A year of success, learning and change.
Leicestershire Cares ended 2022 in a very positive way. Throughout the year our creative and agile, business, community and public sector partnership approach had delivered a wide range of projects that had seen us:
- Provide employability support to over 10,000 young people in schools across the city and county.
- Support over 200 young people from disadvantaged backgrounds , to develop the soft and hard skills that enable them to live, safe, happy, productive, and rewarding lives.
- Partner with 50 community groups, to delivered vital support in the form of food parcels and #BagsOfHope to thousands of families and young people across the city and county. We also enabled business volunteers to strengthen the capacity of these partners through skills sharing and team challenge support on practical projects such as decorating and restoration.
- Develop new partnerships between schools, business and community sector so all were better able to understand and respond to the needs of SEND young people.
- Continue to support young people from a diverse range of backgrounds sharing their lived experiences and voices with a wide range of local and national decision makers.
- Establish a community partners #PowerTo Change network which has become a forum for sharing, learning, and representing the sector to both local and national decision makers.
- Partner with various arts organisation to provide creative opportunities for young people to express themselves and develop new skills.
- Continue to win a wide range of awards for the work we do with young people, schools, community, and business.
- Mobilise and connect hundreds of business volunteers with young people, schools, and community groups across the city and county.
- Continue to reflect and learn from our practice, so we could adapt to the ever changing complex environment in which we operate and improve our ability to deliver effective partnership work, outcomes, and impact.
Sadly, as we enter 2023, it does look like, that for many people, who are already vulnerable, isolated, and living in poverty life is going to get harder. A combination of soaring prices, especially on heating and food, and continuing cuts to vital services and local provision, means many will suffer and more people will be pushed into poverty. We also know that many of our business partners, are facing challenges due to economic uncertainty, rising prices, supply chain and recruitment challenges.
So, it is more vital than ever that we do all seek to work together, to pool our talent and resources so we can identify and overcome local issues and challenges and provide a supportive hand up to those who are in danger of falling down. In doing so we can turn despair in to hope and hope into action that improves the life chances and opportunities for young people, families and communities across our city and county, as well as strengthening the business sector. Of course, this will not be easy and there will be many challenges, but we have many collective strengths to build on and if we are creative, agile, and open to learning, without ego, silo, or logo, we really can make our city and county a better place for all.
#TogetherWeCan
Kieran Breen
CEO Leicestershire Cares
To Read More A year of success, learning and change: January 2023 Newsletter (mailchi.mp)