Our Impact
We launched Bedford Giving in 2023 with the aim of improving the lives of children and young people in Bedford Borough. We’ve already begun to deliver on that aim. You can find out below about the impact we’re having and read about what our next steps will be.
Our purpose is clear: we seek out local voices to tell us about the obstacles facing young people in Bedford, and we develop programmes to overcome them. During our first year we took taken three distinct approaches:
- In our Community Panel Projects, we asked groups of local people to take the lead, allowing them to brainstorm local concerns, send out calls for projects addressing them, and assign funding to the initiatives they believe will work.
- For our Career Mentoring Programme, we recruited local people to serve as mentors to students at local secondary schools, helping them to make plans for the next step in their careers.
- In our World of Work Experience programme, we found work experience placements for students, helping them to gain insights into potential career paths.
We have more projects in the pipeline including creating free and affordable activities for young people, a new work experience pilot and helping youngsters in the borough with their mental health.
Find out how our projects are making a difference.
