Project Update: The Baytree Centre are sparking brighter futures!
Yas Comez
7 March 2023
We are thrilled to present another update on one of the brilliant projects we are supporting! This time, it’s from the Baytree’s Sparking Futures Employability Hub for girls aged 14-20 in South London. We awarded a grant at the start of 2022 to help the Baytree Centre establish a new employability hub and the project has now been running for a year.
Over that time, 90 girls have benefitted from the hub and taken part in 580 hours of development training. The original target was to help 60 girls and young women, which has been overachieved by 50%!
Due to the funding provided by the EA Foundation, a unique programme has been developed that supports the girls and young women in six key areas:
- Skills
- Exposure and networking
- Routes to employment
- Practical support
- Rights and civic responsibility
- Financial literacy
The programme is delivered through various elements of provision. These include weekly personal development sessions, monthly employability workshops, 1-to-1 mentoring with career champions, work experience bootcamps and career insight days, and opportunities to volunteer within their communities. Below, are some of the recent highlights from the project so far: To celebrate Black History Month, a career panel was hosted where the girls were joined by five successful black women from different sectors spoke to discuss their career journeys. The women were April Jackson, Sareeta Domingo, Lily Naadu Mensah, Antoinette Yetunde Oni and Temi Adedoyin.
A career fest was attended with the main focus being hospitality – enabling girls to practice a variety of skills such as mocktail making and serving customers in a high-pressured environment. The girls took part in a workshop collaboration with the WOW Foundation (Women of the World). This provided the girls with the opportunity to learn about different creative careers and how to become a creative freelancer. 21 girls have benefitted from 1-to-1 career guidance, alongside bespoke practical support to write a CV or apply for jobs through the career champions programme that’s offered. There is a Youth Council made up of 14 active and engaged councillors who meet twice a month on a Friday and are involved in the planning & decision-making process across the service. This is inclusive of the 2 new peer mentors and the 1 youth support worker that Baytree has hired from the group of girls themselves!
An exciting 7-week financial literacy programme has just been launched! This means that 18 girls will gain both the skills and knowledge to manage their money and work towards building their personal capital.
These are just some of the many wonderful activities that are being carried out at the Baytree’s Sparking Futures Employability Hub! The project has also involved developing strong relationships with various partner organisations, 12 of which have already helped deliver employability opportunities with more planned in the coming months.
The Baytree Centre has been monitoring the results of this project and a strong majority of participants report having improved understanding of career opportunities and how to pursue them as well as improved workplace skills. Two-thirds also indicated they have met people who provide them advice or support to secure a job through the project. The project is delivering lasting benefits in the shape of better employment opportunities.
Given these successes, we are also extremely pleased to announce that we have agreed to provide a further £10,000 of funding to continue the project beyond the initial year, providing even more girls and young women with targeted employability and personal development opportunities. The Baytree Centre will also use this time to ensure the Sparking Futures Employability Hub is on a financially sustainable footing for the long term.
