THE LIGHTHOUSE LONDON COMMUNITY TRUST
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Mission Statement
Camden Spear Trust's mission is to tackle the issues that undermine young people’s potential to succeed. The Trust equips the most disadvantaged young people aged 16-24 in Camden and surrounding boroughs who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and opportunities to secure employment and to rebuild their lives.
About This Cause
Spear Foundation is the initial six week work readiness course that gets young people into employment through intensive coaching sessions from 2-5pm, 4 days a week. Young people gain both hard skills (e.g. CV and cover letter writing, interview training, customer service qualification) and soft skills (e.g. how to communicate effectively, resolving conflict within a professional environment), as well as an increase in confidence. Young people visit a local company where the young people get an insight into the working world and are exposed to new potential careers and industries. Young people are interviewed in a practice setting with experienced volunteers from businesses where they receive specific feedback and an opportunity to put the feedback into practice. Spear Career is the yearlong support on completion of Spear Foundation. It offers intensive support to help the young people who are unemployed get into work more quickly and offers in work support for those who are employed. Outcomes include trainees achieving greater work readiness, measured through five work readiness indicators (WRIs); Attitude, Confident Communication, Professional Behaviour, Self-Leadership, and Mindful of Others. Coaches rate trainees every day on a scale from 1-10. Trainees start on average at a 3 out of 10 and finish on average at a 7 out of 10. 45% of course graduates will be in work within three months. 84% of trainees will be in work or education a year after completing the programme. At the start and end of a programme a Wellbeing Survey will capture trainees’ journey of change in terms of greater confidence, improved mental health and increased self-esteem. As part of the Spear programme each young person has the opportunity to complete a Level 1 City and Guilds qualification in Customer Service. 54% of young people who attend the Spear programme have less than 5 GCSE's grade A* - C. Getting a qualification improves their confidence to go back into further study, and increases their chances of employment by expanding their CV. The Spear programme is run by three Coaches; a Centre Manager, Lead Coach, and Graduate Coach. The Centre Manager has worked for Spear for over three years, prior to which she studied a BA in Sociology and an MA in Global Development. She is accredited with the International Coaching Federation to ACC Level. The Lead Coach has worked with Spear for over one year, and moved offices from Hammersmith to Camden. The Graduate Coach worked in Recruitment before starting his career with Spear 6 months ago. The centre has strong relationships with organisations that work with young people across varied areas; we have good relationships with Jobcentres and their work coaches; mental health organisations include The Brandon Centre, The Drum, Icope, and Tavistock Centre; youth clubs include The Hive, The Winch, and XLP; education sector includes Connexions workers, PRU's; and many more such as YOT and probation teams. Our curriculum has been developed over years with input from ICF accredited coaches and different business consultants, such as Bain, PwC, Impetus PEF. There also remains great flexibility within the curriculum to respond to individual needs and the needs of each cohort. Spear Camden is easily accessible on all transport links. Furthermore, our centre is distanced from any major estates and gang territorial areas, which young people have expressed helps them to feel safe. Camden Spear Trust runs six programmes per annum, starting in January, March, April, June, September and November. The programme will begin with a week of outreach and recruitment. Staff work with partner agencies (for example, the Brandon Centre which provides sexual health and psychotherapy services) to engage with 80 potential trainees. About 25 will attend the registration day and 15 undertake the programme. The programme will run for five days a week and will enable young people to become work ready and to find work through informal group coaching covering topics such as: Foundations of work practice, such as timekeeping and positive attitudes, Communications - positive verbal and body language, dealing with conflict, Making applications, CV writing, interview skills and company research, Career mindedness - achieving long term goals and aspirations, Qualification - Level 1 Customer Service Staff will mentor each trainee providing tailored interventions aimed at meeting participants’ individual needs to ensure successful completion of the programme. 90% of the young people we work with have at least one indicator of disadvantage (such as living in supported housing, have a criminal record, have lived in care, etc.), with +50% having three or more. Many of our young people also suffer from depression and anxiety and, for many, their confidence is at rock bottom. We are constantly inspired to hear the challenges that our young people have overcome simply by attending Spear. The young people on the Camden Spear programme come to us from a variety of sources – local Job Centres, referrals from Probation & Youth Offending teams, Mental Health support agencies, Social Services and other Local Council representatives and targeted social media campaigns developed to engage with hard-to-reach young people. There are many opportunities throughout the Spear programme for volunteer professionals to get involved directly with young people. Every programme we host the following events: Company Visit - young people travel to a company, meet staff in various roles whilst they are there, and people prepare presentations in order to receive feedback from employees on their presentation style. Mock Interviews - volunteer professionals can come and mock interview our young people for live job opportunities, we need up to 20 volunteer professionals in each cohort. External Panel - volunteer professionals can come into our sessions and run career workshops and networking opportunities for young people, where they offer their knowledge and experience from different industries. At the end of each programme the coaching team complete a W3 review (what went well, what didn't go well, what do we need to do differently next time) and progress is also reviewed regularly at Trustee meetings, where issues are reported and action plans are discussed. We also monitor our outcomes through phone contact and occasional 1-1 sessions at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 month intervals. Our targets for these intervals for each cohort are reviewed weekly by the Centre Manager and Senior Management team. Ten Trustees drawn from Holy Trinity Church, Swiss Cottage as well as from the business and the voluntary sectors; manage the organisation. The Chair of Trustees is currently the Associate Vicar of Holy Trinity Swiss Cottage. Other Trustees fulfil the roles of Vice-Chair, Treasurer, Secretary and PR advisor. The Board of Trustees meets six times a year to agree strategy, monitor finances, agree funding applications, plan an annual fundraising evening and monitor staff progress and programme delivery. The Board publishes an Annual Report and Accounts at an Annual General Meeting. The organisation employs a Centre Manager who line manages the Lead Coach and Graduate Coach. The three staff deliver the course. The Centre Manager recruits and trains volunteers to contribute to the training course as mock interviewers and as advisers to the trainees. The Trustees collectively recruit and train volunteers to attend and run end of course celebrations and to plan and run the annual fundraising evening.