Moving On Up – 2020 review
2020 has seen unprecedented changes across the entire nation and wider world, but things have remained the same for us here at ELBA & London Works, in the sense that there are now more people than ever that require our assistance!
We’re always driven by the goal of helping to raise the aspirations & outcomes of the beneficiaries & candidates we work with, so we’ve had extra motivation this year to try and support those who are seeking work. Since the start of the pandemic, we have been busy virtualising our support and opportunities for our beneficiaries, and have been pressing on with delivery of our Moving on Up – Newham program.
This program was established by the founders & funders (BTEG, Trust for London & City Bridge Trust) with the goal of utilising the collective impact of various organisations throughout Newham for the betterment of helping the untapped talent within the local community to achieve success. We are one of the key delivery partners for the program, alongside the West Ham United Foundation & Create Jobs, and our digital partner Eagle London.
Being able to work in such close contact with other organisations with an established footprint in Newham enables us to provide specific employability support for black men aged 16-24 yrs that live in the borough, providing opportunities, support and advice to help them get into employment, or secure a new & appropriate career role to lift them out of underemployment.
It is our dream to help these young men to realise their own grand potential, and we already have years’ worth of proof through our experience of serving the most-deprived boroughs, that given the opportunity to shine, these candidates are able to overcome their disadvantage and elevate themselves and their careers.
Having kicked off the program just as lockdown hit the UK, it took a little while for us to get everything up straight with our online delivery & engagement, but we have come on strong in the second half of this year, running a host of employability events & sessions with our beneficiaries.
We have over 15 different organisations that work with us as non-associate partners on the program, helping to refer suitable candidates through to us and sharing the opportunities we have available with their own networks. We’ve also had 8 (and counting!) separate companies involved with our main end-of-month employability events, and even more through our volunteering opportunities.
With over 70 attendees in total across our 8 main employability events this year, ranging from panel sessions, career insight events & professional speed networking, we’re keen to keep these numbers rising! All the events have been well received by the attendees, and we are eager to get some face-to-face delivery underway at some point next year.
Our mentorship part of the MoU program launched last month, and this is already proving to be successful with our matched pairs already engaging and working together. There have been 27 young black men who’ve signed up to the MoU program in full so far, with many more who we hope to get registered & involved in the coming months.
The hardest part for the beneficiaries, especially in the wake of the COVID crisis, is how they remain motivated in between each opportunity and determined in their mindset & approach when it comes to securing/improving their careers.
We know just how difficult it is for jobseekers at the moment, and we can all appreciate ourselves how hard and strenuous it is to set yourself up with a good career and a “life plan” so to speak, let along in the midst of 2020 and all of the complications that have come from it.
If you’d like to know more about Moving on Up, please check out our website here.
Or if you know any black men aged 16-24 from Newham, please ask them to complete their online registration here, and we will reach out to them to discuss in more detail.
And do please follow us on our social media accounts, to stay up to date:
MoU Twitter: @newham_mou
MoU Instagram: @mou_newham/
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