What Design Club did in 2018

Month-by-month happenings and the plan for next year

Summary

2018 was a good year. Some things went to plan. Others didn’t. We built on what we did in 2017. Over the last 12 months, we have:

• Reached more than 500 children
• Seen more than 200 people register to run a DC or access materials
• Started running mentor Meetups
• Become a Community Interest Company
• Developed lesson plans for volunteers to run after school Design Clubs
• Raised money through two crowdfunding campaigns

January

• Ran the first of many Design Club tracks at Ham CoderDojo (Kingston)
• Went to look around Makerversity (for an office)

February

• Partnered with Token Dad to help them run their first event
• Mentors ran a Design Club track at John Lewis CoderDojo

March

• Ran our first mentor Meetup (see the notes)
• Launched our supporters page and put out a call for Founding Supporters
• Got accepted onto the Makers with a Mission programme at Makerversity
• Welcomed Iris Lapinski onto the team as an advisor
• Started our Design Club Instagram account 📸

April

• Registered as a Community Interest Company
• Ran our second mentor Meetup (see the notes on Medium)
• Helped a CoderDojo Ninja win Coolest Project

May

• Hosted a Design Club pop-up workshop at BMJ

June

• Hosted our third mentor Meetup
• Defined our company values
• Designed and delivered a new project for the Institute of Imagination
• Finally sorted business cards for core team members Jemima and Niki

July

• Published our Q1 update for Founding Supporters
• Ran our fourth mentor Meetup
• Mentors ran a Design Club track at John Lewis CoderDojo

August

• Mentors ran a Design Club track at Deloitte Digital CoderDojo

September

• Created first version of the Design Club curriculum
• Began development of lesson plans for after school Design Clubs
• Started a pilot after school Design Club for year 7 and 8 students

October

• Welcomed Desigan Chinniah onto our team as an advisor
• Reflected on learnings halfway through our pilot after school club
• Ran our fifth and final mentor Meetup of the year
• Partnered with Newspaper Club to create new Design Club workbooks

November

• Ran a workshop at WIRED Next Generation 2018
• Published our Q2 update for Founding Supporters
• Held our first strategy session with the full team
• Agreed to focus on running after school clubs in 2019
• Revamped the website and built a Resource Hub
• Built first version of the mentor Helpdesk

December

• Launched a new crowdfunding campaign — looking for Growth Supporters
• Designed a workshop kit to help run Design Clubs
• Took a well-deserved break to recharge the batteries :) 🔋

The plan for 2019

Some targets and other tangible plans for 2019:

• Run 50 volunteer-led after school Design Clubs
• Develop effective ways to measure impact
• Recruit and support more volunteer mentors
• Explore the feasibility of an online shop (e.g. to sell workshop kits)
• Generate funds through Growth Supporters (and other propositions)
• Build a project showcase (to improve the learner experience)

Hope you all enjoy 2019. Best of luck to everyone :)

❤️🙏🏼🍀