Our Application Station has been thriving over the past year, supporting young people to gain the skills they need to progress into further education or employment. The programme was funded by a grant from the Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund, which sadly came to an end in April this year. Since then, we have been applying to a range of different funders to secure the project’s future, but competition has been fierce.
“There has never been more of a need than now to work with young people to get them into work,” said Anna Duffy, our Application Station Coordinator. “A high incidence of anxiety and depression, caused by a lack of real-world experience in any form, is the biggest of all the barriers to getting young people who are NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) into work.”
At one point, the future of the project looked incredibly uncertain, as we awaited the outcomes of various funding applications. However, a surprise phone call from one of our local grant supporters offered a glimmer of hope at the eleventh hour.
Their most recent, incredibly generous donation of £15,000 has come at exactly the right time and means that we can continue to run the Application Station for a few more months. We are deeply grateful to the Trustees of the funder for their support, which enables us to continue helping local young people take an even closer step towards independence.
There have been some key learnings from running the Application Station over the past year, as Anna reflects:
“We have learned that the intrinsic motivation and desire to have purpose and find a role in life are often absent in many of the young people we work with. This is often due to a worldview shaped by a lack of work and the ability to seek excitement and escape through smartphones. Smartphone use in itself creates poor attention and reduces the natural levels of boredom that would otherwise push them outdoors and into activity or work.”
These insights have been invaluable in helping us adapt the service to better address the real barriers young people are facing as they try to move forward in their lives.
Anna continues:
“The young people we work with often have no idea what their strengths and capabilities are. Thanks to this continuation funding, we will use an approach that helps them explore a different way of being and teaches them about themselves, rather than pushing them into job applications that we know are likely to fail in the short term.”
To continue reaching those with a higher level of motivation and to connect with more local young people, we will direct our more traditional employability services towards groups within local schools and colleges.
This means that, moving forward, we aim to embed this employability service into our core work. For our most vulnerable clients—those who come to us in crisis—we will focus on building confidence and life skills, ultimately helping them progress into employment. Alongside this, as Anna has outlined, we will partner with schools and colleges to support young people who are more ready to engage with the world of work.
Thanks to local support, we have secured around 50% of the funding needed to continue delivering this vital aspect of our service. We are hopeful that further funding will follow in the coming months, allowing us to continue inspiring young people and supporting them into the world of work—meeting our overall charitable aim of creating a foundation for independence.