We change young lives… It’s about talent, fairness, equality and diversity. We do whatever it takes to make every penny we raise work hard to enable disadvantaged youngsters to succeed academically and personally.
We’ve run programmes across London, Birmingham and the West of England- and are now focusing again on Greater London. We take referrals from schools to recruit but some participants just ‘step up’ when they hear about Stepladder. Our flagship programmes last for two years, with Saturday sessions and wrap around after school provision with coaching, counselling, tutoring and mentoring, in between.
Aspirations and achievement rise dramatically- and stereotypes that say certain youngsters will automatically underachieve, burst apart. We especially target disadvantaged young people from diverse backgrounds who may be at risk, bereaved, in the care system, disengaged, hopeless or simply poorly- motivated, running our programmes to enable them to succeed with excellence.
Bringing young people and business together
We individually support and ‘remove the blinkers’ from every young participant, whatever their circumstances and at the same time help and encourage business, commerce, the arts and education to ‘open doors,’ widening horizons on both sides. We partner with blue chip companies like IBM UK, whose staff volunteer with us and our participants visit them, gaining insight to a world of work way outside their normal networks and aspirations.
Our students feel the impact of what we do. Here’s what a few of them have to say about their experiences being supported by The Stepladder Foundation. Many of our students become our staff. We find that they are best at understanding and role-modelling our high expectations.