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The 10 entries who receive the most votes from members of the public will be shortlisted. A final winner will then be selected by a panel of judges. We'll announce the winner and work with them to design their bus!
Entries
- Entry 01: Dementia Action Marlow
- Entry 02: Child Bereavement UK
- Entry 03: South Bucks Hospice
- Entry 04: Chiltern Rangers CIC
- Entry 05: The Pace Centre
- Entry 06: Social Link
- Entry 07: Chiltern Music Academy
- Entry 08: Girlguiding Oxfordshire
- Entry 09: Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity
Dementia Action Marlow
Submitted by: Adam Broomfield
About: Dementia Action Marlow is an independent charity, formed in 2020, to support the local community living with dementia.
Website: Charity | Dementia Action for Marlow
What would branding a bus mean to your organisation? As a small charity which works with people in the local community who have dementia. Winning this would mean they could continue to support people in the local community with this awful life changing disease.
Child Bereavement UK
Submitted by: Jenny Angliss
About: Child Bereavement UK is a national charity with a head office and service in Loudwater. The charity helps families to rebuild their lives when a child grieves or when a child dies. Child Bereavement UK supports children and young people (up to the age of 25) when someone important to them has died or is not expected to live, and parents and the wider family when a baby or child of any age dies or is dying. The charity also provides training to professionals in health and social care, education, and the voluntary and corporate sectors, equipping them to provide the best possible care to bereaved families.
Website: Child Bereavement UK
What would branding a bus mean to your organisation? When a precious baby or child dies, or a child is bereaved of their mum or dad, brother or sister, lives are shattered. No one should have to grieve alone - raising awareness via bus branding would mean Child Bereavement UK could reach even more children, young people and families letting them know that the charity is here to help them feel less alone in their grief and support them to rebuild their lives after the devastation of bereavement.
South Bucks Hospice
Submitted by: Sharon Wilson and Victoria Toms
About: It's a wonderful day service for palliative care patients based in High Wycombe with charity shops throughout Buckinghamshire. Not only do they provide palliative care but they support the patient in many ways physically, mentally and even socially and even offers support at home. They will also support the family and carers through this tough period in their lives as any life threatening illness will impact everyone not just the patient.
Website: South Bucks Hospice | Buckinghamshire Hospice Care | South Bucks Hospice
What would branding a bus mean to your organisation? This would mean the world to them, getting information out there to allow them to better fund their facility and showcase the amazing work they do for so many individuals.
Chiltern Rangers CIC
Submitted by: Stephanie Rodgers
About: Chiltern Rangers is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company whose mission is to enhance the Chilterns’ habitats through conservation, education and community engagement. Volunteers and community are the essence of their work – to make local green spaces better for people and wildlife, whether that is woodland, chalk grasslands, commons, ponds, chalk streams or school grounds, hospital gardens and other urban corners. Chiltern Rangers volunteers are people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds, plus community organisations, charities, social enterprises, schools and colleges.
Website: https://chilternrangers.co.uk/
What would branding a bus mean to your organisation? Volunteering with Chiltern Rangers has so many benefits, not only for the people involved but for our local wildlife too. It would be amazing to celebrate the work our volunteers and staff achieve for the benefit of local natural environment and to promote our organisation to attract more volunteers to help achieve our mission. Small, local social enterprises such as Chiltern Rangers rarely have budget to spend on advertising so this would mean so much to them and will reach their local community directly. Chiltern Rangers offer so many different opportunities to local people: from work experience for students, school projects, enhancing hospital gardens for patients, individual volunteering, and corporate volunteering. They really boost community engagement in the Buckinghamshire area. Volunteering for Chiltern Rangers is fun, sociable and can do wonders for your heart and mind.
The Pace Centre
Submitted by: Naomi Boles
About: Pace is a specialist charity that is committed to supporting children with neurodisablities. Pace believe in every child’s ability to progress, no matter what challenges they face. Our specialist education and therapy teams work with babies, children, and young people from 0-18. We empower the children and their families so that they can reach their full potential and take their place in the world. We want every child in the UK with a neurodisability, and their family, to have access to educational and clinical support that is aligned with the Pace approach. To that end, we work very intentionally to share our expertise, to train other providers and practitioners at other mainstream schools and to campaign for better provision.
Website: https://thepacecentre.org/
What would branding a bus mean to your organisation? Everything we do is centred around our providing innovative and continually advancing best practice for children and their families, and visibility within our community plays a crucial role in achieving it. A presence on the back of buses not only aligns with these values of but would also be a powerful tool for spreading awareness about who we are and the vital work we do. For our children and young people, seeing our name and message on buses would be an empowering experience. It will further foster their sense of belonging and pride in being part of a community that recognises and supports them. Buses are an integral part of the daily life of our community. By having this advertising, we can ensure our message reaches a wide and diverse audience across the different routes. This visibility will encourage conversations about our mission and values, creating stronger connections between our school and the wider community, whilst also spreading recognition of Pace. The adverts on the back of the buses would be a symbol of inclusion, a source of pride and community connection, taking the school environment into the broader world. All of this helps to instill confidence in our children and young people.
Social Link
Submitted by: Laura Ripley
About: Social Link, established in 2010 is a charity that supports over 160 adults with learning disabilities in Buckinghamshire through its day services and evening programmes. We focus on the needs and wants of our members and provide a broad range of activities to inspire, educate and stimulate which are safe and supported.
