Over a year ago, Lauren trained to become a KEY+ Facilitator and has been supporting young people at Newcastle United Foundation to take on the KEY+ Challenge ever since.
In her role as a Employability Project Coordinator at Newcastle United Foundation, Lauren delivers the KEY+ Challenge as part of the Open Doors: Beyond Barriers programme, a partnership initiative that helps young adults overcome health and wellbeing barriers in their journey towards employment.
Through this wider programme, Lauren harnesses the power of the KEY+ Challenge to help empower young people to:
- Build confidence to apply for jobs
- Develop essential employability and life skills
- Engage with IT and other tools to boost their employment prospects
- Improve their financial stability, self-esteem, and overall wellbeing
Having used KEY+ recently, Lauren said that young people supported commented “how much their skills have grown and the positive impact it has had on them all.”
Speaking more generally, the changes Lauren has seen in young people who have taken part in the KEY+ Challenge has been special. Lauren said, “I have seen their confidence grow and having the pride standing in front of the panel to present where they would not have had the confidence to do so before completing the project.”
Lauren believes that The Key empowers young people by letting them “have the freedom to make a change in their community and make a difference in matters that are important to themselves in a fun and unique way.”
Overall, Lauren’s favourite thing about being a KEY+ facilitator is “hearing all the wonderful ideas that the groups come up with and seeing how much they benefit from working as a team to achieve their target. Also, some of the weird and wonderful group names!”
One young person that really stuck with them raised money for a local primary school to help buy cooking equipment: “Participant A started their KEY+ project to help raise money for a local primary school to themselves. They wanted money to help the school buy cooking equipment so they can start their own cooking lessons. As part of the group, The Key allowed them to host a Christmas quiz and bingo night. There was over 80 people that attended, and they raised £500 for the local primary school to buy the equipment. I was so proud of them for achieving this goal!”
Lauren's advice to anyone thinking about getting involved with The Key? “Definitely sign up! You will meet some amazing young people and help them achieve a goal which is so important to them.”
Newcastle United Foundation has been a KEY+ Partner since 2022, engaging young people across their programmes to take on the KEY+ Challenge and build their skills, confidence, and resilience.
In the last 12 months alone, they have supported 109 young people to complete KEY+ and deliver 19 of their very own projects.
We’re proud to work together to ensure more young people have access to meaningful and impactful opportunities.
Click here to find out how you and your organisation can deliver KEY+
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The Key