The Community Apprentice

We believe every young person should be given the opportunity to succeed regardless of their background or where they were brought up. We set up Community-Apprentice as an extra-curricular or enrichment activity in schools to give young people from some of the most disadvantaged areas this opportunity. Each school is partnered with a local company which provides volunteer mentors. Through a mixture of weekly coaching sessions (provided by Envision staff supported by volunteers), workshops and cross-city events, young people are supported to identify an issue they care passionately about, come up with a way to help and make it happen. Our Community-Apprentices (typically aged 15-17) are given genuine responsibility. They decide the issue they'd like to tackle, and how they want to go about it. Three exciting cross-school challenges provide milestones throughout the ten-month process to keep teams motivated and on track: The Film Challenge requires pupils to work as a team to communicate why the issue they have chosen matters. They must do it in under two minutes in a single take. Submissions can be viewed here. -> The Pitch Challenge requires them to prepare a project plan and pitch to a panel of judges made up of senior representatives drawn from local companies and government in a bid to win funding. -> The Boardroom Challenge takes places after teams have finished their projects. It requires teams to present the difference they have made and their coaches to evidence the competencies they have developed. To help prepare students for this challenge, reflection is embedded in the programme. Your support will enable us to continue our work in even more schools and make a real difference to the lives of thousands of young people.