Bristol-based youth empowerment organisation, Babbasa has been awarded funding by the National Lottery to continue the ‘vital work’ that they do in inner-city Bristol.
The funding has been allocated for one of their three core support programmes – the Challenge Programme – over the next three years.
The flagship programme gives disadvantaged young people a chance to network, receive training, work experience, and mentoring so that they can not only become work-ready, but stand-out job candidates.
With this new funding, the organisation will be looking to double their intake for intensive support from around 30 young people a year, to 60 a year.
The National Lottery award comes from their £190 million Reaching Communities Fund – given to organisations which they believe “enable communities to thrive”.
Babbasa CEO, Poku Osei said: “As a grassroots social enterprise, this National Lottery award does not only provide us with the resource needed for our Challenge Programme, it also provides the much-needed validation of our model for other institutional funders and investors to take our investment needs seriously. It opens new doors for Babbasa.”
What is the Challenge Programme?
The Challenge Programme creates a pathway into professional employment, education, or enterprise for aspirational young people from predominantly ethnic minority backgrounds, who are not in education, employment or training, or are at risk of becoming so.
Youth Ambassadors organised our Ask About Me networking event this April
These young people are selected to become our Youth Ambassadors, based on their positive attitude and willingness to learn and work in a team.
They then receive skills training at Babbasa, and are tasked with a real-life challenge to apply the knowledge and skills they have gained.
With the support of our staff, they work as a team to plan and deliver social action project to gain further experience of work.
The Youth Ambassadors also get access to volunteer professional mentors from a range of sectors, who help them to develop into strong candidates for future roles.
Tom McCulloch, Regional Head of Funding for the South West at The National Lottery Community Fund, said:
“Thanks to National Lottery players, we’re able to support fantastic organisations like Babbasa to continue the vital work they’re doing and help more young people overcome barriers to employment in the city.”
Babbasa is currently recruiting new young people for it’s Challenge Programme until July 17th. Any young person who is interested in becoming a Youth Ambassador can sign up to our briefing via Babbasa’s Eventbrite page.