Get Involved

Once you’ve filled in your Expression of Interest form, you’ll get an email with some further information about being an Ambassador, plus an invite to our next induction (currently these are all held virtually), where you can hear about your role and opportunities in more depth and ask any questions about your preferred challenges.

We will set up an Ambassador WhatsApp broadcast list, which we will use to highlight forthcoming challenges that are dependent on Babbasa staff input, eg mentoring and learning experience and workshop opportunities.

We’ll also hold an Ambassador mingle twice a year: we’ll have a mid-year mingle after your mid-year review, and an additional end of year mingle after your end-of-year review.

Beyond that, you can get involved in our larger events, and use that as an opportunity to meet up with other Ambassadors and see what our young people have been working on. You can also follow and share content on our social media.

We will also send you email updates, so you can find out how our campaigns are progressing internally, and how your work is contributing to our success.

 We will typically provide you with our details on a branded letterhead for you to use for a transfer if you want to make a one-off financial donation. You can also use our LocalGiving page to make a one-off donation or even set up an ongoing monthly donation to help our work with supporting young people. Either way if you choose to make a donation towards our work to support young people, your designated Babbasa contact will guide you through the process.

We will talk you through the challenges at the induction; some will have more support from our team than others. After your induction, you will have a designated point of contact, in case you have any further questions or concerns. 

More specific guidance on support for each challenge is as follows:

Fundraising

We will send you some ideas on how you could fundraise, along with some tips on how to make the most out of your challenge.

Once you have decided on what you want to do for your fundraising challenge, we’ll also set you up an appeal on our Local Giving page and we will promote what you’re doing on our social media platforms.

Donations

We will send you our details for donations on a headed letter.

Young people referrals 

You can send any referrals of young people to our Engagement Lead, Pravanya at engagement@byep.org.uk. 

Mentoring

Our Challenge Programme Lead, Zoe oversees the Mentoring Programme and will take mentors through a separate induction.

Learning Experiences aka workshops aka Lifeshops

At your induction, we will talk you through some of the Lifeshops (aka workshops) that we already hold, to give you an idea of where you could potentially offer support to young people. After this, you will be able to arrange a time for your learning experience with your primary contact.

We always welcome ideas for potential new learning experiences, but please note that any new workshops would need to fit into the existing calendar. .

Introducing new supporters

You can pass on all new potential supporters – professionals or businesses – to Urfan at urfan.ali@byep.org.uk  

As soon as you’ve had your induction, you are welcome to start making progress on your challenges.

If you have signed up for the Mentoring Programme, or are looking to get involved in a learning experience, your details will be passed onto our Engagement Team, and they will be in touch with you with further information.

We will try our very best to make sure that you are able to do all of your preferred challenges, however, this isn’t always guaranteed.

Some challenges, such as donations, referrals, and fundraising, can definitely be guaranteed, as they are primarily done in your own time, and require minimal direct support from Babbasa.

In the case of work that’s done directly with young people, and which requires heavy staff involvement, such as workshops and mentoring, services are provided on a needs-first basis.

This means that we prioritise workshops and mentoring matches which are of the most benefit to our young people, and which respond to an immediate set of needs.

Workshops – The workshops are likely to be once a month (but will likely increase down the line)

Occasionally we will consider a bespoke workshop in line with the skills and experience of the Ambassador. However, setting up a dedicated workshop will normally attract additional costs.

Involvement in workshops will typically revolve around work pre-placements which support young people to develop their soft skills and improve their CVs and cover letters ahead of an application, interview, or placement.

Mentoring – We have young people on our mentoring list with a variety of different interests and aspirations, so we are often able to make a match with a professional. However, this does not always happen right away, and the speed of finding a suitable young person will vary depending on the industry and characteristics of the professional. We try to make sure that these are both similar to those of the young person before making a match.

Mentoring and delivering a learning experience are the only two challenges which you would be unable to take part in right away.

Mentoring – If you don’t get a mentoring match right away, we recommend that you stay on our mentoring list.

Our Engagement Team will see the skills on offer from you and will regularly check to see if there is a good match for you as we engage with new young people.

If you are happy to be added to the WhatsApp platform and newsletter, you will pick up other opportunities to support young people. 

In the meantime, you are welcome to attend one of our pre-placement sessions to understand the existing engagement we have with young people, and to get a feel for the questions that young people typically ask.

Learning Experience – Our pre-placement sessions run on a rolling monthly basis, and are likely to increase in frequency in the future.

This means that throughout the year, there will be multiple opportunities for you to potentially support young people at one of our workshops.

There will also be more ad hoc opportunities to get involved in virtual workshops and share your knowledge; these will be shared via WhatsApp and in our newsletter.

We will check in at two different stages after your induction to see how you’re progressing.

There will be bi-annual and end of year reviews. This is very much a two-way process and is designed to get a feel for how you managed during your time as an Ambassador, if there’s anything else you need from us, and also what could be improved. We’re strong believers in continuously iterating and refining the way we work.