BSCS Students win Envisions Community Apprentice 2019

In October 2019, the West of England MS Therapy Centre pitched alongside 3 other charities to Year 10 students from 5 local secondary schools at the launch of the Community Apprentice 2019 Programme, led by Envision.  

The West of England MS Therapy Centre was very humbled to be chosen by all 5 schools and has been working with all the students. The schools involved were Bradley Stoke Community School, Patchway Community School, Abbeywood, Digitech and Brimsham Green.  “It’s been a real privilege to work with all the students and help them raise awareness of the Centre, and support them in planning their fundraising activities” Claire Wingate, MS Therapy Centre told us.

Community Apprentice is, as the name suggests, a practical learning experience for young people.  It is delivered by organisations and volunteers drawn from the local community – schools, businesses and local charities, brought together by Envision. They invest in young people. In return young people invest their time back into the community.

All activities in the 13-week programme are designed and facilitated to develop self efficacy, social confidence and an ability to work with others.  This is achieved through a structured combination of challenge and support over three challenges. The Awareness-Raising Challenge starts to build confidence in a familiar environment, by requiring young people, who don’t necessarily know each other at this point, to come together as a team to promote their chosen charity in their own school. They are supported to come up with a creative idea and work against the clock to make it happen. 

For the Fundraising Challenge each team is partnered with a local business which gives them the opportunity to raise funds in their workplace. This challenge is designed to build participants’ social confidence and communication skills. Teams have to prepare a formal presentation about their charity and initiate conversations with individuals during a fundraising activity. The young people take responsibility for coming up with the ideas for this activity, which they must organise themselves.

The programme culminates in the final Pitching Challenge which brings all teams together to share their achievements.  This took place on Tuesday 10th December at Aerospace Bristol. Each team gave a formal presentation about why their charity matters to them, what they have done to make a difference and how they have developed themselves. Judges then gave points for their presentation which is added to other criteria, such as the number of personal skills challenges completed by each team. 

The team from Bradley Stoke Community School (pictured opposite) was delighted to be announced the winners of the Envisions 2019 Community Apprentice competition.  

Paula Warren from BSCS commented “We are hugely proud of them for their commitment over the last 12 weeks and all their awareness-raising and fundraising for the MS Therapy Centre.  A massive thank you to our incredible Business Mentors from Womble Bond Dickinson, whose support throughout has been fantastic.”

Many thanks to all the local businesses for supporting this year’s schools: Warburtons, Direct Line, Womblebond, Magnox and TLT. 

This article is taken from our Jan/Feb 2020 edition of Bradley Stoke Matters

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