Journey to Qatar
Twenty3 x Street League | Our Journey to Qatar
With just 52 days until the FIFA World Cup 2022, we’re delighted to announce that Twenty3 will be going on a special journey to Qatar with our official charity partner Street League!
Well, sort of…
No, the powers that be haven’t rubber-stamped the budget for an all-expenses-paid trip to the tournament itself. That said, we think we’re doing something better.
Kicking off today, Thursday 29 September, our 25-person team at Twenty3 will be collectively clocking in the miles to make the journey to Qatar, but we’ll be doing so on our own two feet.
A whopping 4,201 miles from the UK, we’ll be ‘travelling’ to Qatar by hitting the gym, streets or the pool by walking, running, swimming and cycling!
It’s a great opportunity for us all to get fit, shed a few pounds and also, most importantly, raise some pounds for our amazing charity partner, Street League!
Every penny that’s donated to our JustGiving page will go to Street League to help make a difference in the incredible work that they do.
About that…
Who are Street League?
Our friends at Street League use the power of sport and education to tackle poverty and support young people into employment, education and training. They work with young people aged 14-30 living in some of the UK’s most disadvantaged communities to help them overcome their socio-economic barriers to employment and make the life-changing move into work, education or training.
They use sport as a ‘hook’ to engage young people and develop their life and workplace skills as they recognise the inextricable links between wellbeing, health and employment – and the positive impact it can have on a young person’s self-worth, sense of belonging and personal development.
This combination of sports and education sets Street League apart from other employability services, providing a fun and interactive outlet and a relaxed environment where they can thrive.
We can confirm that the environment at Street League is fun, infectious and deeply rewarding as we experienced first-hand as recently as Tuesday this week when we spent a day at the charity’s South London Academy.
Five Twenty3 volunteers took part in several interactive sessions with a group of Street League participants, which involved mock interviews to help prepare them for future work opportunities.
We were also put through our paces at the end of the day in a high-octane sports session with the young people, which served as a perfect final fitness session before we begin our Journey to Qatar.
As well as being very talented and competitive in the sports hall, the youngsters that we met were all highly engaging, kind, inspiring and a genuine pleasure to meet.
Why have we teamed up with Street League?
As a business, we wanted to find more ways to give back to the community and one such strategy was to find a charity partner. So, we set up a charity team of our own, made up of internal volunteers, and then drew up a shortlist of prospective partners that our colleagues could vote on.
Street League came out on top of that poll and we couldn’t be happier with our collective decision.
It’s still early days in our collaboration, but what’s already clear is that the culture and principles between both parties are perfectly aligned, as is the obsession with sport and the impact it can have for the better.
Having directly witnessed the valuable work that they do, we are determined to play any role we can in helping young people – who, for a range of reasons, have never had the opportunity before – to take their first steps toward a successful career.
We’ll be collaborating with Street League on various projects including work experience support, Academy volunteering and, of course, our #JourneyToQatar fundraiser.
More on that
52 days, 4,201 miles, 25 colleagues; walk, run, swim or cycle – that’s the challenge.
The budding mathematicians amongst you (or our data scientists) will have worked out by now that that’s 168 miles per person or a little over three miles per day each.
No mean feat, of course, but we hope an achievable one.
One of the major tasks in our Charity team’s in-tray was to ideate and then agree on a big fundraising event to help raise money for Street League.
We wanted to raise funds for something that was relevant and important to both businesses, and it doesn’t come much bigger in sport than a World Cup!
The #JourneyToQatar starts now.
How can you support us?
Much like the activity itself, we’ve set ourselves a challenge that we deem both ambitious and achievable. That target is £10,000.
We believe a donation of this size will make a marked difference to the wonderful young people that Street League support and, having met just a handful of these inspiring individuals, we are more determined than ever to achieve this goal.
To do so, we need your support. So, we’ve set up a JustGiving page where you can make a donation, however big or small.
Any donations you make would be greatly appreciated by Twenty3, Street League and the young people they directly impact. They will also help to encourage everyone who is taking part in this challenge!
We’ll be providing regular updates throughout, but you can also track our progress by visiting our Journey to Qatar Hub below.