Who are Envision?
Envision bring together local businesses, schools, charities and volunteers to provide a practical learning experience which enables young people to develop the skills they need to succeed in work and life. In return, young people invest their time in developing projects which give back to the community.
The challenge
The Envision Community-Apprentice Programme is designed to build young people’s confidence, communication, and collaboration skills as well as preparing them for the challenges of the world of work, making them more employable.
The young people work with a group of ‘Business Mentors’ as well as Envision coaches on different topics throughout the programme. The mentoring sessions are designed to equip the young people with different skills in order to help them succeed with their project goals. The overall aim being for the team of young people to promote their chosen charity at a Charity Challenge Quiz event to a virtual audience of employees at their business partners place of work, hoping to raise awareness and make as much money as they can for their charity. A few weeks after this event, the team then pitch to a panel of VIP judges, competing against other local schools, in hope to win the competition and receive an additional £100 donation to their charity.
What we did
A team of mentors from NFP supported a group of young people from Ark Victoria Academy in Birmingham, giving advice on presentation skills, confidence and helping them to build a successful fundraising campaign to help them achieve their objective of raising as much money as possible for their chosen charity Refugee Support Network.
All the young people and mentors involved had great things to say and really enjoyed and learned a lot on the programme.
"Working with young people in the local community is hugely rewarding. Working with Envision gives me the opportunity to pass on knowledge and give young people an insight into the world of work. To think I can make a difference to young people’s lives and help them shape their future is incredible."
-Tasha Fry, NFP
The outcomes
Throughout the course of the programme, the young people’s confidence and skills developed well. The young people were able to increase their confidence to present their pitch for their chosen charity in a quiz-style format, in front of a large audience from NFP.
The Charity Challenge was extremely successful and the young people from Ark Victoria evidenced their newly developed skills in a brilliant interactive quiz and persuasive presentation about their chosen charity, the Refugee Support Network. The young people received an award for teamwork due to the improvement they showed in their collaborative working skills as well as being crowned winners of the overall competition.
The mentors at NFP also won the award for Mentor Team of the Year for supporting the young people to develop their skills so well and working hard to help the young people achieve their goals in the programme.
“Many of us, before participating in the envision sessions, were very frightened to speak up, to volunteer or they just weren't confident enough in their communication skills. However, as time passed, I'm sure that both our teachers and charity hosts have witnessed our major development in our teamwork, communication skills and in our character.”
- The young people, Ark Victoria Academy