A new venture helping disadvantaged kids needs a new brand identity and social media presence

Mountains of Hope work with children from the most disadvantaged areas of the UK, using small personal and group challenges to inspire them to plan an action packed day of fun in the mountains. Mountains of Hope need a brand identity and a social media presence - another brief with plenty to get your teeth into!

Founder Tomo has owned a small Outdoor Experiential learning company called The Path less Travelled for about 4 years. On 5 July 12 he was working with a school from NW England providing “mountain safety” as they ascended a hill in the Clwydians as part of a school developmental programme.

They introduced the children to frogs, clouds, buzzards, tasty nature, tree types, games, trust exercises etc etc on the day on the hill. They blossomed and had a super day. After the walk the Mountain leaders got together and two things became apparent:

1. The majority of the children existed in a dark corner of social disadvantage.
2. That day on the hills had made them smile, sing, jump in puddles and given them hope.

He bought the URL www.mountainsofhope.co.uk that night. MofH will work with up to 50 children from 10 different schools / youth groups per year, in socially disadvantaged areas across the UK.

Challenge 1: Build a simple website that...

• Is simple, visually appealing to kids aged 11-16
• Emphasises the fun bit, not on their backgrounds and not on how hard they might find walking up a hill
• Emphasises their involvement and the long term effect of their achievement
• Has some kind of area where each school can upload their progress (like Basecamp?) in planning and, when complete, go public on photos, audio and video from the day
• Has a links page where schools / educators / anyone in the area of the participating schools can signpost events / support / a community where the kids can continue to seek support, in addition to the continued help that MofH will give them
• Has a “planning your MofH” area full of resources and links where kids and staff can go to to help them with planning their day (could be as simple as a photo of a wipeboard of “have you thought abouts”)

Challenge 2: Video / cartoon / story strip /call to arms

Something that kicks in the balls and does 4 things:

1. Gets MofH the key single sponsor (that has a social conscience and a passion for the outdoors) that we need to fly. That sponsor will be in it discreetly and for absolutely no personal gain They will get a sleeve of the MofH t-shirt. A brand that the kids “get” that has teenage kudos would make MofH “cool”?
2. Gets the Heads of the most socially disadvantaged schools in the UK over their issues with asking for help
3. Makes the kids want their schools to be a part of MofH
4. Gets somebody (possibly sponsor 1a) to print circa 500 kids t-shirts (plus 10% for helpers) with the MofH logo on it, that looks cool as f**k, and makes the kids want to wear it. Street cred.