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THE CHRISTMAS DINNER HOW TO GUIDE

By Lemn Sissay

page 2 Welcome to the Christmas Dinner

page 3 The 1st Meeting, 1st document, vision and tasks

page 4 Crowdfunder and Finance

page 5 Venue and design

page 6 The presents

Page 7 Referrals

page 8 Volunteers

page 9 Transport

page 10 Crowdfunder finance

page 11 The Vision and video of the day

page 12 - 13 Timeline

page 14 Christmas eve and Christmas day

page 15 Social Media

Welcome to the Christmas Dinner

Here’s how to put on a Christmas Dinner in your area for care leavers between 18 and 25 years old. First things first: You. You need conviction and belief in people. First define the rough numbers for the actual dinner. Intimacy is important on Christmas Day. Angood limit is 50 max. Plus about 30 percent for volunteers - total limit 70. The atmosphere of the Christmas Dinner is one of comfort and joy. This takes very detailed organization and rigorous attention to detail.

The name

Call it The Christmas Dinner followed by or preceded by the area. The “Hackney Christmas Dinner” for example. There’s a reason you don’t call it “The Care Leavers Christmas Dinner”

Set up an email address

First set up a gmail address. Use an address that identifies the project TCDLeeds@ for example. Use this email throughout your project. It will become an important place of record. Google is going to be very important. If you send any email from your own email address always CC the central gmail address. Set up folders relating to the nine elements of The Christmas Dinner described later on.

Now get a dream date .

Next you need a team. People. You need between 15 to 20 people - a mixture consisting of care professionals and professional creatives . You will be asking them to come to a meeting. Choose a couple of dates and a place to meet. You can do this by Doodle Poll. There are people waiting for your call. Find someone to help or do it yourself. I did. Each interested party may know another. It’s a personal commitment. So put a note up on your personal Facebook page or shop window, ask your friends. Ask your friends. Ask at work. Put it on Facebook or twitter.

What are potential team members committing to

Eight meetings between September and December: See timeline. And remember they don’t have to be there on Christmas Day.

Now get a room

Find a room somewhere. It should be free and relatively warm. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to find a free room for a good cause. Now write everyone to confirm the time and place of the meeting through Doodle Poll. They’re expecting your follow up confirmation email. Include a) Video from Manchester 2013 and this from London & Manchester 2014. Ask them to look at the crowdfunder campaign for the 2013 Manchester Christmas Dinner. This summarizes the entire project. Exciting stuff. Now you have a date and place and a group of dedicated and committed individuals - The Christmas Dinner team. Now all you need do is communicate information clearly and lay it all out.

THE FIRST MEETING

The nine elements of The Christmas Dinner are

1. Venue & design.

2. Food, chef & Maitre’d

3. Transport.

4. Referrals

5. Volunteers.

6. Crowd funding.

7. Vision

8. Presents

9. The Team

I’ll guide you through these processes in the next few pages.

Lay out the aim: to provide a scrumptious magical Christmas day dinner for Care leavers aged between 18 and 25 on Christmas day. Too often Christmas day is a reminder of everything they never had. Often it’s a dreaded day. The Christmas Dinner is a life changing, lifesaving experience of warmth in abundance. A time to have a good laugh, make new friends and feel valued. It will be a safe and welcoming place for Care leavers to spend Christmas day: a great Christmas meal, lovely gifts and festive fun.

The first Document

Documents will become part of the backbone of this process. The first is The Christmas Dinner Team Details. It needs to include the team 1. Name 2. Present Job Title 3. Telephone number 4. Email address. Save in Google Sheets.

The vision of The Christmas Dinner team

It is not an organization. Not in the classic sense. It is a group of people who have come together from our community with one aim in mind – to care for the care leaver on Christmas Day. We will not stop until that aim is achieved. Each one of us will take total responsibility for making it happen. We will consult each other with the mindset of one who can make this. We will use all our skills and resources to get what we want. The buck stops here. And we are starting from scratch.