Website: https://sociallinkcharity.org.uk/
What would branding a bus mean to your organisation? Adults with learning disabilities do not get much publicity or support and so it would mean the world to their members for them to see the charity where they spend a great deal of their time being promoted. This year Social Link have opened a community cafe called OpportuniTea in Holmer Green to try and raise awareness for those with learning disabilities and as a place to provide real work experience and so being able to promote Social Link via bus branding would also help more people to know about us and the vast services they offer.
Chiltern Music Academy
Submitted by: Alex King
About: Chiltern Music Academy (CMA) is a registered charity offering outstanding musical activities to families in the High Wycombe area. It is a proud community of socially and culturally diverse children aged 3-18, who play and sing together outside school hours in choirs, bands and orchestras, and receive exceptional vocal and instrumental tuition. Over 400 children attend weekly, from complete beginners to grade 8 plus, with exciting opportunities available to them at every level.
A local success story, CMA has attracted many awards for educational and musical excellence. Our community serves children with special needs and able young musicians seeking a career in music. Music education improves academic outcomes, develops skills facilitating future employment, and increases self-esteem, resilience and good mental health. At CMA, we aim to offer these advantages to all, regardless of social or economic background, and are constantly creating solutions to inspire local children to enjoy music.
Website: https://chilternmusicacademy.org/
What would branding a bus mean to your organisation? How can a struggling family access music education for their child? The world has changed - since the pandemic, music teaching in schools has dramatically reduced. The benefits of learning should not just be for the wealthy. CMA can offer those advantages to every child if only they know about us. Buses are central to our community: let’s use one to tell local disadvantaged families about the fantastic opportunities for them at CMA.
CMA is a joyful success story in this community: a unique, self-supporting grass-roots charity producing fantastic results. High Wycombe is experiencing a resurgence of creative industries. A CMA bus will carry an image of hope and aspiration through the streets, illustrating Wycombe’s strength and value to its community.
Youth music encourages community cohesion, gives young people positive social structures and role models and motivates them to achieve. Buses carry students to school and enable them to develop independence. To cover a bus with an image of opportunity and invitation is to inspire young people take their place in a safe, welcoming community and to build a future for themselves through music.
Girlguiding Oxfordshire
Submitted by: Lisa Ford
About: Girlguiding Buckinghamshire has and continues to offer a safe, inclusive, and adventurous space for any girls between the ages of 4 to 18 years across the entire county of Buckinghamshire. Our team of dedicated, unpaid but truly committed adult volunteers (many of whom having previously benefitted from the organisations support and activities as girls), work tirelessly to provide an array of varied and challenging activities and opportunities to assist our girls to develop their personal confidence, skills, and expand their life experiences to equip them to shape a meaningful life for their selves in future whilst gaining lifelong friendships and support. These members adventures and activities, include international team trips, closer to home residentials under canvas or other designated inside venues, crafts, sports, outside adventures, and life skills to help girls know they can achieve anything they set their mind to, under the guidance and support of their “Girlguiding family”.
Website: https://girlguidingbucks.org.uk/
What would branding a bus mean to your organisation? For us at Girlguiding Buckinghamshire, an opportunity like this to reach out to more girls and potential volunteers across our County in such a unique and eye-catching way would be so beneficial. As an organisation for us to find the money to mobilise such an expensive advertising campaign would take time and dedicated effort by our already stretched volunteers in the form of additional grant seeking and fundraising activities. This is because any money we receive from our members is solely used for the purpose of providing the many opportunities, events, adventures, and activities for our girls. This of course includes any maintenance of buildings, insurance, training, or services we require to keep our girls and volunteers safe whilst accessing our services too. Therefore, any money for additional costs such as advertising and promotion is carefully planned, and additional sources secured which will result in lower key, more attainable options such as promotional stands at local events being the norm. Once again, only possible through the commitment and dedication of our unpaid volunteers to free up more of their time to do so. What is also of note is, however despite these challenges girls and volunteers will their selves engage in fundraising and provide gifts to local community causes and charities on a regular basis – with 100’s of examples across the county occurring at various points in the year or when requests come in from their local communities. As well as volunteering or assisting at community and national events – including the Kings Coronation. Therefore, to be offered such a wonderful opportunity to be rewarded with a campaign which may promote the organisation with potentially a greater impact and reach whilst being less reliant on our wonderful volunteers and girls to do so would be truly appreciated and valued.
Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity
Submitted by: Zoe Brown
About: Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity is here for patients with life-limiting illnesses, and their families, across Buckinghamshire and its borders. We enhance and complement the care and support delivered by Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust to ensure patients, families and carers get the individual clinical, practical and emotional support they need to make the most of every day they have together. Since the opening of Florence Nightingale Hospice in 1989, many thousands of patients and families have benefitted from specialist hospice care. The Hospice remains the only bedded unit in Buckinghamshire for respite and end of life care and services have evolved over the years with much of our care now also offered in the community. All services are provided free of charge to patients and their families – this is only possible thanks to the continued support and fundraising efforts of so many individuals and businesses.
Website: https://fnhospice.org.uk/
What would branding a bus mean to your organisation? We are committed to developing hospice services across Buckinghamshire and its borders – ensuring that everyone who could benefit from our care is able to access it, whenever and wherever they need it. We are significantly increasing our community care in the south of Buckinghamshire from January 2025. Having a 'Florence' branded bus will help us with our mission to raise awareness of our essential hospice care to local communities. Allowing more families to access our dedicated, compassionate care when they need it most.