The Be Your Best Foundation is a Company Limited by Guarantee (Registration Number 3553440) and a Registered Charity (Number 1077291). A Memorandum and Articles of Association dated the 27th April 1998 govern the operation of the Foundation. The Foundation is recognised by the Inland Revenue as an approved charity for tax purposes, the reference number being XR 33678.

Registered Office:
Wessex House
Upper Market Street
Eastleigh
Hampshire
SO50 9FD

Phone: 02380 617753
Fax: 02380 617740
Email: manager@bybf.org.uk

The Vision

The vision of the Be Your Best Foundation is to contribute to improving the quality of life for all of society by encouraging young people to take an active role in building safe and healthy communities.

Mission Statement

To support initiatives that contribute to:

• the reduction of drug misuse and crime amongst young people;
• the advancement of education and - particularly - the education of children and young people in the value of discipline, hard work and good citizenship;
• the promotion of health and the prevention of sickness, particularly that caused by or related to alcohol, tobacco, drug use or any other aspect of modern lifestyles which are prejudicial to health;
• the provision of facilities for recreation and positive leisure time activities.

At the present time the sole project of the Foundation has been to facilitate the production and expansion of The Rock Challenge^® in the United Kingdom.

Directors of the Be Your Best Foundation

Mervyn Bishop served as an officer in Humberside Police for thirty years, retiring in November 2000. During this time he performed a wide variety of roles including membership of the Regional Crime Squad Drugs Wing investigating both national and international drug trafficking. During the later part of his service he was involved in community relations that included supervision of the Lifestyle and Rock Challenge^® projects as well as the development and management of several drug related projects. On leaving the police Mervyn worked as a development manager for Neighbourhood Watch until taking over his present role as the Chief Executive of Victim Support Humber in 2003. Mervyn has been involved with Rock Challenge^® since 1996 and has been the driving force in the Humber area. Mervyn is the current Chairman of the Be Your Best Foundation.

Jan Clarke was previously a teacher for twenty-five years but has now just completed her tenth year working as Health Education Advisory Teacher / Healthy Schools Co-ordinator for Children's Services, Cumbria. Within the Healthy Schools Team Jan is responsible for Sex and Relationships Education and Emotional Health and Well-Being. She also maintains holistic responsibility for the roughly 120 schools in the West of the County, working at both operational and strategic levels with all sectors of school communities and linked agencies. Jan has also been a National Assessor for the Certification of the Teaching of PSHE since 2003, the identified lead for teachers undertaking the CPD Programme in Cumbria, and has just been appointed as a Regional Subject Advisor for PSHE Education.

George Cooil's initial involvement with Rock Challenge^® was as an officer of the Isle of Wight Education Authority and as the parent of two daughters who had participated in a number of Rock Challenge^® events. He has been a teacher, a head teacher, a school inspector and an Assistant Director of Education. He now works as an independent consultant supporting a range of agencies in the statutory and non-statutory sectors.

Paul Godfrey first became involved with the Be Your Best Foundation in 1999 through Ansvar's sponsorship of the Rock Challenge^®. He was asked to join the Board upon his retirement in June 2004 after forty years with the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group. Having held various management appointments during his career throughout the UK, with brief spells in Ireland and Canada and ten years in the City, for the last five years Paul was the Managing Director of the Ansvar Insurance Company (an EIG subsidiary) in Eastbourne. Being a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Coopers, his City interests continue. Paul serves on a number of Coopers' committees including the Charities Committee (since 1989), the Coopers' Livery House Fund (since its inception in 1995) and the Court since 2002. Paul has recently been asked to chair the sub-committee for the Company's participation in the annual Lord Mayor's Show.

Karen Gooch worked as a Midlands-based journalist for twenty years in television and radio after gaining a degree and post-graduate diploma at university. She has worked as a reporter, a presenter, and a producer. Karen is currently teaching part-time at Warwickshire College with would-be reporters, and invigilating across the college with attention to students with Special Needs. She is also a freelance writer and market researcher with an international company.
Karen's previous employers include Signal Radio, Leicester Sound and Mercia Sound. Karen's other interests include horses, Morris Dancing, music, politics, sport, travelling and meeting those involved in Rock Challenge^®!

Baroness Ruth Henig was senior lecturer in History and Dean of Arts and Humanities at Lancaster University until taking early retirement in 2002.  She also had a parallel career in local government, serving for over twenty years as a Lancashire County Councillor, chair of the Lancashire Police Authority and as a local magistrate. She chaired the national Association of Police Authorities from its inception in 1997 until 2005, and served as a member of a number of Home Office and government bodies, including the Lawrence Steering Group, the Street Crime Action Group and the National Criminal Justice Board. She is now the chair of the Security Industry Authority.  She received the CBE for services to policing in 2000, and was appointed as a Life Peer in May 2004. She is the Parliamentary champion for the Royal School for the Deaf and Communication Disorders and for Claire House Children's Hospice, on the Wirral peninsula.

