A team from Brandon Hire Station, Vp Group’s largest business, join Bristol based mentoring programme for disadvantaged young people.
12 members of the Brandon Hire Station team recently partnered with Goal 17 and the Bristol Bears Community Foundation to launch a mentoring programme in Bristol. The programme is designed to empower young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and help them realise their goals.
The programme launched at the start of March and will see the team sponsoring a 3-month employability programme. During this time, they will work alongside the Bristol Bears Community Foundation, offering their time to support and mentor the young beneficiaries taking part.
As the leading Tool and Equipment Hire Specialist in the Bristol area, they feel it is important to support those living nearby. They aim to create meaningful social value and benefit the communities and residents within which they operate.
They will be working alongside The Bristol Bears Community Foundation, which is the charitable arm of the Bristol Bears Premiership Rugby Club who already do a significant amount of work in their local community. Goal 17 have helped us partner together to engage with and offer mentoring and expertise to some of the most hard to reach young people from the area.
During the launch, our fantastic team of 12 Brandon Hire Station employees had the chance to meet the mentees they will be working with and supporting in the coming months. To kick off the programme and build relationships, our team along with their mentees toured the Aston Gate Stadium, visited a local school and participated in games as well as getting set up on the new mentoring platform, Wowment.app.
The aim of the programme and the team involved is to support young people and provide them with the knowledge, skills, and also the confidence to put themselves out there and enter the world of work.
The Brandon Hire Station team are committed to working with the local community with many of the team based out of the Bristol office or living in the surrounding areas.
Brandon Hire Station’s Commercial Director, Mark Burton said of the initiative:
“We want to be an active part of supporting our local communities and that involves not just funding important projects such as this one, but also getting our people involved. We want to learn as much from this programme as the young people and use the experience to help us understand how we can better support our local communities.”
Brandon Hire Station’s Bid Manager, Kate Jones talked of her part in launching the programme:
“Despite initially being a little nervous about putting myself forward as a Mentor, I can already see the huge value of this programme. We all have preconceived ideas and perceptions about the challenges in our communities but getting the opportunity to be hands-on, creating a change is very special. I know that I am going to learn just as much from this experience as the young person I support and I am sure these are skills and perspectives I will take back into the workplace.”
Over the coming months, the Brandon Hire Station team will support their mentees through Goal 17’s mentoring platform, Wowment.app. The app allows regular remote connectivity whilst safeguarding everyone involved in the partnership. The team will also have opportunities to share their career experience by supporting workshops delivered by the Bristol Bears Community Foundation.