Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, attainment among London’s most disadvantaged 16 year olds lagged an average of 12 months behind their more advantaged peers. Sadly it’s likely that this education achievement gap has grown even wider. Your help is needed now more than ever.
With your support, we can recruit more young people to volunteer in more schools, to reach more children who desperately need help to catch up and keep up. And, we can give our inspirational volunteers opportunities and skills that will help them in an increasingly difficult labour market.
Our partners can see the double benefit of joining City Year London - they are funding children to succeed at school, while developing a future talent pool of diverse young people. And whether it's offering their skills through workshops and Q&A sessions, sharing their networks or giving their time as corporate mentors (AKA Bridge Builders) to our City Year Mentors, they tell us it's rewarding for them too.
“The need for City Year London is more prevalent than ever. Children need to learn how to learn again. Young people need to have opportunities to develop their skills, challenge themselves and gain experience. We’re doing both at the same time.”
Zipporah Kissi City Year alum and ex-Programme Manager
A volunteer from DHL, talks about their experience as a ‘Bridge Builder’; a corporate mentor to a City Year London volunteer.
“I have found being a bridge builder challenging, interesting but most importantly rewarding. It is great being able to support a young person develop their skills, learn about themselves and coach them through difficult situations. I support my mentee through video calls where we work our way through an action plan formed in our first meeting. During these calls we have looked through interview / assessment centre material, job applications online and CV editing to name a few. My mentee has put a lot of effort and thought into our meetings together; I look forward to seeing her progression continue for the rest of the year.
“I think City Year is great at supporting young people throughout their time volunteering in a school and preparing them for working life. As a Bridge Builder they provide us with supportive material to help structure meetings and are always there if we need support. The volunteers I have had the pleasure to work with so far have all been open to the experience and keen to make our time worthwhile.”
Partners in social change
Read about the many different ways the Credit Suisse EMEA Foundation has partnered with us - to tackle educational inequality and skill-up young people for their future career.
