Newsletters | ThinkForward

2024 Summer Newsletter

A note from our CEO:

As this academic year comes to an end, we are delighted to update our supporters on some highlights from the summer term.  

During the summer term we delivered our annual business mentoring programme to all schools on our FutureMe programme, giving young people the opportunity to receive career advice, CV tips and mock interview practice from employees. We have also been mobilising some exciting new projects and programmes for our young people. Please read on to learn more about them.

We are also delighted to have welcomed a new school into our cohort of Nottingham schools. Thank you to Bluecoat Trent Academy for partnering with us, we look forward to working with you and supporting your students over the coming years.

We would also like to give a huge shoutout to our amazing Nottingham team who took part in a Tough Mudder and raised a whopping £1350 which will go towards supporting young people on our programmes as they transition into employment. Their fundraising page is still open, you can support them here.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to all of our schools, funders, business partners and volunteers for your support during this academic year.  

This newsletter includes:

> Launching new programmes

> Youth-led project in partnership with the Blagrave Trust

> Our Youth Advisory Board

> Fundraising

Programme Delivery:

Launching new programmes:

This term has been extremely busy and exciting as we have mobilised and launched new programmes. Delivery of our Making Strides programme has kicked off in London, Birmingham and Sandwell, working with young adults with learning disabilities and autism to support them to transition into sustained employment. We have also been prepping for delivery of the second phase of our Future Leaders programme to commence in September 2024, onboarding new schools in West London.

We also began delivery of our new young women’s project in partnership with City Bridge Foundation. Young women have been taking part in introductory workshops where they have enjoyed discussing inspirational women. Young women will be taking part in a creative workshop over the summer holidays where they will be learning more about issues young women can face and designing an art piece campaigning for change.

Youth-led project in partnership with The Blagrave Trust:

Over this academic year, young people have been trained and supported to collect data through surveys, focus groups and interviews. This month they presented their findings to The Blagrave Trust, ThinkForward and employers in Kent, to provide insight into the barriers to employment young people in Kent can face.

We are extremely grateful to The Blagrave Trust for funding this opportunity for our young people.

Read our young people’s research findings here.

Our Youth Advisory Board:

It has been a busy term for young people on our Youth Advisory Board (YAB). Young people have attended monthly meetings and have fed into discussions involving ethical funding decisions and ThinkForward’s values. It has been great to see them developing their leadership and communication skills. YAB members have also been designing a research survey into how young people would like to report safeguarding and bullying concerns. We look forward to sharing their findings.

Fundraising:

On Saturday 14th September, a team of ThinkForward employees will take part in the 10th Impetus Triathlon to raise money to improve young people’s lives. Darach, Phoebe and Sha will be running, swimming and cycling in a tremendous effort to raise £1200 for ThinkForward so we can continue coaching young people to achieve their goals. If you would like to donate, please click here.

2024 Spring Newsletter

A note from our CEO:

I hope you have had a wonderful start to 2024. As we approach the end of the spring term, I am thrilled to share some highlights from the past few months.

It has been a particularly busy term for us, as we have launched new exciting initiatives tailored to different groups of young people who we will be supporting over the next couple of years. You can read more about these below.

Charlene Theophile – Director of Programmes, Patrice Etienne – Head of Inclusion Programmes, and I had the honour of attending a celebratory event hosted by The Careers & Enterprise

Company (CEC) at the House of Lords earlier this month. We were recognised by Nicky Morgan as a Careers Champion in the Chair’s Choice category for our Future Leaders programme, in partnership with the GLA and supported by 7PK. It was fantastic to see our work being recognised for its achievements.

This term, we also released our 2022/2023 annual review. The review shines a light on the powerful impact that our work has had on young people. It includes insights from young people, parents and business partners, and quantifies the effect that our unique coaching and employability programmes are having. We also hosted our annual Thanking Day to share our gratitude to our funders and partners. I had the pleasure of speaking with some of our supporters to express our thanks and share updates on our work.

