On 29 August 2013, The Go-ahead Youth will host their first “Star Awards” at the Holiday Inn, Leicester. They will be celebrating the achievements of 16-25 year-old Black Minority Ethnic (BME) youth.
The Community Foundation has helped to make this happen by awarding the organisation £925 from the Local Donor’s Fund last autumn, and earlier this year they received £1,000 from the Red Nose Day panel.
Everything which their organiser, Belinda Fumai does, goes towards supporting young BME to gain success in their chosen field. She and her partner Vimbai Chirisa are volunteers, and they have around seven young people also volunteering with them in their tiny office with just one computer in the Apex building in Charles Street. They are reliant on grant funding.
Belinda teaches a lot of the young people one-to-one IT and office skills, and mentors them when they are trying something new. The young people are often not in employment or training, and she helps them to turn this around.
“Take this young man, Joe,” says Belinda. “He was just 16 when we met him and he had been expelled from school with no qualifications. We helped him gain cooking skills with our Afro Delight Cooking Project, a Food and Hygiene certificate, and First Aid. Now he is studying sports at Leicester College and he hasn’t been in trouble since.”
The Star Awards are a way of raising awareness of the potential of young BME people like Joe, as well as of the work conducted by The Go-ahead Youth. Belinda is hoping for corporate sponsorship for this gala evening.
If you would like to nominate a determined and successful young person for the Star Awards, please visit The Go-ahead Youth website: http://tgy.org.uk
If you are interested in supporting The Go-ahead Youth or similar organisations please contact Laura Grant, Business Engagement Executive at the Community Foundation on T: 07771 606 400 or E: laura.grant@llrcommunityfoundation.org.uk
