WeMindTheGap today announced that it has received £1.1million of National Lottery funding from, The National Lottery Community Fund (formerly Big Lottery), to increase opportunities for women in Wales and the North West.
The charity, which has been running since 2014, this month launched in Manchester.
It has previously run successful traineeships for young women in Wrexham, Flintshire and Liverpool. The charity receives the backing of the Manchester City Council.
This grant, from the largest funder of community activity in the UK, means that the charity can now grow its core team to set up 16 traineeships in different communities across the country, with one now in Manchester.
By 2023, the charity will provide six months’ employment for 160 trainees in 16 different communities, sustain continued support for over 450 graduate trainees as they make their way in the world, work with over 140 local employers and 100 sessional workers and coaches, and create an additional 40 jobs.
WeMindTheGap Founder and Chair, Rachel Clacher, is a high-profile businesswoman and is co-founder of award-winning outsourced communications company Moneypenny.
We saw a real need to address social mobility in our community, and we applied the same ethos that Moneypenny was founded on, to focus on helping young people in need,” said Rachel.
“We strongly believe in doing the right thing, treating people well and providing ongoing support. This is not about ticking boxes, it’s about business and communities, and helping young women who are operating within a system that often doesn’t communicate. We haveproven that public and private partnerships work, and more importantly that under-served young people can achieve real careers and real choices if they have access to the right opportunities. This grant allows us to have the resources to bring those opportunities to so many more young people, and we can’t wait to see what they achieve. We thank National Lottery players wholeheartedly for making this possible.”
Joe Ferns, UK Funding Director at the National Lottery Community Fund said: “We’re proud that National Lottery funding is helping more young women thrive in their local communities by expanding this successful project. Through coaching and mentoring, WeMindTheGap empowers womento gain the skills they need to gain confidence and full time employment.”
The charity is working in partnership with Manchester City Council to bring its innovative, proven and holistic model of ‘traineeship” to local care leavers. A WeMindTheGaptraineeship sees young women undertake paid work experience in a variety of employment sectors, as well as being given new experiences, life coaching, support and mentoring.
The charity model is a six-month paid traineeship, followed by a further six months of support, as former trainees use their new skills to gain employment, education and a better life in general. The charity aims to help underprivileged young women transition from “prisoners of circumstance” to “pilots of their own lives”. Each trainee has their own coach, mentor, Auntie and Big Sister, to provide guidance and care.
Ten young women referred from care facilities across Manchester started their traineeship on February 4th. They were thrown in the deep end – literally – with a week’s outward-bound activities in Aberdovey. From there, they attend a week of “getting ready for work”, learning the all-important unwritten rules of employment and the workplace. By week four, the trainees will be ready to join their first work placement.
WeMindTheGap is currently working with selected local Manchester businesses including Kids Allowed, CundellGroup and Manchester City Council, to offer trainees experience within a range of environments, industries and skill sets.
The employment placements are designed to allow the trainees to find their talents and skills and gain confidence in a supportive environment.
In return, they enable Employer Partners to make tangible progress towards their social mobility goals, and to give their own employees mentoring experience and the opportunity to give back, which is proven to contribute to employee engagement scores.
“It’s such a pleasure to be a real part of the trainees‘ lives and to see them making huge changes,“ said Molly Macauley, Manchester Big Sister, “ I get to walk alongside them and watch as they become great employees and gain the skills to lead independent lives. One of our trainees recently told me:‘I now have a reason to get out of bed in the morning.’”
