January was a big month for us at Impact People & Change, including introducing our Impact Community via our Impact Community Network event. We are particularly proud of our Kickstart to 22 Conference, aimed at young people beginning to embrace the world of work. We were joined by young people who are accessing Kickstart placements and those involved in our pilot mentoring programme.

Our conference included skills-based workshops and a fun social action day.  It was a team effort with our founder, Natasha, placement student Hannah, and associates Ralph, Natalie and Jen all getting involved.

Here’s Hannah’s reflection on the event as a facilitator:

The Kickstart to 22 conference was a massive success for all, with six young people attending each of the three conference days. Participants reflected on their strengths and gained valuable techniques to enhance communication skills, maintain resilience, and plan a social action project.

Having started planning the event before Christmas, it was a hugely rewarding experience to see all the work pay off with fantastic engagement from each participant. We concluded the event by coming together to take action against the important topic of mental health. The group produced a high-quality resource for supporting men’s mental health which we were proud to share with our network.

It was the first event of this size and scale that I have ever run, and I am proud to say that all participants gave positive feedback on their self-development throughout the event. I benefitted myself, developing my confidence in a facilitation role and developing skills through workshops on resilience, personal strengths and problem-solving. The participants and I concluded that we had all developed our confidence throughout the event and showed eagerness to develop even further.

Here’s some feedback from our Kickstart employee Jennifer who attended the event:

A fantastic experience that allowed me to witness how a conference is delivered remotely whilst also participating as a Kickstarter. Natasha, Ralph and Hannah did a great job organising and delivering the conference that was beneficial and educational.  

It was an opportunity to learn about employability skills and what employers look for on a CV. We learnt topics ranging from critical thinking to mindfulness to learning about key strengths. But most importantly, the experience allowed myself and other Kickstarter’s to build on our confidence, realise our strengths and build links amongst ourselves.  

Not only did the conference allow us to build on our CV, but we were also given the option to create a social action project! We all saw and agreed that mental health is an important topic however felt that men’s mental health was a key area to cover! In the short period of time we had, we managed to gather information, statistics, images and design a poster about men’s mental health, the signs and where to get help. We were all very proud of the work we accomplished within a day. Go and check it out on Impact People & Change social media!

Overall, it was a fantastic experience with the opportunity to take our first step in a successful social action project!