Archive for the ‘Foundation’ Category

For the final session of this year’s Perspective we invited Sam Butler over from the Church of Scientology in Manchester. It was really interesting to hear what he had to say and get a good insight into the beliefs that Scientologists hold.

Unfortunately it wasn’t chaired well and we ended up not getting any real chance for questions which was a disappointment. Also I managed to mess up the focus on my camera and so half the photos were out of focus. Still, the first of hopefully more such Perspectives.

Here at the Chris Worfolk Foundation, we’re really excited about the directions in which the charity is moving. Whether it is our widely success Humanist Community that the BBC recently covered or the national splash we’re making with our Enquiry Conference.

Our trustees are busy making a difference too whether it’s Gijsbert who has spent all day talking to the Yorkshire Post, myself speaking out against Catholic Care on BBC Radio last week or Richard being one of the first people to volunteer their time on to speakers networks, we’re out there trying to make a difference.

Of course the focus of our work is promoting humanism but rather making a direct difference in the communities we work with. This can be seen in the groups we’re involved with such as the Humanist Community and the Humanist Action Group. We’re a doing organisation, not a talking organisation. We want to enable people to get stuck in there and make a measurable difference.

I’m really proud of how everyone involved in the project is pulling together and I really believe that the foundation has a bright future ahead of it. As such I am announcing today that I am doubling my personal monthly donation to the foundation to continue it’s good work.

If, like me, you feel that support for humanists, atheists or whatever non-believers choose to label themselves as then now is the time to act and support our good work. Become a supporter and help us continue or valuable work that makes a direct difference to local communities.

Chris

The Humanist Community of Leeds now has it’s own blog.

The new blog will cover some of the topics that we cover in meetings so if you miss a meeting you will be able to catch up on the topics that we covered. As the material grows we are also hopeful that it will become a usual resource for other humanists to look to for inspiration.

This summer Birmingham, UK will play host to Enquiry 2010 Conference a national conference for atheists, humanists and sceptics on the topic of “atheism in the 21st century.” With three days of events, a dazzling array of speakers and all profits going to charity this is not an event to be missed!

Guest speakers include Professor A C Grayling, Professor Chris French, Andrew Copson, Maryam Namazie and many others plus more guests still to be confirmed. There will also be evening entertainment and plenty of opportunities to get to know other conference attendees throughout the weekend too.

Enquiry aims to to bring a greater level of understanding on contemporary issues but in addition to that all profits are going to the Foundation to support the work we do including the Humanist Action Group, Humanist Communities and our work to support student groups. We’ll also be presenting some brand new initiatives which will be unveiled at the conference!

The event will take place on the first weekend of June – Friday 4th to Sunday 6th at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Birmingham. We very much hope you can join us there! Find out full details on the Enquiry 2010 Conference website.

After almost a year in development, we are pleased to announce the launch of Atheist Stock!

Atheist Stock is a stock photography website designed specifically for atheist, humanist and free-thinking societies. On the site you can find a wide selection of high-quality photographs to use in your advertising, websites and print material when designing creative for your group or society.

So whether you need a photo of groups at work and charity work to Conway Hall and Richard Dawkins, we have the image you need. They are all available as high quality – good enough to print – almost all at resolutions as good as you would find on professional stock photography websites.

Best of all, they are all available completely free to free-thinking groups! Just contact us with information about your group and will we provide you access. So why not check out our collection!

On Saturday we were down at the AHS (National Federation of Atheist, Humanist & Secular Student Societies) national convention to promote the services that we offer to student societies. Taking place in Oxford the convention drew in student groups from across the UK including some coming from as far as Belfast!

Today saw the first meeting of the Humanist Community of Leeds. I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank everyone who came down to the event and made it a big success. Everyone I spoke to said they enjoyed themselves and was looking forward to the next one.

If you haven’t heard about the Humanist Community of Leeds, it’s a new group which aims to bring humanists together for a relaxed social occasion each month as a secular alternative to church. After all, you don’t need to be religious to enjoy the company of others.

The next event is taking place on Sunday 7 March and I hope you can join us for it. It will follow a similar format of news and videos, a short talk and Sunday lunch following the event. See you there!

Back in November, we announced our plan to create humanist communities that would act as a hub to bring secular humanists together in the community. This will begin with a pilot programme in Leeds and hopefully expand outwards from there.

As a consequence, today we are officially announcing the Humanist Community of Leeds. Our first community and hopefully first of many which will hold it’s first meeting next month. I hope you will be able to join us at 10:30am (for an 11am start) on February 14th at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Leeds.

A Humanist Community is described as a secular alternative to church. You won’t find any worship or praying in our events but you will find a friendly welcoming atmosphere where you can get to know other secular humanists in the local community.

For the first event will feature a short talk from Richard, humanisted related news and some funny videos from Gijsbert, a chance to get to know each other and plenty of tea and coffee. The event will last around an hour and will be followed by everyone going for Sunday lunch together. We hope you can join us!

You can read more about the group on the website and if it sounds interesting you can sign up for the mailing list there too. You can also find out more and subscribe for event invites on our Facebook group. As usual, we will be continuing to post updates on our Twitter feed so you can follow us there too.

We finally have a YouTube channel up and running for the foundation. Currently, it only has introductory videos from myself and Gijsbert introducing the basics of our thoughts behind what we want to achieve but more content is on its way – Rich is busy making a documentary as we speak so hopefully that will be along shortly!

Yesterday’s homeless action saw the best attendance for a Humanist Action Group of Leeds event in the history of the group.

As you’ll probably be aware the weather in the UK has been rather cold over the past month with several heavy snowfalls and as a result the group has made a special effort to make sure volunteers were on hand when needed.

Luckily everyone living on the city centre’s streets managed to make it into a shelter during the snowfall – it’s actually a really good feeling when you go out in the snow and find nobody because it means chances are they are somewhere warmer. Now people are back on the streets however we really need people to continue to sign up and volunteer their time.

If you are interested in volunteering you can register your details on the website or find out more about the group on their Facebook page.