In 2023 we started our Platform for Change legacy fund, and since then, we’ve supported five local community projects, made one college donation and gifted a total of £3160. With our newest round the Mental Health and Wellness Award, which opened in November, we wanted to reflect on and celebrate our accomplishments.

What is Platform for Change?

Platform for Change is our legacy fund, an idea we developed in 2022 as a way to honour our past students who tragically lost their lives to serious violence and knife crime. We want to give back to our local communities, help create safe spaces for young people to engage in positive activities and deter them from anti-social behaviour. In 2018, we tragically lost Brandon Regan, age 17 and Daniel Jamieson, age 16 to knife crime and in 2021, we lost Jamie Buckley, age 18.

These tragic events inspired us to create Platform for Change in their memory, to create something positive from these tragedies. Mandy Jamieson, Daniel’s mother continues to speak out about knife crime and has created a community hub on Instagram – @dannysplace2018. The fund aims to award three grants to young people aged 14-24 each year up to £1000, who will use the grant to promote the education, safety, or mental health of young people in their local communities.

The past year

Round One – Mental Health and Wellbeing Award

Our first round, the Mental Health and Wellness Award, went to Holly Rowley to fund a series of LGBT cinema screenings promoting safe spaces, community and sobriety. Holly was awarded £500. Overall, 70 people attended the screenings, and everything ran smoothly, ‘Platform for Change has helped me gain experience putting on events and programming films for the public, I can now confidently call myself a film programmer.’

Round Two – Community Project and Activities Award

Our second round, the Community Project and Activities Award, was awarded to Faith Shaw and Rio Duma. Faith was awarded £1000 for her dance group ExtravaDance to fund the ‘No Dancer Left Behind’ project, ‘an opportunity for children and young people to participate in safe and affordable in-house dance activity on a weekly basis’. The fund went towards covering the room hire for her community dance group and entering a dance competition. The group aims to benefit children and young people, vulnerable people, single parents, low-income families and the wider community from less risk of crime and antisocial behaviour.

Rio was awarded £500 to lead the ‘Environment and Public Art Project’ community art project, where artwork will be created and displayed on a row of derelict shops in Huddersfield. The fund went towards the cost of materials needed for the project, ‘we aim to create a series of hand-painted banners to temporarily be showcased on Browing road shops in Deighton, Huddersfield.’ The purpose of the project is to break the stigma surrounding the area, to work with young people in order to create artwork which brings together their ideas and experiences and to ultimately create a positive impact on the wider community.

Round Three – Education and Employment Award

Our third round, the Education and Employment Award, was awarded to Jamie Myers and Grace Ashcroft. Jamie was awarded £660 to help him work towards his football coaching, he is completing an ‘Introduction to Coaching Football’ course and working towards a UEFA C License. He is passionate about football and has always been interested in coaching, from age 13 he has been volunteering at his local club to help the younger teams and loves to see the kids improving. His goal is to make sports more accessible for young people who struggle with standard coaching sessions.

Grace was awarded £300 to fund a Level 2 Teaching Swimming course qualification. She has been a member of a swimming club since she was 8 years old and wants to gain these new teaching skills to help with her confidence, work towards becoming a swim teacher and inspire the next generation.

If you want to get involved in Platform for Change, we are always open to investors and applicants. You can find more information about this here on our website or email us at p4c@employabilitysolutions.com for application forms or any questions.