A First Year of Success Stories

Hope for the Young was set up with the aim of supporting young asylum seekers and refugees. We started as a handful of people who could relate to the struggles of being alone in a new country. The charity has now taken on a life of its own: We have a solid and dedicated team with a clear vision for helping young people. It brings me great delight to see that those we have helped are now in a position to give help to others. Dr Kami Saedi, Hope For The Young founder

Our Mentoring Project was launched in March 2016 with the aim of supporting 25 young people in one-to-one mentoring. In our first year we have recruited 35 volunteers and have matched 26 young people with a trained mentor! Many of our mentees who had not previously studied in the UK were successfully supported back into education by their mentor. We also received many referrals to our Education Fund and successfully allocated funds to 25 young people who otherwise would have been unable to access education. We are already leaping into the Mentoring Project’s second year, by starting to pair experienced and enthusiastic mentors with two young people, as well as welcoming many inspiring young people on our journey.

Looking back over the last year, we are extremely proud to note the impact of our Mentoring Project and celebrate our mentees’ numerous success stories! Over this first project year, as well as many young people attending college for the first time, others have successfully embarked upon their first work or volunteer experiences in London. Young people have completed applications to medical school, started courses in carpentry, and gotten accepted onto their dream course in mechanical engineering – and all of this thanks to the dedicated support and guidance of their mentors!

Accessing Education in the UK

I am proud to be a major donor to a charity which provides educational support to vulnerable young people for whom such support is having a lifelong impact. Keep up the good work! Major donor and supporter

Hope for the Young’s Education Fund is designed to directly assist those who struggle to access education through financial support and advocacy, providing grants and living allowances to young people who have no access to government funds. The majority of young people who come to the UK seeking refuge face overwhelming barriers to enrolling in higher education. According to grant recipient Mars, an undergraduate in aviation engineering and pilot studies, “Hope For The Young is a charity that clearly does what it says: it brings hope to young people!”

Thanks to his grant from the Education Fund, Mars was able to fully fund the flying hours necessary to obtain his pilots license and complete the first year of his course! Living on his own in the UK and without access to financial support, Mars said he would have been unable to complete his lessons at the Flying Academy without the essential support of Hope For The Young. As Mars says: “The grant has been a massive help and motivation to continue my studies!”

Ali

I faced a lot of challenges, I crossed a lot of borders of different countries. I was feeling the vibrating of the earth because of the windy weather no blanket or walls to protect me.

Ali, age 19, from Sudan, chats with his mentor Amy, an actor and volunteer with Hope for the Young, about how he left his country and how he arrived at Hope for the Young. “It was a very hard, tiring and long journey to come to this country. There was a time where I felt all the world was against me.” Now in the UK, Ali says his biggest challenges are being alone, the language barrier, and learning to depend on himself. Ali has been meeting with Amy for the past nine months, after being referred to Hope for the Young by another organization who thought he could use personalized support in advancing his ESOL skills and preparing himself for higher education. After nine months of meeting with his mentor, his hopes for the future are to improve his self-confidence and independent judgement and strengthen his study skills.

“I look back to before I started seeing my mentor and realise that the time with my mentor is so important in my development. She taught me how to have confidence – much more than I thought I could’

 

Thank you for your time, thank for your patience, thank you for helping me with my homework and thank you for not embarrassing me about my English and for explaining things until I understand. Thank you for making me do my best and thank you for being helpful. You have changed my whole outlook on my learning. I wouldn’t be where I am without you.

Matt Blacker

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