The thoughts and time of unemployed young people in Birmingham, and professionals who can spare a few hours to help them develop skills, are being sought after by national volunterring charity Timebank. The charity has launched a new volunteer mentoring project in the city to support 18-25 year olds who are seeking employment as part of Birmingham City Council’s Destination Work programme. Engage Birmingham will provide the young people with basic business skills and they’ll have chance to put them into action by delivering their own community project.
They may want to develop a project to promote healthy eating; run a local soup kitchen; create a social media campaign; make a YouTube video with a community message; raise funds for a local cause or write and produce a music video for example.
Mentors will use their skills and experience to support the young people to overcome the issues they face and the barriers associated with not being in education, employment or training. The project will provide access to a small budget, equipment, training, and local experts.
Through the programme they will have the opportunity to develop new skills in project planning, budget management, communications and marketing which will make them more employable or more able to set up their own enterprise in future.
Rachel Harding, who is the project co-ordinator for Engage at TimeBank says: “Birmingham has one of the highest levels of youth unemployment in the country. It’s vital that we support these young people into education and employment, and I’m delighted that we are launching Engage here.”
She added: “Volunteer mentors don’t need any previous experience – time, patience and commitment are most important.”
TimeBank has already run successful Engage projects in London, Sunderland and Merthyr Tydfil where young people delivered exciting projects, from children’s sports activities to a clothes-swap, that inspired them to return to education or start their own small businesses.