Juno Hollyhock is currently the Children's Fund Programme Manager for Southampton. She was the UK Producer for the UK Rock Challenge^® between June 1999 and June 2003, joining the Board of Directors in May 2003. Juno's professional background includes the management of a range of youth arts projects within wider young people's programmes and general event management of a range of large-scale projects. Juno is currently Vice Chair of Southampton YMCA, Chair of the Southern Region of YMCAs and a Trustee of YMCA England. In addition to her work with Southampton, Juno also provides business, financial and project management consultancy services for other organisations.

Dr Marguerite Howick was a teacher in Kent for twenty five years. Her work with young people presenting difficult and disturbed behaviour - often as a result of substance misuse - led her to study for a Masters Degree in Psychology and a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Health Education. In 1998, she combined her experience and qualifications by taking up the post of Healthy Schools Co-ordinator on the Isle of Wight and for the last three years she has been the Extended Schools Consultant. Through that work Marguerite linked the Foundation with national agendas and regional networks. She has now moved on in her career and is working as a self-employed independent consultant.

Derek Thompson is now retired. He has a background of sales and marketing with Courtaulds, running his own estate agency and latterly as a director of a major international postal company. A former trustee of a youth club in Lancaster, Derek has fulfilled roles as governor and chairman of various primary and secondary schools in Lancashire and Hampshire. He was an active qualified football referee for twenty years, and is a former parish councillor in his home village in Hampshire.

E.D. (Stratis) Zographos is a retired senior executive with extensive and varied experience in manufacturing, distributive, leisure, television broadcasting and advertising industries. He has a demonstrated record of turn-around and ensuring sound financial bases and healthy cash positions. He is a retired Fellow member of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants.

The functions of the Be Your Best Foundation in relation to The Rock Challenge^® are to:

• secure national and local, statutory, commercial and charitable funding for the event;
• facilitate the formation of partnerships between relevant national and local commercial and charitable agencies, and
• build suitable networks through which The Rock Challenge^® can be extended towards the interim target of involving 500 schools by 2010.

These functions continue throughout the year and lead up to the production of the Rock Challenge^® events that take place annually between February and June. The Rock Challenge^® could not operate throughout the country without the financial support and expertise of the Foundation.

The Rock Challenge^®

The Rock Challenge^® is an international anti-drug and crime prevention initiative that takes the form of a performing arts competition for secondary schools. It was introduced into the UK from Australia by the Hampshire Constabulary in 1996, when there was just one inaugural event involving around 800 students. It has since grown to the extent that this year 17,000 7-to-18 year old students from 245 school teams performed in 36 events staged throughout England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Rock Challenge^® delivers anti-drug and crime-prevention messages to the heart of teenage culture by using music, dance, fashion and media images that are familiar and attractive to large numbers of young people. The event captures the imagination of young people, providing them with an exciting and unique opportunity to experience the 'drug-free high' of performing in a supportive and professional environment with over 100 of their fellow school students, rehearsing in a supportive and professional environment and in the company of from 500 to over 1000 of their contemporaries, before then going on to perform their piece in an evening show that increasingly is played to sellout audiences.

The BYBF and its directors are convinced The Rock Challenge^® is an ideal method of addressing the issues of drug and substance misuse with young people, allowing them the opportunity to see that by hard work, commitment and team work they can obtain a drug-free "high". Feedback from participating schools indicates that the use of tobacco products, alcohol and other drugs is reduced or stops entirely among participating students and Australian research shows that schools participating in Rock Challenge^® have significantly lower proportions of students who have ever tried drugs or been drunk.

Though the prime aims of the Be Your Best Rock Challenge^® are drug and crime prevention, the 2007 tour again demonstrated the potential of the event to bring together young people and communities from different national and cultural backgrounds, this year continuing to attract entries from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, whilst the Global Rock Challenge^® has spread from Australia, New Zealand and the UK into Germany, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan.

Participation seems to enthuse young Britons to take their performances even further afield. Some UK teams continue to take part in The Rock Challenge^® in Dresden, Germany, an East Yorkshire school's team travelled to Australia in 2005 in order to showcase their production there, in 2006 a team from Farnborough travelled to Tokyo in order to perform at that nation's inaugural Rock Challenge^®, and another team - this time from Hull - again raised enough funds this year to enable them to travel to Australia to showcase at one of that nation's events in Sydney.

The Directors are particularly pleased to report the involvement of 12 schools catering for pupils with special needs in 2007. This participation demonstrates the accessibility of the event and its ability to provide equal and unique opportunities to every young person. Young people from these schools were able to take part on an equal basis with mainstream pupils and the quality of their performances and the enthusiastic response of the audiences bore testament to their ability and the dedication of their teachers and families.

The Directors are also pleased to report the extension of The Rock Challenge^® into Primary Schools. No less than 40 Primary school teams took part in 2007, with over 2000 team members taking part in 4 special Junior event days. Some Primary schools without a Junior Event remotely near them were still determined to participate, opting instead to do showcase performances at Senior events.