Sort out the tasks

Now just to see how it appeals and ask folks to sort the tasks between the group - split to a minimum of two people per task. This meeting and maybe the next should be about pooling as many ideas as possible for each task. As the team start to grasp the idea answers will start to arrive. And you can organize the next meeting.

I shall spend the next 8 pages going through the eight elements so that you have a firm grasp of what’s needed. Then I will give you a timeline of what needs to be achieved over the three months. But before that let’s deal with communications

COMMUNICATIONS

Communications. This is the most important thing for the team. Once split into nine groups they must send emails within their sections not to the whole group. This is important. There shouldn’t be millions of emails going round with everyone CC’ed. Keep your email chain between your section. Report back to The Christmas Dinner Steering Group Meetings. There is no need for minutes but there should be a place which has a central list of agreed objectives. Each person will take notes as they need to. And they will need to. There are eight meetings in all. I have written this document to save time and worry, now for the tasks.

CROWDFUNDER AND FINANCE

Don’t think finance is the be all and end all. You need very little actual finance compared with the total cost. The Crowdfunder site that you will create serves two excellent and crucial purposes. It serves as a place for everyone to see The Christmas Dinner Project in its entirety. Secondly it raises donations for The Christmas Dinner. As we are using the total number of 70 we think five thousand pounds is enough. It has been proven. We have done it three times on five thousand pounds.

The Crowdfunder site is split into these sections 1. A short two minute scripted video 2. Information about the project 3. The names and job titles of every individual of the team 4. The Pledges which are donated to sell on the crowdfunder site 5. The Charity who will accept the money on your behalf.

One person from the finance team (there should be two people on that team) should liaise with The Crowdfunder team. Crowdfunder is a company who really love the Christmas Dinner as an idea.

An important note here. in 2015 we are raising money so that we can give you £5,000 for the Christmas Dinner.

FOOD CHEF AND MAITRE’D

Find a chef and maitre’d. You know the number who will be attending. We are working with 70 including volunteers. A Christmas Dinner for 70 people is what you are asking of the chef. We want to achieve everything for free but I have found sometimes you may have to pay the professional chef/cook. He or she will tell you what the kitchen needs are. You’ll need to get the food order from the chef. However as a guide

Kitchen and Food Examples: lists taken from previous years

1) Hire equipment list

2) Vegetable shopping list

3) Chef/Cooks list

4) Christmas Dinner list

.

Volunteer teams

The kitchen volunteer teams will have various roles that need to be split into one document with times and roles.

How to get the food

Even before you have the food order or chef the food team can crack on with finding donations of food. Know anyone who works at the local supermarket or local grocer? Any turkey farms in your area any cake shops? Pool ideas in the first two meetings. Food businesses have approved kitchens. The aim of donating is that the community takes care of the care leavers at this time. Like any good Christmas Dinner there should be food left over. Get 200 plastic takeaway trays for the distribution afterwards. This will be very important. Also please do not waste anything. There are food banks that would love the surplus.

Notes: The food needs to be halal or a mixture of halal. Ask everyone if they are halal eaters on the referral and volunteer forms as well as vegetarians.

Maitre’d

Service and seating is paramount to the smooth running of The Christmas Dinner. The maitre’d runs this. It must feel like a happy Christmas dinner not an institutionalized affair. The Maitre’d can be brought on once you have the venue (or earlier) and then much later. - unless she/he wants to contribute further.

