Bristol City Leap pledges £35,000 to local youth organisation
Bristol City Leap will support local charity Grassroot Communities with more than £35,000 of funding over the next five years.
The money will help increase access to science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) training and careers for disadvantaged communities and encourage more people to take up careers in the local green economy.
Bristol City Leap’s funding will pay for one young person a year to take part in the Grassroot Activators Programme (GAP). GAP provides people with the tools and opportunities to reach their full potential in education and employment through a yearlong programme delivered over two days a week. This includes providing advice and help with interview techniques, CVs and job or university applications.
In addition, members of the Bristol City Leap team will provide mentoring and coaching to those already engaged in the GAP scheme to demonstrate opportunities in the decarbonised economy and broader STEM fields.
Bristol City Leap will work with founder and project lead Ben Carpenter, who is the inspiration and driving force behind Grassroot Communities.
He said: “The GAP initiative is based on five years of talking to young and older people in communities across the city about what young people want and need. We are now coming to the end of the GAP pilot year 2022/23 and in short the programme model has been proven to work. We are much appreciative to Bristol City Leap committing to sponsor a young person onto every year of GAP for the next five years. The ripple effect on the individual young people and their wider communities will be huge.
“We strongly believe that when young people fall (back) in love with nature and directly feel the impact on their own wellbeing and witness it on others they are more likely to look after it. This directly links with term 5 of GAP and we are proud to be working in partnership with Bristol City Leap and hope that future GAP participants who have a passion towards the environment will directly become part of the journey towards decarbonising the city and planet.
“If you are a business or an individual who would like to support young people to be the changes they want to see, please get in touch to explore this opportunity further.”
