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The main ePortal website is nearing completion now. KO2 will be onsite making preparations to our premises and the dirt-track during February 2012 and operational by March, when we'll have switched to the full site. Photos of the awesome new ZERO bikes and gear are now up on the FaceBook page.

THREE AND A HALF YEARS !!!!

Its been a long wait but finally we're getting there - about to sign a deal with the electric dirtbikes and then the investors can step-up allowing us to construct the dirt-track and fit out the classrooms and workshop. We're looking at a January start so Christmas is going to be busy but by far the most exciting for us all. Party invites being written right now ....

Reading Tim Loughton's Letter to VCS Organisations reinforces everything KO2 stands for; collaborative, radical reform for youth services. I've always been open to radical reduction in the amount of regulation... to place greater emphasis on direct work with children, young people and families.but its taken word from the top, via Professor Eileen Munroe, for that to actually filter down.
Further details on the Munroe Review are available here
Meanwhile planning continues on site with an environmental study underway and a full refit of the premises.
We hope to be operational by November 2011 with the Foremost School opening for business in January 2012.
A recent demonstration of the Quantya bikes took place in Pateley Bridge recently with council, Police, Youth Justice, AONB, PRS and Foremost representatives attending.
Ash did a brilliant job and many thanks to him and also Rob Montgomery from Quantya.

We're only just negotiating this superb resource but I'd like to pre-empt the arrival of KO2's newest instructor; Ashley Harland, 21 yrs old and a British Motocross Champion. Ash has been racing for 16 years and currently rides a Yamaha 450F though he prefers the old 2 stroke. He'll be gunning for the 2011 Maxxis if he can get the proper backing so get in touch if you want to back a top rider outside his community interest work with us.

Ash's fab achievements are all listed here on his site if you want more credentials. He's also a top joiner !!

More photos here .......

I recently had a very positive meeting with the governing body of the new specialist school, Foremost, who we hope to be working alongside. While the wheels are in motion for us and for our partners we're also busy looking for investment. Clearly So of London has just joined up with the CIC Association making our investment search a lot easier - or at least supported! Hein Gericke also contacted us today with offers of support so its all looking sunny at the start of the new bike season. Ride safe and more to follow.....

AVIF was our introduction into the fantastic Third Sector - Big Society - which the country is only now, during recession, starting to realise its power in driving the economy.

The original idea was Kenya On 2 (wheels) - enduro biking tours, motorbike safaris around Kenya to promote the work we're doing there, generate revenue and get donations from clients visiting the actual projects. It hopefully will still include this but we're currently concentrating on KO2's UK-focused evolution into "Dirtbiking for Life".

776 youngsters entered the Criminal Justice system 2008-2009, in North Yorkshire, costing the UK £155 million. Kids with no support or safety net. If the UK had given these youngsters support it would have cost a quarter of that huge amount.

"Magic happens when you trust people" [Tim Smit of The Eden Project]

We're going to trust these kids, and support them, like people have supported me. We've just been offered bursary attendance at the high profile, Good Deals UK Social Investment Conference in London. We may well get a chance to pitch for investment but either way its bizarrely being held at the Institute of Engineering and Technology's (IET) amazing Savoy Place. The IET are the very people backing the electric powertrain technology that drives the electric dirtbikes we'll be using. My involvement in the TTXGP zero emissions race on the Isle of Man at the TT last year introduced me to various members of the IET who can, hopefully, help us to use the technology to re-engage these kids.

This "Big Society" that KO2 is a part of, something business and the UK government have finally recognised, has a viral power that purely-profit-driven business never had. At the same time as we're helping the kids in my own community, we're also helping the kids in Kenya and all the volunteers from around the globe, involved in our sustainable development projects. We're simultaneously cutting the costs of crime in the UK by a quarter, we're helping deliver the outcomes of the "Every Child Matters" initiative, we're re-engaging youth back into education, teaching them life skills, IT skills and self worth....

.. and we're teaching basic maintenance in a brand new, career-creating, green powertrain technology, enabling the next generation to go forward and make a difference of their own, even develop their own social enterprises?

Wish us luck for a Good Deal!

I just want to thank Li from Freak or Geek for giving us this new website. Its another learning curve for me as I've never used Linux hosting or PHP before but .. I'm a fast learner! Also meeting with the fabulous people at UnLtd who support social entrepreneurs - people "who want to change the world for the better". More to follow ....