THE VENUE AND DESIGN

Venue needs

The venue team must be creative about finding an adequate space cause no venue is perfect. Think of normal Christmas dinners – what space is PERFECT? Exactly? None. Maybe you’ll only have three or four rooms. How will you work them so they can comfortably accommodate

1. Games space – giant jenga, pool etc.

1. Film space - large space for films throughout the day.

2. Computer Game Space – computer on wall with Xbox games

3. Crèche area - for young care leavers who have children.

4. Presents room - for the storage of presents on the day

5. Secure coats and bags room

6. Dinner space - the main room for the dinner.

7. Production office – where the producer for the day keeps all documents

8. An outside area for smoking

Design needs

The primary purpose of the design is that the space is made Christmassy. You need to find somebody who will be able to take charge in transforming the room. You’ll need a Christmas Tree but maybe the venue has one already. Maybe they have Christmas decorations already. The main aim is to make it feel Christmassy – as a gift in itself. The designer will have all kinds of needs once they see the venue. It is your job to find and source what is needed for and with the designer. One element which seems always to get ignored is lighting. A theatre designer is the perfect person. Remember we are looking to get their decorations etc, for free.

Important: The venue is a secret. Only the team and the attendants should know where it is.

Assurances and Insurances

Personal/public liability insurance is not difficult and possibly one of the group will allow you to attach it via his or her company/charity. You will need to do Risk assessment on the building which will be a document for the day. The venue will need insurance. Maybe you could insure through their insurance.

Risk Assessment Example

THE PRESENTS

Presents must have the WOW factor we felt once on Christmas Day. These young people deserve that. Plus stocking fillers. Encourage companies to donate presents. Who are the companies in the local shopping center? Approach them? Remember you need fifty of each. Know the local roundtable organization? Anyone you know got an office who will donate secret Santa’s? Will the local cinema give free tickets? Will a hairdresser offer a few free haircuts? It’s a fun thing to ask people. Get someone or a company to donate a £20 note for a card, be creative about who you’ll approach. Write to national companies – write to Apple. Personal contacts are always better. And remember that each person who attends will have a Christmas card written to them from us in their name. Try the local media centre: BBC? Galaxy?

An additional present of a goody bag of food staples to take home is a good idea. Don’t forget the mince pies! The Goody bag should be given as they leave for taxi – not as a xmas present. Both the smaller bag for the food and the larger bags for the presents can be found in Poundland – bright colours. Ideally you want one company to provide the food goody bag. A supermarket may do that.

Present Packing

Present packing is done on Christmas Eve. It can take three to four hours. You can split it into two shifts with different people. Normally it’s a fun Christmassy affair. Don’t worry about that yet. You will need a) Christmas bags b) Christmas Tags c) sellotape d) wrapping paper. Get them from Poundland. Every bag must be tagged and specific to the name of the person it’s for. Think about presents for a raffle too.

If they are presents that need information like shoes or clothes you will need to ask on the referral forms to include requests for shoe sizes etc. Make sure to write down all the people/companies who gave presents in one document with contact details.

Present storage

Ideally one of the groups has a space that can hold the presents until Christmas Eve. It needs to be secure. If all else fails put it in storage. This will cost money. Keep your receipts and it will be paid at the end.

You are not an official charity

Some companies will only donate if you are a charity. You will need a charity to deal with the finance. Is one of the people on the Christmas dinner team on a charity or do they know a charity that will support the Christmas dinner for these purposes? We have found one and got them involved at each Christmas dinner. It’s a great opportunity for a charity to support a team of professionals determined to do the right thing. This will be very useful for both the team and the charity.

REFERRALS

A referral is a young care leaver who is coming to the Christmas dinner. For every care leaver you need a fully filled in Referral form. The referral form tells you everything you need to know about the needs of the young people. We accept self-referrals too.

Look at the referral form in detail. It includes the times of the dinner and is extremely informative. You can start to make inroads to the various organisations in your area – Barnados social services, hostels. If you know any area managers this is a crucial point. But what you say to them about The Christmas Dinner must be the same. This information will be in your Crowdfunder

Campaign. Use that paragraph. Don’t set up a Christmas Dinner Website – it’s a waste of time.

Do not under estimate this job. Use the crowdfunder site when people want to know information on what you do and who you are. Transparency is crucial.

People will ask about the project so remember everything has checks and balances. The kitchen is accredited, the venue is checked for health and safety, all the volunteers will be DBS checked or vouched for and the Christmas dinner team will have over one hundred years’ experience working with young people. All this information will be on the crowdfunder site too.

