June 2025 newsletter
Welcome to this special edition of the Little Green Pig newsletter celebrating Volunteers' Week 2025!
Volunteers’ Week is an annual UK-wide campaign held from the first Monday in June to celebrate and recognise the contributions of volunteers. Launched in 1984, this initiative has been running for over 40 years, providing organisations and communities a platform to thank volunteers for their invaluable efforts.
Volunteers are at the heart of the work we do at Little Green Pig. Our amazing team of Story Mentors and Illustrator Mentors bring so much passion, creativity and care to our clubs and workshops. We couldn't deliver our creative programme to our young writers without our volunteer mentors, who work 1:1 and in small groups with the children to build trust, confidence and encourage their imaginations to soar!
Each child we support is unique and we encourage our mentors to bring their individual skills, personality and life experience to the role - their diversity and authenticity fosters the safe, inclusive and dynamic environment that supports children and young people to thrive.
This year we have been lucky enough to have the support of 52 Story Mentors and 8 Illustrator Mentors, many of whom have attended our clubs on a weekly basis. The positive impact of this ongoing commitment can be clearly seen in the progress the children make in their writing and social interaction - having kind, patient and inspiring adults alongside them helps children take real pleasure in their creativity.
We are so proud of our volunteers and enormously grateful for the invaluable contribution they've made to all our projects. Happy Volunteers' Week!
Mentor Magic Moments
We really value the feedback our mentors give about their experiences at clubs and workshops. Here is a collection of 'Magic Moments' some of them have shared with us, reflecting on projects they've done and children they've supported over the past year. These insightful quotes highlight the care and attention they give to each child, as well as the joy and playful spirit they bring to the sessions.
Ceelo read his writing with feeling and vulnerability. The level of engagement and commitment from all the group was moving and inspiring. Deborah
I'm loving the Eastbourne club - it's a lot of fun all round. Paulo was fizzing with excitement as he managed to create a 3D room for his new dinosaur character, and ended the club full of beans and saying that he felt 'full of ideas!' Nancy
I watched a child who I have been working 1-1 with really coming along in her confidence and interaction with the other children. I noticed an older child being so kind and supportive to this same child. Lots of kindness and smiles exchanged all round. Lorraine
Marie was quite shy and softly spoken in the group circle, but when it came time for her to read her story, she was one of the most charismatic storytellers, complete with sound effects and so much confidence. It was a delight to see her come out of her shell and into the spotlight! Maggie
Tomas was so excitable when drawing the character he came up with and drew him over and over again, improving each time which was lovely to see. Saybah
Today's session was absolutely amazing. The workshop leader AFLO made all the children feel so safe. They were brave and courageous in sharing their work. They all stood up and read their incredible pieces of poetry with boldness and confidence. I think the Club Amplified audience will be so moved by their amazing talent and individual flair for writing. I think it was one of my favourite sessions at Little Green Pig. Ellie
Laila made great progress. She initially said she wouldn’t share, but I told her that her writing was great. When the workshop leader asked who wanted to read their work she put her hand up and shared first - what an achievement! Sheelagh
The children were very excited to visit The Grand Hotel in Eastbourne and really enjoyed their tour. They were particularly interested in visiting the rooms, especially the suite and guessing how much it cost to stay for a night! Some had ideas for stories including the possibility of a ghost playing the piano in the restaurant! Helen
So many magic moments at the Amplified performance! Danielle writing a new great poem for the performance day; Matt's Q&A where he said how bored he was in the first couple of weeks, but then really enjoyed it, and the best reward was seeing all the smiling faces in the audience. Jonah improvising his speech and making his parents stand up and take a bow; Ben despite all his setbacks on the day turning up and doing his performance Chris
Everyone seemed to make great progress this week - fledgling ideas came alive!! It was really lovely supporting Elias and seeing him develop his idea and listening to him play piano. I also really appreciated seeing how fellow mentor Anton worked with Mae - capturing her ideas as they buzzed around and out of her head and weaving them into poems . Seeing her joy with this process was really heartening - she seemed to feel really heard. Vicky
It was really lovely to see Kiernan coming out of his shell and interacting more. He asked me for guidance today when in the past he’d simply close down. Jackie
As it was pancake day, a child created a comic about a pancake escaping being eaten which was very funny and creative! Lottie
My Magic Moments were seeing the growing interactions between the children - friendships forming and imaginations being fired. All seem enthusiastic and keen to take part. Heather
Alex was very keen on expanding the story of her island called Komado. I got to hear the complex history between the people of Flamen and Treelings and stories from outside of the island as well. Min
It was really nice to see the kids showing their work to their friends and families. There were a lot of positive comments from parents and carers. They were very thankful to see the growth in their children's writing abilities and confidence. Himaya
One child on my table was super shy, and didn't want to talk about her map at all! By the end she was looking up, smiling and telling me a little bit about her island of cats (who are all friends with each other). Caz
Multitalented mentors!
Our mentors have helped deliver a wide range of different projects over the past year, expanding the ways our young writers explore storytelling. Here are just some of the projects they have brought their creative expertise to:
Poems and fantastic fiction published in anthologies
Map-making with illustrator Helen Cann
A podcast of stories inspired by found objects listen here
Developing and pitching ideas to Brighton Zoo animation studio
Building a monster with a belly full of feelings, in an installation at BACA for our Transitions project
Creating comic strips
Club Amplified spoken word performances at Jubilee Library
Creating shadow puppets for a film shown at Brighton Festival
Designing a board game and inviting the community to play
Spoken word performances at Amplified Worthing watch here
Creating characters inspired by a visit to Gladrags costume studio
Virtual reality heritage project with Brighton & Hove Museums
Let's Celebrate!
This week we have been celebrating our mentors at the clubs with certificates of appreciation, recognising the number of hours they have each given through volunteering.
Thank you to all our amazing mentors!
Join us!
If you've been inspired by hearing about our volunteers and would like to find out more about joining our team as a Story Mentor or Illustrator Mentor then we'd love to hear from you.
You can visit our website for more information
or email our Volunteer Manager sally@littlegreenpig.org.uk