11 February

Empowering young people to meet their potential

The aim of The Lord Mayor’s Appeal is to create a City that is inclusive, healthy, skilled and fair and our partnership with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) fits neatly into these areas. With your incredible support, the DofE charity is empowering young people facing disadvantage to develop vital skills and attributes, including confidence and resilience, and training more adult Leaders to run the DofE in organisations such as schools and youth groups. Since February last year, the Appeal funding has enabled 1,814 young people to start their DofE and 81 adult Leaders access to training!

Tom, a Bronze Award holder, is a fantastic example of how doing DofE benefits young people. Tom has Down’s Syndrome and did his DofE through the Volunteer Police Cadets. In his own words: “One of the most important lessons I learned from the DofE is that I have the ability to keep developing skills and the capacity to keep aiming higher. It has helped me to build my confidence and character, work better in a team and it’s been fun! Doing my DofE with people who treated me with such respect has also shown me how I can expect and deserve that kind of respect as an adult.”

The DofE charity’s work is even more vital during the pandemic and we’ve seen young people continue with their DofE With A Difference by adapting their activities, changing to home-based options, and supporting their community. Amongst many stories, Abduallahi is representing the voices of his peers and campaigning for youth support in Hackney, an area of high poverty; young people have been supporting Newham relief hubs; and Fred and Joshua are overcoming personal challenges and feeling the mental health benefits of the focus, structure, confidence and resilience doing the DofE provides.

From the Appeal and the DofE, thank you for your continued support! There has never been a more important time to support young people, and by donating to the Appeal, together, we can transform young people’s prospects.