. Getting referrals will test your patience. There will be a last minute stampede for places by people who showed little interest when you first approached them. People only start thinking of Christmas in December but you can seed the idea early. You motivate the workers/referrers that this is a REALLY GOOD idea for the young care leavers. That it is voluntary

Though we have never done this I am informed that a £25 fee per person could be charged. This is a symbolic charge made to the agency that sends their young people to us. This is not charged to any individual child or self-referral.

Whomever runs referals must work professionally with young people in care.

Here is the referral Form

Important: All contact details must be private to the referral organisers must work in this field..

VOLUNTEERS

You’ll be surprised how many people will volunteer for Christmas Day and Christmas Eve. Once again this is about asking people and showing them the crowdfunder site. Show them what you are doing and see if they may commit. I’m hoping that the noise will spread through your social networks wherever they are and whatever they may be. I have noticed you will get an abundance of volunteers if you put the word out – often too many. Choosing your volunteers is really important. The person who runs this needs to be care experienced and mindful not to let people in who want to ogle the pitiful. Volunteers want to facilitate the greatness of young people. You will use your professional and personal instincts for this. The volunteers do not need to be nor should they be all social workers. This is about the community taking responsibility of their Care Leavers. No volunteer can bring their children. I’ll leave it for you to discuss why that is the case.

Things for Volunteers to do

On Christmas Eve they’ll need to deliver the presents from wherever they’re stored and wrap the presents. They’ll need to prepare the rooms. Some of the Kitchen team will need to chop veg and prepare the kitchen.

On Christmas Day they’ll need to be available ideally from 10am to 8.30pm but they can easily split this into half days. There’ll be a kitchen team, washing up team, serving team, waiter team, allocated roles throughout the day, greeters. There are probably more jobs than this. You’ll what the needs are as they organizing takes up. But remember the volunteers are for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

You must remember the cleanup. I personally think it is better to employ someone professionally to do the clean up on Boxing Day or in the evening. Even so the place should be left as clear and as possible.

Volunteer application form

Volunteer list

Volunteer info sheet

Volunteer reference request

Volunteer Dinner spreadsheet

Volunteer letter and timings

TRANSPORT

From the referral forms you have the telephone numbers and addresses of all the young people: You need to find a taxi firm that will pick them up and drop them off. There’s a reason why we don’t have a bus to pick them up. Again it’s about The Christmas Dinner not feeling institutionalized. Although some taxis can double up. You can ask them on the referral form if they don’t mind sharing a taxi. The taxi firm is a logistical job that needs to be taken care of in two parts. The first part is

1. Work out on a map where everyone lives.

2. You’ll know who wants a cab via their referral forms

3. Find a cab firm and give them the details. See if you can get a deal.

4. Use the form to write down reference numbers of the cabs and all the details including pick up and drop off times.

5. You’ll know the time you arrive

Here is the taxi booking form as an excel file but you want to make it a GOOGLE SHEET WHICH IS basically a spreadsheet online.

Any production coordinator of a TV company can do this with their eyes closed. They would be the ideal person to do this job in particular.

The reason we use a taxi firm is because of insurance. They are insured to pick up and drop off.

Remember this also means telephoning each young person to check they are okay with the pick-up times. It needs to be a reputable taxi firm, you need to negotiate the costs prior to the event and need group texts to each young person for confirmation

Taxi Travel Schedule document

Expenses

All expenses (from organisers) are kept on an Expenses Sheet in Google Sheets online. Any person who has expenses needs first to ask the finance person, then to collect their receipts. Take pictures of them and send them to the finance person and then to input into the expenses sheet.

