20th Birthday Appeal

Who are we?

Hello and thank you for lookinng at our Crowdfunder project page.  

See ITV West Country News item HERE. 

Founded by David, one of our Trustees in 2005, with the help of the Connecting Communities team at the University of Exeter Medical School and many others, TR14ers Community Dance Charity Limited was set up by the local police in Camborne to offer children free weekly dance sessions as an alternative to Crime and Antisocial Behaviour in our ridiculously deprived town.

(Staged photo)

We saw an immediate drop in youth crime and antisocial behaviour, increases in school attendance with vastly improved exam results and reduced reportable incidents at school. Then our colleagues at the University of Exeter Medical School began to notice health improvements in the children. 

Since 2005 over 3000 children have attended at least one session and some who joined us age 8 are still with us at 22. Some of the children who attend have parents who attended in the beginning. We believe that this is because children can act as positive role models for other children given the space and support to do so.

Our working model is that children join as as young as 5 and learn dance from older children who have self selected as Dance Leaders from about age 12. The dance leaders create their own choreography and teach it to the younger children. It is one thing to see a professional dance teacher hold a class of children. It is another thing completely to see a 15 year old hold a class of 5-12 year olds, delivering  choreography she created. 

The dance leaders create choreography for public performances and competitions. It is one thing to see a dance troupe win a national dance competition having been coached by a professional dance teacher. It is another thing completely to see them win a national competition (Time2Shine) havingperformed a dance they choreographed. 

At 16 the dance leaders  can become Trustees of the charity and are in a strong position to bring the wishes and opinions of the  children to the board and feedback to the children.

Dance develops and requires an abundance of physical and emotional health through the activity of dancing and the collaboration required to develop group choreography. This model has kept us going for 19 years and for an academic explanation of how this has happened please read this article published in PLOS One medical journal in 2023. You can also visit our website here. All of our sessions are free because we have found that free entry gives the children a sense of ownership of the charity, helping them to become stakeholders in everything we do.  Camborne is a highly deprived town and we know that for some disadvantaged children this is the only way they can access organised physical activity. Access that is provided entirely by volunteers and freelance dance teachers who support our dance leaders.

Why are we crowdfunding?

We have been fortunate to receive funding from fabulous organisations like BBC Children in Need, the Cornwall Community Foundation, National Lottery and Sport England to name but a few. However, in these financially demanding times it is getting very difficult to secure grant funding to continue offering free dance sessions to disadvantaged children. See ITV West Country News item HERE. We want to secure funds to enable us to continue past our 20th anniversary and to give us space to continue looking for a corporate funder interested in children's physical and emotional health. 

How we’ll spend the money raised

We have no payroll and nearly all of our money goes directly to children's dance. We will spend the money on room hire, freelance dance teachers, competition entry, insurance, accountancy, DBS/CRB checks, and some equipment. 

Community impact

This film, made by Tia, one of our Trustees goes a long way to demonstrating our impact on one person and this film by Doctor Alex George for BBC Children in Need illustrates our wider impact. 

#How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!