Launching City Year UK in Liverpool
Summary
In 2024, City Year UK (CY) committed to expand its mentorship-driven education program to Liverpool, England by 2027. The program will directly benefit nearly 400 school children, including 36 mentors, in three schools and indirectly benefit more than 7,600 more individuals, including families of young persons impacted by the program. The commitment will build on CY’s track record of supporting more than 250,000 school children in the U.K. to help them succeed in school and fulfill their potential. The program will pair school children (ages 5-16) who are facing social, emotional, and academic barriers to learning with a CY Mentor who is able to support them to achieve their social, emotional and academic potential. CY will recruit and train young people between the ages of 18 and 25 from diverse backgrounds to serve as volunteer CY Mentors for a full year, in turn benefit from a structured Leadership Development program to help build their employability skills and explore various career pathways.
Approach
City Year UK (CY) believes that the key to overcoming the challenges it is trying to address lies in the potential and power of young people to change the world. CY accordingly commits to launching its program in the Liverpool city region, one of the most deprived areas in the UK, where over 3 in 10 children are growing up in poverty (Department of Education, UK, 2020) . CY;s expansion into Liverpool will expand the viability of a UK Year of Service – modeled on the Americorps movement. CY will build the evidence base to prove the potential and power of the UK’s young people to successfully tackle the UK’s most pressing social challenges.
Over the last 15 years, CY has supported over 250,000 school children to succeed in school and fulfill their potential, through the recruitment of over 2,000 City Year Mentors, who themselves have gone onto bright and fulfilling futures. But with rates of poverty increasing, and more and more children and young people struggling at school and beyond, CY knows its work is not done.
CY’s approach consists of two major components that it will be extending to Liverpool:
Providing school children (aged 5-16) who are facing social, emotional and academic barriers to learning, with a one-to-one City Year (CY) Mentor, who is able to support them to achieve their social, emotional and academic potential.
Recruiting and training young people (aged 18-25) from diverse backgrounds to serve as those voluntary CY Mentors for a full year, who also benefit from a structured Leadership Development (LD) programme to help build their employability skills and explore different career pathways, so that they progress into employment and become future community leaders. Mentors also receive accreditation.
By 2027, CY will deliver its program in 3 schools, directly serving 360 school children and 36 mentors. The program will also indirectly benefit over 7,600 more individuals, including families of young persons impacted.
Action Plan
By December 2024 – Feasibility plan completed, partnership building begins with initial funding
By March 2025 – Funding for the first year secured, school partners signed up and volunteer recruitment commenced
By June 2025 – At least 50% of volunteers confirmed and staff recruitment commenced
By September 2025 – All volunteers and staff recruited and delivery commenced
By December 2025 -Review of first quarter delivery completed, additional donors and schools secured for second year
By March 2026 – Funding for the second year secured, new school partners signed up and volunteer recruitment commenced
By June 2026 – Graduation for first cohort planned
By August 2026 – Review of first year undertaken and learnings incorporated into second year of delivery
By September 2026 – All volunteers recruited and second year of delivery commenced
By December 2026 – Review first quarter of delivery, continue to secure donors and schools for third year
By March 2027 – Funding for third year secured, school partners secured and volunteer recruitment commenced
By June 2027 – Graduation for second cohort planned
Background
Around 30% of children in the UK – the equivalent of 9 in an average school class of 30 pupils – are growing up in poverty, making them five times more likely than their peers to experience poor educational outcomes (Health Equity North, 2023) . The attainment gap associated with disadvantage begins in the early years and grows wider at every following stage of education: children from low-income households are roughly 9.5 months behind their peers educationally by the end of primary school, and this more than doubles, to a gap of just over 19 months by the end of secondary school (Education Endowment Foundation, 2018) . The scale of the problem is huge, with rates of child poverty increasing over the past 4 years due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic followed by the current cost-of-living-crisis, particularly in cities where rates of poverty are generally higher anyway (Health Foundation, 2023) .
The longer-term impact of this is devastating – young people from disadvantaged backgrounds across the UK are 50% more likely to be NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) (Impetus, 2019) after leaving mandatory education. Whilst around a third of all young people themselves do not feel equipped to compete in the job market, this drastically rises to over half of those from lower income families who are also twice as likely to not feel optimistic about the future and be discouraged by setbacks, compared to their more affluent peers (The Social Market Foundation, 2021) .
This “outlook inequality” can prevent young people from disadvantaged backgrounds from believing in themselves, manifesting in low, or even no, career expectations, with research showing that only 21% of young people from low income families transition into Higher Education, compared to 51% of those growing up in families with higher professional backgrounds (Social Mobility Commission, 2023) .
Progress Update
Partnership Opportunities
In order to fulfill our commitment, City Year is seeking financial support to resource our expansion into the Liverpool City Region. City Year would also benefit from introductions to potential implementing partners, including education providers, corporate organizations with a presence in Liverpool and/or the surrounding areas, and other charities with which it can share resources, learning and best practice. Finally, City Year would greatly benefit from media support to enable it to raise awareness of its work and commitment, and help boost its profile in the Liverpool region., City Year’s model offers a best practice solution to addressing some of the UK’s most pressing societal challenges. City Year also experts in youth-led mentoring provision and are able to add value to organizations who are seeking to establish their own youth-led mentoring programmes and/or seeking to reach and support children from low income families.