Teamworking and confidence – on the water.

Who are they?
LONDON YOUTH ROWING.

Where are they?
London.

What do they do?
Encourage young people from different backgrounds in to the sport of rowing.

How big are they?
16 staff.

What did they receive?
Cisco Flip Video Cameras.

The outcome?
Videos produced to raise awareness of the charity’s work.

Starting out as a project in the East End, London Youth Rowing is a charity that has grown and spread across the capital, now employing sixteen people at a number of locations.

Its aim (strapline: “making champions everyday”) is to bring young people in to the sport of rowing – especially, says Penny Cuthbert, Development Officer at the charity, “kids who wouldn’t normally have had the opportunity to do so.”

“We go out to schools, to youth clubs, to community centres,” she explains. “And they find that rowing brings them loads of new friends, it gives them teamworking skills and it builds their confidence. Rowing’s a very positive sport in that respect.”

The charity was one of the fortunate few that managed to obtain Flip Video Cameras when a limited batch was made available via the CTX donation scheme. Penny had used a Flip before, and knew that they would be ideal for the charity’s needs.

“We were able to have one at each centre, so the kids could use them themselves rather than have a camera shoved in their face by a member of staff, which can be quite daunting. We got them to do soundbites – from beginners to competition level – you get far better results that way.”

With cameras now ubiquitous on phones and handhelds, the obvious question is ‘why would you need a Flip?’

“We like their simplicity!” says Penny. “They charge on a laptop; it’s a cool, one-button thing that’s a similar size to a phone – and there’s nothing much to go wrong.”

London Youth Rowing exists on a mix of donations and grants (including from Sport England), and is one of the chosen charities for The Lord Mayor’s Appeal 2012. This was the first time that the charity had received a donation via CTX.

“What’s great is that we can now have the cameras at all our centres and events. We wouldn’t have found the money to do this, otherwise. The end results are already on our website and YouTube.”

You can view example videos online: footage from summer 2011 (and more) on

Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150278773924436, and a presentation aimed at city workers looking to be part of a rowing challenge as part of the Lord Mayor’s Appeal at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnmsyDJTIo8