We set up our annual awards back in 2019 to celebrate the impact and acknowledge the effort our partners and mentors have made during the year in offering invaluable support, and fulfilling and sustainable employment to care-experienced young people across London.
For our 4th Partner Appreciation event, it was a tough decision when it came to deciding on a single winner.
So, we didn’t.
#PartnerAppreciation
When employers join Drive Forward as partners, they not only join a passionate community committed to supporting care-experienced young people into sustainable work but gain access to exclusive networking & learning opportunities, like our Partner Breakfasts.
See how our final Partner Breakfast of the year went!
After 3 successful years, our Breakthrough programme is almost complete. With just the graduation left to go, we were delighted to organise a special residential with Brathay, up in the beautiful Lake District for our care-experienced young people.
For many young people – and in fact many of us – the prospect of dressing up smartly and stepping into a room with professionals, is uncomfortable at best and anxiety inducing at worst.
Eager to help young people take the edge off networking, our partners at BIE Executive designed an innovative and unique event. Network & Nourish aims at demystifying the world of networking and exposing the person behind the job title, they brought a variety of business leaders, high-level professionals, and young people together.
Drive Forward is calling on the Government to take urgent action to tackle the unacceptably high levels of mental health disorders among young people leaving the care system.
In a submission to the Government’s Independent Review into Children’s Social Care, we are calling for there to be at least one NHS-funded mental health practitioner in every local authority in England to provide bespoke support to care leavers.
2021 marks the 40th anniversary of the world-famous London Marathon and for the first time in Drive Forward’s history there will be a participant bearing our logo!
Andy Hearne, who works with our partners at The Crown Estate, has taken up the challenge of running the 26.219 miles around the River Thames on 3 October this year. Wanting to find out more about Andy’s motivations, his training, and why he believes that supporting care-experienced young people into fulfilling careers, we’ve asked him some questions.
As I sit at home and look at my laptop at a time, I was supposed to be hosting a big in-person event with lots of hugs, good food and drink, dedicated to our partners, I’m greeted with 40 different smiling faces that represents the work we have done over the past 3 years. It represents the support provided and the dedication to the remarkable partners we work with. This year has been tough, but together we all got through it and I feel so proud to work with everyone.
In the future, 2020 will not only be the year a global pandemic hit our planet, but it will also be known as the ‘year of cancellations’. Causing much disappointment in each Londoner, the Notting Hill Carnival was no exception.
So, in order to not miss out on the colourful celebrations of Art, Cuisine, Fashion and Music, we decided to run our own Covid-responsible Carnival at Drive Forward. The underlying idea was to highlight each of these four aspects of culture for the young people and staff to learn about and enjoy together.
The last few months have been an interesting time for us all. We have all had to deal with change in some shape or form. For the young people on the Breakthrough programme, this has also been their experience but amplified due to their circumstances.
As we reflect on the uncertainties we have faced as adults during the coronavirus hysteria of 2020, we can only begin to imagine what it must have been like for a child of the state to grow up during this historical time.
Partnerships with employers have always been a core part of the Drive Forward model, enabling us to provide opportunities to young adults leaving the care system which, without the usual support networks, they would otherwise not have access to. At the beginning of lockdown, as our partners postponed work placements, business prospects retreated and we heard countless reports of the impact on youth unemployment, we worried about what the future of these partnerships might hold.
We’re here to make a difference in the lives of young care leavers. Wherever they’re coming from, we’re on a mission to help open doors and give them the skills, confidence and inspiration to make some momentum and realise their full potential.
