The Prince's Trust
Presented by: Professor Frank Sanderson
Honorable Pro-Chancellor, I have pleasure in presenting the Prince's Trust for the Corporate Award of Liverpool John Moores University.
The Prince's Trust has become the leading UK youth charity that each year helps 40,000 vulnerable young people get their lives on track. Practical support is provided through a variety of means including education, training, mentoring and financial assistance. The overarching aim is to enable vulnerable young people to gain confidence and independence, and as a consequence transform their lives by making a positive contribution to their communities.
Using his severance pay from the Navy, HRH The Prince of Wales set up The Prince's Trust in 1976, with the goal of helping young people fulfil their potential. He observed at the time that young people weren't being given opportunities quickly enough, commenting, "No one was putting the trust in them they needed. If I was going to do anything, it had to be an operation that was able to take those risks: to trust young people and to experiment."
Three decades on, the Trust has delivered impressive results. For example:
- 74,000 have taken part in The Trust's Team personal development programme
- 147,000 have benefited from schools-based programmes
- And more than 60,000 have set up a business
Today, The Prince who is President of the Trust, continues to take an active interest in its work and does whatever he can to help build awareness of The Trust's mission, of its successes, and of the need to carry on giving young people a sense of direction, achievement and self-worth.
The efforts of the Trust are focused on four disadvantaged groups facing particular complex and interconnected difficulties: First, unemployed young people are provided with personal development opportunities to build skills, confidence and to find employment. Where lack of finance is a barrier to moving into a job or further training, the Trust provides Development Awards. In 1994, the first residential music school took place, evolving into the nationwide Sound Live programme, teaching young unemployed about the music business.
Second, underachievers in education: Five percent of 15 year olds in England leave school with no qualifications and nearly 25 percent have fewer than five GCSEs. These underachievers are often also truants and subject to exclusion from school. The Prince's Trust targets this group through its management of xl Clubs within 300 schools across the UK.
Third, thousands of vulnerable young people leaving care receive mentoring delivered through 32 partner agencies in the UK - supporting, listening and helping them with decisions and directions.
And fourth, help is offered to young offenders and ex-offenders to help them break the offending cycle and fulfil their aspirations. Last year 1,700 young offenders were given assistance by the Trust.
The Prince's Trust benefits enormously from a network of Ambassadors from the worlds of film, fashion, TV, music and sport. Believing strongly in the work of the Trust, they raise awareness of its purpose and achievements, encourage donors to become involved and help motivate young people to improve their life chances.
The Trust was granted a Royal Charter by the Queen in 1999, and recently achieved the noteable milestone of having helped 500,000 young people through its various projects.
And it's worth noting that many of the Ambassadors and many of those young people receiving help from this most worthy organisation come from this region.
It is with great pleasure that we invite trustee Major-General Arthur Denaro to receive on behalf of The Prince's Trust the Corporate Award from Liverpool John Moores University.