LIFE BEACON INTERNATIONAL

Life Beacon is an organisation that educates and mentors young people in taking the right decisions in developing their skills, capacities, and capabilities to enable them to participate in society as independent, mature and responsible individuals, with much focus on the under represented groups and backgrounds (e.g. Black, Asian, minority ethnic group – BAME). 

To achieve this, we undertake four well planned joint outreach community projects with our partners:

• We visit secondary schools to give an insight and create an interest for higher education in the young students. Our volunteers' share their student experiences and mentor the students on what to expect in higher education.
• We also reach out to young marginalised people in the community (including those in schools) with the opportunity to learn vital skills and develop an entrepreneurial mindset needed to turn their great ideas into viable initiatives, thereby making it easier for youth entrepreneurs and innovators to positively contribute to society.
• Similarly, we have career talks to get the young people to identify and acknowledge their personality traits and know which careers could best fit their nature. This creates the desire to start thinking of their potential future careers and what they need to do to attain these.

Our above project has received prior funding and support from the following bodies:

• Intelligent Energy
• Loughborough University

Going to University Initiative : Here our LBI volunteers visit secondary schools to hold sessions with the students regarding higher education (HE). The activities give them an overview of different aspects of university like independent studies or finances. This enables them to feel better equipped for HE.

Entrepreneurial Mindset and Career Initiative: In addition to schools, we also go into communities and universities to access young people who we mentor into gaining the vital skills that are attached to the entrepreneurial mindset. These activities involve mentoring them on risk when making financial, business or career decisions.

Wellbeing Initiative : Along side these two main initiatives, LBI also provides 1-1 counselling services to nurture the mental wellbeing of the young people we encounter. Additionally, we consistently create online content (blogs, documentaries, podcasts and posts) in order to raise awareness and be inclusive of the online community of our target demographic.

The outcomes of Mentorship in Education, Career & Entrepreneurship creates youth who:

• Are confident in their decision making regarding their future
• Feel empowered to reach their full potential
• Have full awareness and insight into their different career and education options
• Have a genuine desire for secondary education as well as higher education.
• Understand the importance of mentorship and who have a desire to support other young people who need support

Since October 2020, LBI has:

• Directly impacted over 500 marginalised youth through 1-1 sessions , seminars, counselling and mentoring
• Directly impacted over 50 young volunteers worldwide through our training and wellbeing programs
• Reached out to over 9,000 Young people via our online content
• Conducted over 20 school visits

We initially achieved these numbers with no funding, so with extra funding we expect the following results by 2025:

• Directly impact over 2000 marginalised youth through 1-1 sessions, seminars , counselling and mentoring
• Directly impact over 200 young volunteers through our recruitment, training and self development
• Reach out to over 20,000 young people via our online contents

Our main costs included in this project pertain to the following :

• Providing a Lunch meal for Volunteers@£5 per head for every time we go out to visit a school or organise an event with young beneficiaries.
• Providing transportation for our Volunteers to physically reach the communities we go into. In the early stages we would buy fuel for some of our designated drivers within the volunteers, however, as the team grew, we have had to now adopt also booking taxis for the different groups going out.
• We also budget for some stationary materials & stash (e.g. post nits notes, sticky notes, strings, note books , masking tape, blue tac, t-shirts, fruits etc.), which can be used during some of the interactive sessions with the young people we work with.
• Overall, we are looking to raise as much funds as possible as this is an ongoing project with on going costs. Our current goal is to raise £5000 which can be delegated in the above activities.

By donating any amount to this crowdfunding campaign, you can support in the moulding of a young person’s sustainable future. This is a project for the youth and lead by the youth, hence volunteers who get involved in the projects gain many skills that they do not achieve in their formal education but that are needed for their future endeavours. 

Our focus on people ensures that we achieve authentic and promising people-level outcomes and impact. We are not only addressing the issue of education for young marginalised people in the UK, but we are also addressing deeper issues such as their Careers, Wellbeing, Mental Health and Mindsets. Overall, Life Beacon’s objectives can be pursued without regard to age, race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, ethnic origin, religion or creed. The project is also Independent of any political party, organisation or religious body.

Thank you once again for any donations made, and if you are interested in supporting, we are also eager to work with potential volunteers and partners who would like to contribute to this worthy cause.

Website: https://www.lifebeacon.org/

Email: [email protected]