{"id":1079,"date":"2024-10-01T07:47:25","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T07:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/promomag.co.uk\/mentoring-excellence-praised-by-grassroots-charity\/"},"modified":"2024-10-01T07:47:25","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T07:47:25","slug":"mentoring-excellence-praised-by-grassroots-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/promomag.co.uk\/mentoring-excellence-praised-by-grassroots-charity\/","title":{"rendered":"Mentoring excellence praised by grassroots charity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressat.co.uk\/media\/uploads\/3b0bcb389e53645ce1727766506c27f6.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"description\">\n<h2>A Message from our CEO &amp; Founder, Leila Thomas<\/h2>\n<p>How do you begin to say thank you to a company and the individuals inside of it &#8211; who live and breathe its values &#8211; when they\u2019ve changed 11 young lives, helped communities, and invested some two to three years of their time?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not easy. Across many months, the professionals at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtwco.com\/en-gb\" rel=\"nofollow\">WTW<\/a>, the British-American multinational insurer, worked tirelessly with our charity to prepare young people for the world of work through the <a href=\"https:\/\/careers.wtwco.com\/2023\/12\/30\/dreambigwtw-blog-post\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">DreamBig@WTW programme<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There are no words to describe the appreciation, gratitude and thanks we extend to Cheree Psalms, Nikki Hall-Jones (USA), Deena Patel (UK) and Dorothy Wilkes (USA), Chiedu Hing (UK) and sponsors: Garrett Gaughan, and Alastair Swift (UK) &#8211; and all the colleagues at WTW who shared their time and expertise to change the world for the better.<\/p>\n<p>At our end, Urban Synergy\u2019s Dianne Johnson &amp; Safiya Chiappa-Forrester saw WTW\u2019s passion and \u2018leaned into it\u2019 to co-create this groundbreaking DreamBig@WTW programme.<\/p>\n<p>It all started in 2022, when WTW wanted to bring more diversity into their workforce at entry level.<\/p>\n<p>Cheree, Dorothy and Nikki were passionate about the programme as they recalled being given opportunities as teenagers in their background to help them to succeed for the future.<\/p>\n<h2>What is DreamBig@WTW?<\/h2>\n<p>DreamBig@WTW is a two-year programme designed to nurture the talents of young individuals facing socio economic challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Through focused mentorship, hands-on experience, and a spirit of giving back, WTW\u2019s programme is specially crafted for young people aged 15-18, supporting them through crucial life transition stages.<\/p>\n<p>The programme offers skills-based training in WTW&#8217;s key business segments: People, Risk, and Capital.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative supports individuals from marginalised communities to develop business and life skills. They go into the WTW offices in London, but also get out in nature to volunteer.<\/p>\n<h2>Mentoring excellence: How does it work?<\/h2>\n<p>Before signing up parents\/guardians and the young people are invited to an online call to learn more about the 2 year programme which includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>An accelerated mentoring programme<\/strong> with Urban Synergy where a corporate mentor works with them on their CV, Mock interview and presentation skills.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Joining the WTW mentoring programme<\/strong> with a WTW mentor (senior executives) and attending a monthly personal development workshop onsite at WTW\u2019s city office.\n<ul>\n<li>Together the young people work on: communication, organisation, time management and presentation skills, team-building, work etiquette and learn about different business functions at WTW.<\/li>\n<li>Parents\/guardians of the selected students are invited to the launch of the DreamBig@WTW programme at the WTW city office.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>A paid four-week internship<\/strong> at WTW\u2019s London office each year of the programme.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Giving back<\/strong> &#8211; take part in a volunteering activity each quarter in the first year and once in the second year.\n<ul>\n<li>Volunteering took place in food banks in London\u2019s Lewisham and Southwark with environmental park activities in Dulwich Park, Lewisham and Burgess Park in Southwark.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why is it different?<\/h2>\n<p>It&#8217;s all about unlocking potential in problem-solving, data analytics, and communication. The focus is squarely on mentorship, experience and giving back.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In addition to nurturing future entrepreneurs and leaders, our goal is to strengthen community wellbeing and foster a diverse, local workforce,&#8221; say WTW\u2019s Co-Heads of DreamBig@WTW, Cheree Psalms and Dorothy Wilkes.<\/p>\n<p>As well as providing mentoring excellence, it\u2019s also a lot of fun for the DreamBig@WTW participants and WTW colleagues.<\/p>\n<h2>How were young people selected for the programme?<\/h2>\n<p>The participants mainly came through schools with higher-than-average rates of free school meals in South and East London, including Addey &amp; Stanhope School, Harris Academy Bermondsey, and Prendergast Girls\u2019 School. One young person was home schooled.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>The programme culminated this month in a presentation to WTW where the young people had worked in teams to research the best ways for the company to deploy AI.<\/p>\n<p>They say that the DreamBig@WTW programme had helped them become less shy, more confident, able to work anywhere with no limitations \u201cIt literally changed my life\u201d says one participant.<\/p>\n<p>Cheree Psalms who leads DreamBig@WTW with Dorothy Wilkes agreed and added \u201cYou know they say, \u201cit takes a village\u201d, well it also takes a lot of hard work. Urban Synergy, the young people and especially my colleagues across WTW worked tirelessly on top of the demands of their day-to-day roles to make this programme a resounding success.\u201d<br \/>I am struggling to find a way for Urban Synergy to say thank you to WTW for creating this opportunity and investing in diversity.<\/p>\n<p>The footprint you leave on the world and the hearts and minds of these young people and those who participate in future DreamBig@WTW programmes will stay with them always. Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>Leila Thomas, CEO &amp; Founder, Urban Synergy<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/pressat.co.uk\/releases\/mentoring-excellence-praised-by-grassroots-charity-c0ef55e9b841043f5fb5e7ba411f8573\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Message from our CEO &amp; Founder, Leila Thomas How do you begin to say thank you to a company and the individuals inside of it &#8211; who live and breathe its values &#8211; when they\u2019ve changed 11 young lives, helped communities, and invested some two to three years of their time? It\u2019s not easy&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,109,959,4,3139,3137,3138],"class_list":["post-1079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-finance","tag-business","tag-charity","tag-excellence","tag-finance","tag-grassroots","tag-mentoring","tag-praised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/promomag.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/promomag.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/promomag.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promomag.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promomag.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/promomag.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promomag.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/promomag.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promomag.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promomag.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}