First things first, Happy New Year all!
While 2022 was another challenging year for the country, we’re hugely proud of our community for continuing to show great resilience that makes us Makems who we are. Thinking about not just our resilience but the amazing community spirit that Sunderland and the North East as a whole share.
We care passionately about our little part of the world and whenever we do any community consultation our people are fierce about ‘doing something for the bairns’. The whole of the North East wants to see devolution and a distribution of wealth in order to create better opportunities for our young people.
One thing we pride ourselves on at Back on the Map is giving young people the chance to shine and provide them with the tools to build not just a job, but a career. Our local young people are often furthest from the labour market and doors are closed to them simply due to their postcode. As a community anchor it’s a real privilege to enable opportunities for development in our community business and grow our own local talent.
In April last year our board agreed to create training posts across the business and prioritise local people for those posts. We’re proud to say over 60% of our staff are local people who are driven to make positive change and transform their community. For our trainees seeing their confidence grow day by day and to watch them become future community leaders is a privilege to see them develop into role models for their peers. Our ‘Growing Our Own’ programme is evidence that with the right support, guidance and belief, no one should be written off because of where they’re from.
I know first hand how tough it can be growing up in Hendon, pushing extra hard to get opportunities that could be easy for others. We currently have two apprentices and two trainees working across the business and we will be supporting them to develop a new local youth forum. The forum will look to bring new business ideas, co-design community services and bring youth training to Villette Road – showing that the next generation don’t need to leave Hendon to get ahead in their careers.
Despite the bad press and often negative stereotypes, just like our city and region, our young people keep pushing back and continue to be passionate about their future. They absolutely can achieve anything they want to with a little support and our young apprentices are testament to that.
Until next time,
Jo