Last week we were awarded a project that will enable us to fund the employment of two vulnerable young people in their first jobs. Great, isn’t it? All that remains is to find the young people. It’s turning out to be a more difficult task than we’d anticipated. At 18, young people in foster care are still in education. And although they no longer receive a social allowance, i.e. they have no income at all, they still have one or two years of school left, and if they start working full-time, we risk them having to interrupt their education; without a secondary school qualification, their chances of success drop dramatically.
There is also the further difficulty that not everyone is suited to every role, and we need to match the individual to the role. It will be an interesting experiment; it certainly won’t go smoothly, but it’s a first step towards our goal of becoming a private job centre for vulnerable young people. If you know anyone who’s looking for work, do get in touch!
Meanwhile, we’ve already printed the new 200 packs of Lafetki, we’ll tweak the stickers on the packaging a little, and by the end of the month we should be ready to fulfil the pre-orders already placed for the second print run of Icebreakers. We’ve also ordered the printer for the cocktail napkins, and we’ll be starting the trials this weekend.
We’ve also applied for funding for a project where our idea is to create an interactive training programme for young people in foster care aged 15–18, to help them develop social skills and a better understanding of themselves, so they can start their lives in foster care with greater confidence and success.
Keep your fingers crossed that it works out 🤞