Al’s Story
Allen has been working in the youth and voluntary sector for over 20 years. Throughout, the one thing that has been clear is the lack of funding for many youth oriented projects. Many projects and programmes require a constant, consistent need to fundraise in order to provide the best service possible. For years Al would tell people, if you give a project €250, we’ll run a great 6-week programme for young people. These programmes have never needed a large amount of money to be effective in providing the supports needed.
Al came to know of the NFT space via Gary Vee and the launch of VeeFriends. With the support of his wife, he made the decision to invest in his first NFT and joined the VeeFriends community. It was a steep learning curve, especially learning about gas fees, but he’s gained so much knowledge of the NFT space and as he connected with the community via Twitter and Discord, saw the amazing opportunities that NFTs could bring to the charitable sector, including many of those projects he has worked on over the years. After months of research and learning, Al decided to create his first 10K NFT project. After years of running fundraisers, he believes with the support of the NFT community, he can raise money for charity that will have a phenomenal impact, relative to what he has been able to raise through traditional means in the past. Additionally, supporting others who are new to the space is incredibly important to the Face Painted Kids team. We want to pass on to others the learning we have gained through the VeeFriends project. Al started to document his journey on social media as he wanted to create awareness, while highlighting his own learning, plus some of the “gotchas” and potential pitfalls; teaching other people as he has learned, guiding them to their first NFT purchase. The goal of this project is to be relevant to the work that Al does as a youth and parent coach. Each of the characters have a direct link to a parenting question or query he has received over the years. Al knew the value of the project would not only be in the quality of the art and the charitible donations, and has plans for Virtual Personal Wellness Conferences, and a community wallet supporting young NFT artists as part of the current roadmap, with future plans for continued charitable donations, plus more for the NFT community that invests in the project.Charity
Gary Vee frequently talks about giving 51% to others and it’s something we admire and want to embody as part of this project so 51% of all profits will go to charities, with a primary focus on youth oriented projects. There will also be a royalty of 7.5% built into the smart contract for which charities will continue to receive 51% of any future royalty payments. Catch Al’s interviews with the charities Face Painted Kids will be supporting on YouTube by clicking below.
FPK YouTubeSome of the charitable organizations we will support:
Moneymore Community Building
Project to build a purpose-built facility to house the CABLE Garda Youth Diversion Project, Connect Family Resource Centre and Moneymore After School Programme, in one of the most disadvantaged areas in Ireland.
Boomerang Youth Café
Project to work with all young people in Drogheda, supporting varying needs such as educational support, LGBTQI+ youth, health & wellness among many others
Gary Kelly Cancer Support Centre
A support centre in Drogheda, Ireland for people living with cancer, their families and those who care for them.
Jack & Jill Foundation
Organisation to support children and their families dealing with neurological development issues.
CRANN (Trees for Ireland)
Project to plant 1m indigenous Irish trees by 2023, as well as providing education programmes throughout the country.
Sosad Ireland
Since 2007, SOSAD has worked to raise awareness and help prevent suicide in Ireland.
Charity Interviews
Over the coming weeks, we will be interviewing charities supported by this project. Learn more about each charity we plan to support below.
Boomerang Cafe
Allen chats with Teresa from Boomerang Cafe, a youth centre that provides a significant amount of supports and opportunities to young people in the Drogheda area. Funding has long been a major issue and Teresa takes us through what a donation from the FPK project could do for the young people who, not only access the centre, but also, potentially even more of the youth population due to the unrestricted nature of this funding!
Check out Boomerang Cafe – https://boomerangcafe.ie/Connect FRC Moneymore Community Building Project
Allen chats with Cliodhna from Connect FRC about a joint project to get a purpose built Community Centre developed in Moneymore, Drogheda. Cliodhna explains the the challenges that the group have faced and yet still have continued to push forward with the project.
Virtual Wellness Conference
The vision for the Virtual Wellness Conference was always to bring more value to FPK token holders than just the image and any potential future value it may have. With our many years of working in the mental health arena, one of the biggest challenges we’ve seen over and over, is the expectations and weight that people have on their shoulders and while trying to push on through, most hit a wall. People spend so much time taking care of others (children, parents, siblings, friends etc) that we can sometimes forget to look after ourselves.
All the courses Allen has created over the years have been done so with one the primary goal of having participants take at least one thing away that they can add into or alter in their daily lives that will make life that bit more manageable. With the Wellness Conference we plan to have a range of speakers and topics that will provide practical tips and exercises that people will be able to take away and piece by piece, create a new way of minding their mental and physical health through the daily challenges we all face in this new post COVID-19 world.
Community Wallet
With our community wallet we want bid on and purchase NFT’s created by young people. Getting your name out there can be extremely challenging, especially as a young person, not only because of the stigma that can be attached to youth but also having the confidence to put yourself out there and have your hard work scrutinised and possibly knocked, which can have a negative impact on self belief.
We want to take the opportunity to give these wonderful young artists a platform to have their art amplified as well as earning real money from their craft. This is one of the most exciting aspects of our whole project and we cannot wait to see it grow!