Coronavirus has brought the world to a standstill and everyone has experienced some measure of impact during these unprecedented times. Youngsters are no exception. At Riana, we wanted to hear the voice of young people. We invited students between the age of 8-14 to submit their artistic response about:

 How did the COIVD-19 affect you, your loved ones or the communities around you? Submissions were in the form of poems, short stories, visual artworks, photographs and videos. All the entries will be published in an anthology called “Voices of Riana” and is part of an engaging experience for participants to express their creativity and […]

Over 40 young people from the National Citizen Service (NCS) have worked with Riana Development Network this summer to volunteer for the organisation and make a difference in the London Borough of Hounslow.

Exhibition planning The first wave from Ealing helped to create an enterprise plan for the Your Community Your Change project which will result in an exhibition in autumn 2019. Participants were required to draft a budget, marketing plan and strategy for the event. It was great to see the NCS group take the challenge head on […]

Seven young people represented Riana Development Network at the VlogStar Challenge 2019 semi-finals on Friday 12th July.

The semis were hosted at Google HQ and provided a great opportunity for creatives to learn how to develop their content further on YouTube.One of the sessions, I Am Remarkable, challenged participants to reflect on their accomplishments and discover what makes them unique and how they can share that with others.I Am Remarkable Quotes I […]

The second session of the project "Your Community, Your Change" saw the young people analyse the photographs they had taken over a 2 week period that highlighted social issues and the meaning behind them.

Photovoice entries

On Saturday 23rd March, Riana Development Network (RDN) successfully launched the next phase of the Life Skills programme which is focused on documenting the experiences of young people in the London Borough of Hounslow.

The project is designed to be made by young people, for young people and led by young people together with RDN staff to identify key issues that they have experienced and vocalise these using the medium of photo-voice. The project will also provide opportunities for young people to learn additional skills in interviewing, public speaking, […]

On Saturday 16th February, RDN hosted the VlogStar Challenge 2019 workshop for West London!

12 young people took part in the day where they learnt presentation, interviewing and video editing skills to produce their own vlogs. In the second half of the workshop, each participant then recorded an entry for the VlogStar Challenge competition. Topics that were covered included: knife crime, the effect of mass media, poetry and reviewsTomi […]

On Wednesday 6th June 2018, two young people that had taken part in RDN programmes received the Jack Petchey Achievement Award. This was in recognition for the hard work they have put into achievements in their personal development and also for their contribution in making the local community a better place to live in.

January 2018 Award Winner: Quinter An ambassador and mentor to younger children. Quinter joined and started utilizing the services of the organization in year 7 and is now in year 10. Quinter was quite shy when she first joined the organization, however she soon gained the trust and friendship of her peers. Quinter has been […]

RDN is proud to announce that Rhiannon will be the first young person from Hounslow to reach the VlogStar Challenge Finals!

At the semi-final stage, the VlogStar Challenge semi-finalists had to follow a set brief with their vlogs lasting between one and one and a half minutes. All of the participants had access to professional equipment and mentors on hand to give advice on how to produce a top quality video for an online audience. Rhiannon […]

Riana Development Network would like to say congratulations to Rhiannon for reaching the VlogStar Challenge 2016/17 semi-finals!

An enthusiastic individual – Rhiannon demonstrated a natural confidence and a sense of maturity when presenting in front of the camera in the Hounslow VlogStar workshop in September. Young people were given the chance to talk about social issues or about what inspires them in life. Rhiannon caught up with RDN Youth Coordinator, Maxwell Omondi […]

On Wednesday 3rd August, volunteers from RDN and Heston West Community Partnership organised a fun day for the local community.

This was as part of the 8 week course of Life Skills sessions they had attended in preparation for the day. Check out the video that was made by MADE TV, showcasing the young people and their achievements! Documentary  

Riana Development Network (RDN) and Heston West Community Partnership (HWCP) have delivered workshops in the Heston West area.

The goal was to equip youth in the area with skills that were useful for life. These included:BudgetingEvent PlanningNegotiationCommunication skillsTeamworkFilm and Media skillsWorking to deadlinesThe outcome of the initiative was to organise a community event for the local families in the area which will be on Wednesday 3rd August. The young people participating in the […]

Promo Filming

This week was the last week for our Life Skills sessions. We had been inspired by our Made TV film sessions earlier in the month so we decided to film our promotional video. It was a challenging shoot as we had limited resources and small cast but we managed to do all the filming in […]

Leadership Skills

Matthews (RDN) led the session, giving us a talk on how leadership plays a very important role in volunteering and event planning. We watched a video where different people spoke about the qualities that make a good leader. Some of these ranged from being a good listener to being able to compromise. We soon discovered […]

Budgeting and Negotiation

With the event planning underway, the group decided to focus more on the budget this week. We split into smaller teams to find out how much certain items would cost such as the venue. There were good discussions going on comparing deals with other shops and venues. One tip that Rodgers (RDN) and Taz (Heston […]

Event Planning

With the help of Rodgers from RDN, we started planning our community event. It quickly became clear that there were lots of things to consider such as: Venue location Activities Cost of hiring and buying other items Who would volunteer on the day When the event should take place How to advertise it As a group we […]

Made TV – Workshop 2

Due to the popularity of the workshop delivered beforehand, Blaise Singh from MADE TV came back to deliver another session on film and media. He was accompanied by Ben Ah-Time who worked with us to make a video clip on our local area. We were split into two groups and given a design brief which […]

Made TV - Workshop 1

Make A Difference Entertainment (MADE) came to deliver a workshop on how we can use media to spread a message. The session focused on the creative process of turning an idea into a professional media piece. We were able to film using DSLRs and an auto-cue system to create a promo video for the Queen’s 90th […]

Getting Stuck In! The Brainstorm

Janet from RDN took the session, inspiring us to think creatively about possible project ideas to do in the area. To help us with the brainstorming, we watched a short video clip on how sharing our skills and talents contribute to making a project work. The clip focused on a charity in Africa which helped […]

The Launch! All About Volunteering

The first week saw a great turnout of enthusiastic volunteers. We had Catherine from Volunteer Hounslow come to us to talk about the benefits of volunteering. We discussed the reasons why people choose to do voluntary work and how some organisations are willing to subsidise travel expenses during a placement. There were many different places […]

The workshops will be delivered by Riana Network Development and Heston West Big Local.

 These workshops are designed to enable and encourage young people to:Develop and deliver a community activity and event.Learn leadership and public speaking skillsFind creative ways to express yourself through film, photography and other areas.Find ways to volunteer in the community and have fun.The Life Skills Workshops starts next Wednesday 4th May from 5 to 7pm (and […]

Global Community Links Project puts universal education and global partnership in the frame with young people in Housnlow linking with Magina Community Centre in Kenya.

Riana Development Foundation Network (RDFN) has been funded by UKaid from the Department of International Development to run workshops for young people to engage in Global links. Linking young people and  children enables them to explore and take active part in local solutions to the global issues that affect their communities and the larger world. […]