and to seeing the success of the initiatives as the summer unwinds.

The menu of activities is to include teaching under fives to ride without stabilisers, a bike to school day, family cycle skills sessions, bike maintenance sessions and a trip to Manchester Velodrome to try out track cycling.  Training will be offered to willing volunteers to become ride leaders so that the project is sustainable in future years.

It is great to be finally seeing a Bike Club project get of the ground and I look forward to blogging about the fun we’ll be having getting ready for the Three Counties Challenge.

Bike Club is all about creating opportunities for children and young people to learn, explore and enjoy healthy lifestyles, so we invited along a carefully chosen selection of experts and decision-makers from the worlds of health, education, youth work and cycling.

Bike Club was introduced and explained to the delegates by Sarah Troke, our Bike Club manager, and by Kevin Mayne, the chief executive of CTC.

Kevin and Sarah’s presentation slides are shown here, and are interesting to view even without their commentary. If you’d like any of the points explained in further detail, email us or give us a call on 0844 736 8464.

Support from Government Minister and NHS Executive

Delegates at our London launch heard an address from Sadiq Khan MP, the Transport Minister, who spoke of the importance of cycling within the Department for Transport’s policies.

At the Manchester Bike Club launch, we heard from Mike Farrar, the chief executive of NHS North West, who spoke passionately about the role of cycling in influencing the health of young people and families.

We then turned to the expertise of our invited guests, who discussed with our Bike Club development officers a range of ideas, questions and commitments. The range of ideas was impressive, with commitments given by many delegates to work with Bike Club.

Monday’s Guardian Bike Blog took a look at Bike Club, raising some questions and provoking some supportive comments.

What are your thoughts?

Did you join us in London or Manchester? What did you think?
If you weren’t with us, are there any questions you would have asked if you were in the room?

Feel free to share your thoughts below.

But it’s good to give a project like this a more official welcome, so on Monday 18 January and Thursday 21 January, we’re getting together with some of the key decision-makers in cycling, education, youth work and health to discuss how Bike Club will help to address important issues that face children, young people and their families.

We have some big cheeses speaking at the events: Transport Minister Sadiq Khan will be addressing us in London, and Mike Farrar, of NHS North West, will be sharing his thoughts in Manchester.

We’ve already invited a bunch of key people to join us on Monday in London and in Manchester on Thursday, but if you work in one of our Bike Club areas, you’re a decision-maker in health, education or youth work and you’d like to join us, drop me an email or call me on 07717 721511, ansd I’ll see if we have room for you.

If you’re from the press, or you’re a blogger, then this press release about the Bike Club launches tells you a bit more about what’s going on.