EMR's Young Futures Reimagined: a year of helping young people build brighter futures

Whether it's the creation of a new mental health-boosting 'mindful garden' schoolchildren or providing the skills young adults need to get ahead in the job market, EMR sites have been busy working with local schools and charities as part of our Young Futures Reimagined programme this year.

During the past twelve months, EMR has supported employability training for 290 young adults, respite activities for 35 young carers, funded assistance for 25 individuals affected by youth homelessness and enabled access to online qualifications for 460 people.

And so much more.

As the end of the year approaches, it’s a good time to look back at all this great work and reflect on why it is an essential part of both how, and why, we do what we do.

Young Futures Reimagined is a key element of EMR’s corporate social responsibility programme and maintains the company’s longstanding commitment to helping young people in communities where resources can be limited. It also closely aligns with our mission as a business: ‘We care, we do’. 

Every school, charity and organisation we support is based within five miles of an EMR site and is handpicked by the teams themselves, led by the site’s Community Champion.

So, what amazing work have our teams been supporting?

At EMR Ashford, the team chose to donate to Victoria Road Primary School, which had partnered with a local mindfulness practitioner to support pupils’ mental health. This has been a significant issue for millions of children during the pandemic and EMR’s support helped the school to build a ‘mindful garden’, providing an essential quiet space.

The team also set Victoria Road Primary up with an EMR account, allowing parents to bring scrap metal to the site in exchange for much-needed funds for the school.

In Salford, the EMR team has chosen to partner with the Salford Foundation, with a donation supporting 70 young people across the charity’s employability programmes, titled ‘RISE’ and ‘The Leadership Academy’. This will l be used to cover the costs of travel, food and IT equipment. EMR Salford has also set up a referral scheme with our recruitment partner to help young people find employment with EMR and other employers.

EMR Birmingham has chosen to work with a charity supporting vulnerable young people into the world of work. St Basil’s #YouCan employability initiative assists homeless young adults between the ages of 16 and 25, offering them literacy and numeracy training as well as the opportunity to gain valuable OCN-accredited qualifications.

This amazing work will give these young people opportunities they may not otherwise have found.

Similarly, with its £2,000 donation to the Norwich-based Benjamin Foundation, EMR Lenwade has enabled 22 young people to access a range of life-changing educational online courses. Across the UK, EMR has also provided laptops to schools to assist with at-home learning during lockdown and equipment to enhance education in key subjects such as design and technology.

As EMR meets the challenge of contributing to a more sustainable, circular economy (underlined by our commitment to reach net-zero by 2040), the Young Futures Reimagined programme is also helping young people to play their role in safeguarding the natural world.

In London, the Young Brent Foundation has been supported by EMR Neasden with a £1,000 donation, allowing 100 young people to take part in Brent Goes Wild. This project helps children aged six to 14 improve the environment where they live, from growing vegetables and learning about the animals that live on their doorstep, to creating cleaner, litter-free green spaces.

The great news is that these partnerships continue in 2022, meaning even more great work will be supported by our business in the year ahead.

At EMR, we are passionate about being a good neighbour wherever we operate. With Young Futures Reimagined, our teams are ensuring that the benefit of this will be felt for generations to come.