Businesswoman honoured for charity work at Buckingham Palace
The founder of a charity which helps unemployed young people get into the world of work has been honoured for her efforts at Buckingham Palace.
Businesswoman Rachel Clacher, who founded outsourced secretarial firm Moneypenny with her brother Ed Reeves, has collected a CBE from Prince Charles at the palace.
Twenty years ago, Rachel co-founded Moneypenny with her brother.
The firm has since grown to be the world’s lead provider in telephone answering, outsourced switchboard and live chat technology, with a dedicated team of over 750 employees across the UK and US.
Based around the same values and pronciples as Moneypenny Rachel established social mobility charity WeMindTheGap in 2014.
The charity works with young people and offers a totally holistic twelve-month programme.
The scheme is aimed at young people aged 18–25.
From running programmes in Moneypenny’s home town of Wrexham the charity has expanded to run similar schemes in Manchester, Liverpool and Flintshire.
By 2024, with the support of the National Lottery Community Fund, the charity will have expanded across the whole of North Wales and the North West, will directly employ 160 young people and have over 450 graduates in full time work or education.
Rachel said: “I am truly honoured to be receiving this CBE, and see it very much as recognition of the hard work, commitment and ambition of our amazing people at Moneypenny and WeMindTheGap.
“We all share a belief in treating other people as we would want to be treated ourselves, and that has resulted in us, as important and caring teams, making a huge impact in our clients’ and employees’ lives as well as the lives of under-served young people in our communities.”
WeMindTheGap, formerly known as the Moneypenny Foundation, directly addresses and challenges social mobility in the communities of Wrexham, Manchester and Flintshire.
The charity gives new opportunities in life and work to under-served young people by providing a holistic 12-month programme, made up of six-months of paid employment, five varied work placements, one-to-one life coaching sessions, new experiences and essential skills.
The six month’s employment is then followed by six-months of continued support, focusing on wellbeing, confidence and self-esteem to help develop and achieve their goals.
Over 70 per cent of WeMindTheGap participants have gone on to full time move work or education.
