On October 30th I'm jumping off a building (hopefully with a rope attached to me) to raise money for an educational project I help set up called the Hackney Pirates.

Over the summer I met an inspiring individual, Catriona MacLay.  Between us we decided that we wanted to do something to help children in Hackney with their education.  We set up a project called Hackney Pirates which focuses on giving young people one-to-one attention from volunteers that care.  The aim is to develop core literacy skills and creative ability in 10-13 year olds from Hackney.

As you might know I went to school in Hackney and really benefitted from the support my family gave me with my studies.  There are lots of children in Hackney who could benefit from extra attention and support which is what Hackney Pirates is all about.

Over the summer we ran a pilot project.   In 4 weeks and with only £6,000 we managed to;

- Deliver 453 hours of one-on-one attention
- Help 29 children
- Recruit 77 volunteers
- Appoint a full time project co-ordinator (and pay them)
- Produce a book, a CD, a series of T-Shirts and a great website

By donating money to the Hackney Pirates you'll be helping with the crucial next step of the project which is to set up a permanant tutoring centre

Here what your money is worth to the project;

£20 gets us loads of pencils and eyepatches (depending on how sharp the pencils are these may be related)

£50 gets two hours with a literacy expert

£100 gets a week's worth of volunteers co-ordinated, briefed and CRB checked

£500 gets an anthology of the childrens work published in a proper book

£1000 pays a months rent for a pirate ship disguised as a tutoring centre disguised as a shop.

I'll be dressed as a pirate when I walk the plank and that alone has got to be worth something.  Please donate so we can keep up the great work of the Hackney Pirates.

If you need anymore information then just follow this link http://www.hackneypirates.org/