The pledges are gifts to sell via crowdfunder – that’s how you raise funds. They need to be things people would really want to have. Do you know a portrait painter or cartoonist who can draw a person from a photograph? Could that be a pledge? Local football team may give tickets to the Boxing Day match. You can see on Crowdfunder that the pledges range from £10 to £1,000. The finance team must to raise pledges from people. The more desirable the better. They’ll have to approach all kinds of companies to get them to donate: restaurants, music festivals, Glastonbury, use all the contacts you know.

The Crowdfunder video and Crowdfunder Christmas dinner biography

The example I’ve given via crowdfunder is tried and tested. Keep your word count to a similar amount. get a professional community organization to make the video. Do any of you know one famous person who could make the video? Remember to script it and work out the different shots before you do the shoot. Use my example of different shots for your video. Go For it!! Make sure the famous person has a personal connection to the idea. Make sure they do.

Again a note here: We may have the money so you may not have to do this.

The VISION

I was inspired to do this by The Tope Christmas Dinner of 2012: I contributed to it in a small way but I was determined to make it happen in Manchester the following year. And since then I’ve helped organise three Christmas Dinners – 2013 Manchester and 2014 in Manchester and hackney . They have all used this model.

It is not an organization. It’s more organized than that. Each area organizes locally. But there needs to be one person people turn to for a final decision if all else fails. He or she needs to see the process through to the end. I will support that person. They are the driving force, the symbol of what this is all about. This inspiration. His or her role is to do nothing other than push the process along. Minutes are not important but task lists are important. Each person should have a notepad or paper or somewhere to write their tasks. One person should make note of every allocated task. Everyone is there in a personal capacity to make it happen. That must be the sole aim for being there. I have heard some beautiful reasons. It is an inspiring project to be a part of. Each individual in the team needs to take on and own your own roles. If any individual thinks it’s not possible then they shouldn’t be in the team.

We are one group of people who have come together from our community with one aim in mind – to care for the care leaver on Christmas Day. The day should feel like a shared Christmas day with supportive adults and young people feeling relaxed . We will not stop until that aim is achieved. Each one of us will take total responsibility for making it happen. We will consult each other with the mindset of one who will make this happen We will use all our skills and resources to get what we want. We will not let the young people down. We will not let ourselves down. Live up to the commitment you make and only commit to what you can do. The payback and satisfaction from this project is more than any money could buy

Taking care of each other

Everyone there on the day – the workers - should be making sure that all in attendance are ok, giving people space and also time to talk if needs be. There should be enough volunteers to allow some to mingle and talk and get involved in the activities along with the guests. Never a raised voice.

Project Phone

There needs to be a project phone for the referrals especially.

VIDEO of the day

Make sure you do a video of the day. This can be done simply and easily via iphones. Ask two of the volunteers to ask this question of the young adults.

a) What would you have been doing had you nto been here

b) ]What did you think of the day ?

Remember to get a shot of people leaving too. You can see examples of this here. That’s all you need do. They can then be edited via imovie into a simple video no longer than three and an half minutes.

TIMELINE

This timeline is a guide. It is not the law. You haven’t broken a rule if you start in October.. Flexibility is important. This is simply a guide. There are elements that will try your patience: People places or things. Take this as a challenge to show how well you can do in light of the goal.

September

5th allocate groups for roles. If there’s two people per role that would be minimum: Remember the nine elements? two people per element. Now as a group start to pool ideas for, presents, pledges, venue, volunteers, referals, chef, food

pool ideas for , presents, pledges, venue, volunteers, referals, chef. Crowdfunder: Special attention to crowdfunder campaign. Identify video person and actor for 2 minute scripts. Ideas for pledges.

20th Progress report and then again pool ideas for , presents, pledges, venue, volunteers, referals, chef, food.

Crowdfunder: Special attention to crowdfunder campaign.

Identify video person and actor for 2 minute scripts. Ideas for

pledges. You’ve found a chef/cook and he she will give you a list

of his needs (see kitchen section of this doc)

Crowdfunder: Film actor and have biog and look for pledges.

Volunteers: start looking for volunteers.

Start looking for referals

Start looking for presents

Pool ideas for venue.