This newsletter includes:

> Tailoring our FutureMe Programme

> Our supported employment programmes

> Our work to tackle school exclusion

> Recruitment

Programme Delivery:

Tailoring our FutureMe Programme:

As we announced in our e-newsletter last term, we were delighted to kick off a brand-new project with young people identifying as women on our FutureMe programme earlier this month.

The project will support young women to develop employability action plans and gain skills to achieve their goals. Young women will experience gender-based group coaching, peer mentoring and employability activities, involving female business volunteers in work.

Through this work, young women will develop the confidence, mindsets and skills needed to secure and sustain employment. They will also develop a collective voice to tackle gender inequalities in the workplace and influence employers to create inclusive recruitment practices.

We’re currently looking for business partners to support this project. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact nicolette.bassan@thinkforward.org.uk.

Our supported employment programmes:

In March, we were delighted to host a celebration event in London to mark the end of our DFN-MoveForward programme.

Our young people, school partners, funders, business partners and commissioners came together to celebrate the impact of the DFN-MoveForward programme over the last five years. We heard from young people and guest speakers including a parent, a school partner, a business partner and our programme commissioners. It truly demonstrated the power of collaboration in achieving positive employment outcomes for young people with a learning disability or autism.

We are thrilled that 46% of young people on our programme who were work-ready have transitioned into sustained employment, which is almost ten times the national average of 4.8% of adults with learning disabilities and autism being in paid work. We couldn’t have achieved this success without the support of all our partners, helping us to provide coaching and workplace insights for our young people.

We also announced the launch of our new Making Strides programme that will be working with young adults with learning disabilities and/or autism in London and the West Midlands. We are looking forward to commencing this programme in April.

Our work to tackle school exclusion:

This month, our Future Leaders programme came to the end of its two-year pilot. We have supported 60 black male students in Year 11 to access coaching, work experience, work insight days and mentoring opportunities with black role models. We are delighted that 85% of our Future Leaders have transitioned into post-16 destinations.

We will be continuing this area of our work in 2024. Please keep an eye on our e-newsletters and social media to hear more about our future plans.

“The first couple of times I had meetings with [my coach] I was kind of sceptical about it because stuff like this has happened in the past. It’s never really materialised. But I’ve had meetings with Patrice, and over time, I’ve become more comfortable being able to talk to him about stuff that I wouldn’t really talk to other people about, as well as the fact that he’s also giving me opportunities to help basically brighten my future.”

– Future Leaders Student

Recruitment:

We’re currently recruiting for an Employability Events & Partnerships Manager in London.

We are looking for someone who shares our ambition that every young person has the confidence, independence and skills they need for a better and brighter future. As part of our Development team, our Employability Events & Partnerships Managers play a key role in holding some of our valuable employer relationships and through the delivery of our essential ‘ready for work’ activities. If you have experience facilitating engaging and inclusive employability activities to equip young people for further education and sustained employment, this could be the role for you.

For details on how to apply, please click here.

2023 Autumn Newsletter

A note from our CEO:

I’m excited to present the autumn term highlights as we near the end of the year and reflect on the work that we have done with our wonderful young people.It has been a busy start to the new academic year. We welcomed new Year 9 students onto our FutureMe programme in London, Kent and Nottingham.

Alongside one-to-one coaching, young people across all three of our programmes attended work insight days at a variety of workplaces including banks, care homes and zoos, to broaden their understanding of the world of work.

In November, we were delighted to be shortlisted for two London Youth Awards – the Inspiring Young Changemakers Award, for our youth participation work, and the Creating a Better London award, for our Future Leaders programme, which supports black male students who have been excluded or are at risk of being excluded from mainstream education, to transition into employment or further education. I enjoyed attending the awards evening with some of our coaches and young people from our FutureMe and Future Leaders programme. It was a truly inspiring evening filled with celebration of the amazing achievements of youth organisations in London.

