During summer 2014, Urban Synergy held it’s Annual General Meeting at Thomson Reuters, Canary Wharf. Founder Leila Thomas shared our success stories from the past year including a number of Role Model and Academic Seminars at Lewisham Schools and our award winning one-to-one mentoring programme. In addition, we also heard about a 2 month pilot programme at Addey & Stanhope school to help students focus and prepare for their GCSE exams with help of our mentors. This successfully improved grades by 30% including core subjects of Maths and English for the majority of students involved. Our thanks to PA Consulting for sponsoring this project.
We also held a number of Fundraising events throughout the year including a Sky Dive which raised over £8,000. For our charities work, Urban Synergy was awarded European Diversity Award Community Project of the Year.
During the summer months we also ran a number of Life Skill enrichment events for mentees, arranged a number of internships and a Career Jumpstart programme in conjunction with the Lewisham Young Mayor’s Office. This gave many young people in Lewisham the chance to shine in work experience placements throughout the summer.
We also heard from a number of people about how Urban Synergy’s mentoring and inspirational seminars have reached so many young people – raised aspirations, broadened career horizons and motivated and improved academic focus:
- Courtenay Griffith QC, Urban Synergy Chair of Trustees spoke about the need for the community to be actively involved in mentoring young people.
- Denise Hillman, Deputy Head of Conisborough College talked about how the Role Model seminars raised the aspirations of students at the college.
- Anthony Graham of Amosu Robinshaw Solicitors talked about his experience of mentoring a young person and being a Role Model at seminars.
- Young Ambassadors Kofi, Audrey and Chad talked about their journey with Urban Synergy and how they are now attending university and they are role models to the younger generation.
Thank you to all who support Urban Synergy and look forward to continually working with you to help more young people in need reach their full potential.
