Three of our solicitors, Polly Frost, Colin Foote and Emma James are involved with Envision - a national education charity that provides young people with opportunities to make a difference.
Why Envision?
Paul Hardman explains why GL signed up to help.
‘We were all very impressed by the presentation given by Envision, and we like its focus on developing the skills and outlook of local young people. Getting involved will give us the opportunity to share what we know, and pass on some of our skills. Taking part will help us too, developing our mentoring and communication skills, which will help us as our careers progress. It’s an extremely positive project to be associated with.”
Envision invited five schools (City Academy, Bristol Met, Downend, Filton College and Chew Valley) to put forward teams to pursue projects with the aim of improving the local community.
Mentoring the Filton team
GL were assigned to the Filton College team to assist them as their mentors. Unfortunately, this was the smallest of the teams with only four students from the initial 12 sticking to the project. Nonetheless, they worked hard at their idea, attending the GL offices twice where, for better or worse, they benefited from the advice and guidance provided by Polly, Colin and Emma.
Early feedback was positive. ‘Really pumped’ was seventeen year old Tom’s response to the first session, which we took to be A Good Thing.
The Filton College team's project was called 'Parents in Need' - a website to provide support and guidance to young parents, particularly young fathers, who the students felt were often overlooked in today's society.
GL in the Dragon’s Den
On 7 December the team pitched their project to a panel of judges who had a discretion to award them up to £500 to help put the projects into action. The nastiest of these 'dragons' was GL’s Paul Hardman who bombarded each of the five teams with a series of unpleasant questions. Despite his best efforts, the Filton College team gave an excellent pitch successfully securing the full award of £500.
Gemma Timons of Envision said 'The mentoring sessions provided by Gregg Latchams were of great value. The pitch which their team gave was excellent. It's a great example of how charities and businesses can work together to help young people develop the skills and confidence they need to succeed.'