You will notice that things are starting to move. These meetings are magical and the result of hard and focused work by each individual. remember you want

the crowdfunder site up like now or at least by October 5th.

October

5th Crowdfunder site up and ready to go with pledges. Launch date

identified. report back and pool ideas for venue, presents, referals volunteers, chef. Ideally venue is identified now or on 20th

20th Crowdfunder site launched. already. Report back venue, presents,

referals volunteers, chef. Ideally venue is identified now or on

20th . Start seeking volunteers start seeking referals and presents.

November

5th

20th You have the presents. You have the venue. You have most

of the the food. You hve the chef. The crowdfunder campaign is thundering on. You have reached your target and still there is

another week to go for the campaign to finish. You have most of the volunteers and some referals.

December

5th End crowdfunder campagn. End. You have the money. You have the presents. You have the venue. You have the food. You have the chef. You have the kitchens sorted out. You have the maitre’d D. You have communicated to all the volunteers what is needed and when. You have all the referrals. You have you have a producer for the day. You have the taxi firm confirmed.

17th This is the final meeting that includes all the needs. By now everything should be sorted. It’s a packed house and ready to go. Everything is organised done and dusted. All we need to do is a clear workplan for the day. Fortunately we have that and here it is for Christmas Eve and Day

CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas Eve needs a document filled so that you are sure of what’s going on that day and who needs to be there etc. Food deliveries. Wrapping presents. One person should be allocated as the producer.

Christmas Event schedule

CHRISTMAS DAY

Christmas Day needs this document filled so that everyone is sure of what’s going who needs to be there and when and for what reason

Christmas Day Schedule

Risk Assessment

CHRISTMAS EVE AND CHRISTMAS DAY PRODUCER

You need a producer for Christmas Day and Christmas Eve. She or he needs to have all the relevant numbers. Hospital Numbers. Where the coats are secured. List of all names and contact numbers of volunteers and young people. There needs to be a greeter on the door with a corresponding list. The producer is the Go To person on the actual day. The producer will hve a really good idea of the lay out of the whole Christams Dinner for the day.

SOCIAL MEDIA

TWITTER: Set yourself up with a hashtag. make it original. This will serve as a record of progress and also advertise what you are doing

Other Media:

Don’t waste your time on a Facebook page. There’s no need. All the details about who you are and what you do should be are on the crowdfunder page. Don’t waste yor time on a website. There’s no need. In theory it may seem like a good idea. It isn’t. Use the crowdfunder site as your foundation. Let that be your advert and let that show the people the clarity of who you all are and what you do.

WHAT I KNOW

Commitment by the team is key. There needs to be dogged determination and belief that a group of people can come together to provide this from thin air. The proof of the pie is in the tasting. It has been done three times by me with teams in Hackney and Manchester and three times by The Tope Project.

Believe me when I say that being part of this team is like going on an adventure. I have heard social workers say it restored their faith in what they do. It will be difficult at first but you must keep belief to the end. Be so concentrated on making it happen that there is no way it couldn’t. This is the attitude I have taken and this has been a revelation to me.

Important points? This is not an institution. I cannot overstate how important that is. There’s no Oliver Twist “Please sir can I have some more”. That is not the Christmas Dinner. The Christmas dinner is an intimate experience for the care leaver where they feel cherished.

AFTER ALL

What we are doing is creating memories so that when they look back at the Christmas Day of the previous year they can say they had a great time. Family is a collection of memories. We are creating the environment for a good memory. That’s all.

HIRE CLEANERS

Leave the venue as you found it.

OTHER STUFF

Do a report if you like. Do an evaluation if you like. Ask the volunteers to write in their comments if you like. Think of your own ideas for the day. Add stuff to this and enjoy. And have someone be a greeter. They’ve come a long way to get there. Then have someone check the names off a list and then let the greeter take them in.

Evaluation

Have a meeting if you like. Here’s a report created in 2014 for Hackney

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