Team #RunforYouth, you did us proud!

Oxfordshire Youth is throwing a big silver blanket of congratulations around all the amazing human beings who joined our #RunforYouth team at the Oxford Half marathon. This year, we are privileged to have experienced the most support ever, with 66 runners and cheerleaders showing up for the starting whistle at Oxford’s iconic Broad Street and warming the cockles of our heart on a decidedly crisp autumn morning. 

Groups from Freeths solicitors, St. Edward’s School and Radley College all blasted round the course, with one newly qualified teacher from St. Ed’s leading by example and chasing down the entire 21.08 kilometres in just one hour, twenty five minutes! And Coventry Building Society’s Community Partnerships Manager joined Oxfordshire Youth staff, business partners, and youth sector workers lining the route to cheer on our runners and catapulting jelly babies from the curb to keep them going.

The stunning course blows the whistle on runners in Oxford city centre, before sending them out through Old Marston village, along the River Cherwell and past Oxford University’s imposing Lady Margaret Hall, smashing into the finish tape just before the Pitt Rivers museum on Parks Road. And we’d already passed the three quarters mark on the way to our fundraising target before anyone had worked up a sweat.

We make sure every member of team #RunforYouth is super-easy to spot, in their bright red t-shirts emblazoned with Oxfordshire Youth’s distinctive primary coloured, triangle motif. Design inspiration came from an awesome young person who is part of our Youth Voice Network and rest assured, we hunted down a sustainable sportswear supplier. They use material 100% recycled from post-consumer plastic bottles, ensuring our shirts fully align with our mission, vision, and values. Our very own Youth Sector Wellbeing Coordinator, Sam Claxton (pictured), was happy to model for us as he limbered up just yards from the start line. 

Oxfordshire is well known for the gorgeous scenery lining the race route, and world-class university, but alongside this splendour, a quarter of our city’s children grow up in poverty and thousands of disadvantaged young people struggle to realise their full potential. Oxfordshire Youth’s mission centres on reducing violence and homelessness, equipping young people with the skills they need to engage with education, employment and training, and supporting them to manage their mental health issues. 
The impact of inequality in Oxfordshire is as bottomless as the need that arises from it, and our services are in the highest demand since the charity’s beginning. With every footstep our team took, each of them sent out a powerful message, one of optimism and hope, courage and commitment and we cannot thank them enough. If you feel inspired to donate from the comfort of your chair, thank you to you too, please donate here. Catch you at the race next year!