The Apprentice Shop Challenge

Location

• 1 day (7 hours) per year

32 positions available

Wheelchair accessible

We know our corporate partners love a challenge, so what better way to channel your enthusiasm and energy than our Apprentice Shop Challenge and taking over the running of our charity shops for a day. The challenge doesn't just happen on one day, you can start the fundraising and teamwork in advance at your place of work with stock collections, fundraising and planning for the big day! It's an opportunity to involve large numbers of colleagues, customers and suppliers.

Here is a list of our shops - https://www.shootingstar.org.uk/how-you-can-help/shop/shop-locations/ 

We normally suggest 3-4 people per shop so you can let us know nearer the time how many people are interested and how many shops you would like to take over. 

Stock items to sell

Any items you donate we will value and add to the income raised regardless of when we sell them. You can start your collection in advance of your Apprentice Challenge day, so ask friends, family and contacts to donate fantastic items that will give a great valuation and increase your total.  

Fundraising activities

From bake sales to quiz nights and sponsored tea making to sweepstakes, whatever activities you plan before your big day, will help build up your total, so before you even reach the shop you could be leagues ahead of your competition!

Shop sales

Encourage contacts to donate raffle and tombola prizes that can be used in your shop on the day, organise fancy dress or competitions and activities that will increase footfall on the day and increase money through the tills. Don’t forget to promote your activities in advance to drive customers into the shop.  

Apprentice Shop Challenge Team Brief 

The aim of the game is quite simply to raise the most amount of money and awareness for Shooting Star Children’s Hospice as possible. 

Your overall total will include: 

1. The value of your One Good Thing Collection—items collected in advance and valued by our distribution manager. 

2. Your JustGiving page total 

3. Shop takings—including your planned activities e.g. tombola, raffle, cake sales Planning 

6 weeks to go: decide on teams and set a date for a team briefing from Shooting Star 

4 weeks to go: brief teams, start planning your shop activities, set up your JustGiving page and set a date for a One Good Thing Collection 

3 weeks to go: Get in touch with your shop manager and arrange to visit the shop 

2 weeks to go: SSCH to collect and value One Good Thing items 

1 week to go: promote your efforts to friends, family, colleagues and suppliers 

On the day: bring your smiles, activities and enthusiasm 

One Good Thing 

Two weeks before the challenge we will arrange to collect your donations and value them which will give each shop a total before you’ve even started the day. Quality over quantity will hugely help your shop total. So encourage friends, family and colleagues to donate items such as nearly new clothes, books, toys, jewellery, bags and shoes. Set a date for collection and clearly label your bags! 

Online donations 

JustGiving page: You can promote your shops page to your colleagues, suppliers, friends and family via social media, and ask them to support by making a donation. You could also increase your totals by selling items directly via eBay for Charity* or via Facebook Marketplace and add these funds to your totals. *Please make sure to notify your Shooting Star contact. 

Take Pictures 

Encourage pictures and videos to document your teams activities. Send them to our social media handles @sschospices so that we can feature them on our website and in the eNews. Useful information 

The most successful teams are the ones that plan and communicate with team members and their appointed shop manager 

A site visit to the relevant shop is useful, and can generate ideas 

Store managers know their shops and the area around—they’re often the key to success and will know what works and what won’t work 

Bucket collections: Street collections require council permission (speak with the store manager to find out pedestrian footfall first) In-store bucket collections (other than in the charity shop) require permission ahead of time, stores are often contactable near the date) 

Think about proximity to schools and businesses, the kind of people you may see in the area and who you could get ibn the shops 

Use our resources (logos, info & images) to create promotional materials 

We are here for any support during the challenge, and a shop manager from one of our shops will be allocated to each of the teams and present during the day. 

Our shops are managed by employed managers and staffed entirely by volunteers. When we book a challenge, we often release the volunteers from that days commitment to work with us and so we ask companies to avoid changing their challenge day once it has been booked.

This is a great challenge for everyone in the office to get involved with and it is a great opportunity for a bit of healthy competition with your colleagues to see who can raise the most for the charity!

Those who are able to devote a bit of time and creativity towards planning for their shop takeover will do really well. We can provide lots of tips and ideas ahead of your big day to help get you on your way!

Shooting Star Children’s Hospices cares for babies, children and young people with life-limiting conditions, and their families, across south-west London, north-west London and Surrey. We’re here to make every moment count, whether lives are measured in days, weeks, months, or years. We support families from diagnosis to end of life and throughout bereavement with a range of nursing, practical, emotional, and medical care. Our specialist care and support is free of charge and available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We support around 500 babies, children, or young adults who have a life-limiting condition and their families, as well as around 200 bereaved families. It costs £10 million a year to run Shooting Star Children’s Hospices, so we rely on the generosity of our supporters to keep our services going. 

Bring yourself and any food and drink that you might want for the day. Comfortable shoes are important as you will be on your feet all day!

You will need to bring any items that you want to sell or use as props to fundraise in your shop of choice. The key is to make sure that you have a good plan and make sure that you bring anything that you might need for the big day.

We have  8 different shops across West London and Surrey and they majority are accessible by road or public transport.

You can view locations of our shops by clicking here.

Most of our shops are on busy high streets so there will be access to places to eat etc. Each shop has different facilities but those taking part will have access to a toilet and be able to make a cuppa!

We can make sure that shops that are particularly well suited to wheelchair access  are made available for this challenge. This is a great activity that suits a wide variety of people and is a great team building exercise for all.

"Everyone felt so strongly about the charity that they were all just totally committed to the cause.  Your team in the Walton shop are lovely and were really supportive and encouraging of us and we thoroughly enjoyed the day.  Please give them our thanks as they didn’t mind us moving things around and getting in the way which made life very easy!"