Prince's Trust programme concludes with celebration function

The event, organised by The Inspire and Achieve Foundation and the Princes Trust Team was held at the Warsop parish centre on Wednesday,July 31 and was attended by more than 60 people.

The Inspire and Achieve Foundation are a small charity based in Mansfield committed to supporting troubled, neglected and disadvantaged young people aged 16 to 24 in Mansfield, Nottingham and the wider areas.

The Prince’s Trust is a national charity which partners with The Inspire and Achieve Foundation to deliver the Prince’s Trust Team Programme. The Prince’s Trust support the delivery of the programme to young adults in the areas that need it the most.

It included community work, work experience opportunities, CV libraries, team building exercises and a residential where the students learnt key skills such as managing money and working in a team.

The ceremony included a speech from Brad Philp, programme leader who introduced the students and presented them with a graduation certificate.

Mr Philp said: ""The programme went really well and I really enjoyed the working with these guys, they were a really good and mature team and got along really well with one another.

"The students have given a lot of time to the community and have grown and developed their skills and abilities, and hopefully they can use these in whichever route they take be it further education or employment.

"The graduation ceremony is a great way to celebrate the students work and to cap off a extremely successful programme.

"This is isn't the end of the road with these students, the team will stay in contact with them and offer them one to one sessions to ensure they still have some support, due to how successful this programme has been, we are in the process of setting up another one in Warsop, however we are still in the planning process"

Pippa Carter, Director for The Inspire & Achieve Foundation said:" The programme is about building skills and confidence into young adults who may have not had the best start in life or may have been unnoticed and left to look after themselves.

"We want to overcome any social and economic barriers and offer support and give them the platform to gain new skills and connect with the communities to ensure they gain confidence and become better rounded individuals.

"Our ethos is to give these kids another chance so they can go out there and show the world they are no different to others"

Ernest Gustard, a graduate of the programme said: I really enjoyed the programme and was a bit apprehensive to begin with, but once I joined I quickly realised it was nothing like school where you are sat in a classroom and really enjoyed the hands on style of the programme leaders.

"They pushed us to get out of our comfort zones, improve and work to the best of our abilities, the group were amazing, we really enjoyed each others company and encouraged one another to keep going.

"I now plan to go into further education, which is something I would never have done if I didn't join the Princes Trust programme so its something I definitely recommend"