This newsletter includes:

> Ambassadors and InspireMe

> Refining our FutureMe programme

> Our DFN-MoveForward programme

> Our work to tackle school exclusion

> Recruitment

> The Big Give Campaign

Programme Delivery:

Ambassadors and InspireMe:

Year 9 students on our FutureMe programme have been enrolled onto our Ambassador Programme, where they will plan and deliver social action projects about a social issue they feel is important in their local community. Last week, all ambassadors came together online for our national annual InspireMe event. Ambassadors participated in activities to broaden their understanding of social action and get them thinking about their projects. We can’t wait to see how these develop next year!

Ambassadors chose to tackle social issues including racism, homelessness, mental health, knife crime, and humanitarian aid.

Refining our FutureMe programme:

We are thrilled to have been awarded a grant from City Bridge Foundation to refine and expand our work with young women on our FutureMe programme, to support them to secure employment and create brighter futures. The grant will allow us to support 100 young women (ages 15-18) in London through coaching, employability activities and peer mentoring.

Young women face issues in the labour market including discrimination, sexism and gender pay gaps. Research has shown that young women have been hit hardest by the impact of Covid: they are more likely than men to be NEET, to work in low-paid jobs and to have unpaid caring responsibilities. Girls living in poverty, disabled workers and those facing racial inequality in particular face structural barriers and higher unemployment rates.

Over 3 years, our new project will support women facing these issues. They will receive one-to-one coaching, helping young women develop post-16 employability action plans and gain skills and opportunities to achieve their goals. We will also provide gender-based group coaching and #employability activities involving female volunteers working in a wide range of industries.

We can’t wait to begin this project and see our FutureMe young women’s confidence, skills, and employment prospects grow and develop!

Our DFN-MoveForward programme:

In the summer term we announced that our DFN-MoveForward programme is coming to an end after an incredible five years.

We are immeasurably proud to have served and supported over 270 young people during the lifetime of the programme. We are committed to continuing to support young people with SEND to transition into employment and are working on plans for new programmes which will come to fruition in 2024. Please stay tuned for further information on this area of our work.

Our work to tackle school exclusion:

Our Future Leaders programme is also reaching the end of its pilot period. Over the past year, we supported 60 black male students in Year 10 and Year 11 to access coaching, work experience, work insight days and mentoring opportunities with black role models.

We will be continuing this area of our work in 2024 with young people who have been or are at risk of being excluded from mainstream education.

Again, please keep an eye on our e-newsletters and social media to hear more about our future plans.

“Being on the Future Leaders programme has impacted my future goals, because before I started the programme I was a sport person – I wanted to make it in sports. However with the work experience opportunities we did, I saw there’s life other than sports and there’s other career opportunities that I can delve into. I’m very outspoken right now, but beforehand I was a very shy person, I kept to myself and my little circle of people, but the programme is helping to broaden that and helping me be able to speak to people I wouldn’t normally speak to. It has helped bring up my confidence.”

Elliot, Future Leaders Student

Recruitment:

We’re very excited that ThinkForward is growing! In 2024, we will be reaching even more young people, including expansion into new areas of London and the UK.

We are currently recruiting for four roles. If you are passionate about working for an organisation that improves the lives of young people who face challenges, to support them to achieve brighter futures, then please have a look at the jobs we are currently advertising here.

Communications & Youth Participation Officer
Database Administrator
FutureMe Progression Coach – Nottingham
SEND Employment & Progression Coach – Hounslow

Should you want to apply, then please

Fundraising:

The Big Give Campaign:

We are thrilled to have exceeded our ambitious Big Give Campaign target of £60,000, raising a total of £60,317. This is an increase compared to the £40,000 we raised during the Big Give last year, and we are extremely grateful for all the extra support. These funds are vital for us to continue our work supporting young people to successfully transition from school into further education or employment. A huge thank you on behalf of everyone at ThinkForward to all who generously donated during this campaign, or shared our campaign with your networks, we really appreciate your support.