Call for employers to support 10,000 youth connections
A charity has appealed to businesses across North Wales to help young people who are struggling to access work, training and wider opportunities.
WeMindTheGap used a gathering of Wrexham Business Professionals to set out its drive to create 10,000 meaningful connections for young people who lack the networks that often lead to jobs or training.
CEO Ali Wheeler addressed more than 100 business owners and managers at the group’s Christmas dinner at the Ramada Hotel in Wrexham. She urged employers to offer guidance, contacts and real-world insight, support she said can change a young person’s prospects.
Ms Wheeler said she was encouraged that many attendees expressed interest in learning more about how they could assist. A raffle held during the event raised £1,100 for the charity.
According to Ms Wheeler, the need is greater than ever, with more young people feeling excluded from society.
The Power of 10,000 campaign aims to build a network of people able to offer mentoring, career guidance, feedback on ideas or simply a listening ear.
Ms Wheeler said: “Imagine 10,000 people across Wrexham and beyond, each committing to be a connection for a young person. A mentor. A supporter. A door-opener. A trusted voice.
“It is achievable even in this room tonight. How many are here, 100, each of you knows another 10, 20, 30 people that care, who can also be a connection. You can see the numbers are adding up.”
She added: “Enabling young people to make such connections changes their lives for the better. I know this from my own career journey as a police officer, in the NHS during COVID, and now leading a social mobility charity.
“Time and again, the greatest gaps I have seen in people’s lives come back to the absence of connections, support, and trusted relationships.
“And when those connections are present, everything changes. Young people gain confidence, skills, and resilience. They begin to see a future they can believe in.”
The charity’s research shows that even before the COVID pandemic many young people were already struggling with the pace of technological and social change.
Since then, close to half of those surveyed by the charity reported feeling more anxious, lacking direction and disconnected from their communities.
WeMindTheGap runs programmes for young people aged 11 to 25 across North Wales and further afield.
Ms Wheeler highlighted that the charity’s WeGrow employability programme delivered £5.5 million of social value last year, with a social return on investment of £5.45 for every £1 invested.
She said: “That shows that investment in a young person’s future is not charity, it is a smart investment and an investment in the success of local businesses and the economy too.”
The charity says employers supporting the campaign can help transform the lives of more than 1,700 young people in Wrexham who are not in employment, education or training.
Ms Wheeler added: “Tonight we can change that and shine a beacon of hope on this amazing city. It is my wish that we can connect together around a purpose, to change the lives of young people who deserve more.
“At WeMindTheGap we say: ‘It takes a village to raise a child, but a system to mind their gaps.’ You are that system. You are that village, that city, together, we can mind the gaps, grow skills, build connections, and build city which enables its young people to thrive’.”
Wrexham Business Professionals committee member Ian Edwards said Ms Wheeler’s talk was one of the most enthusiastically received in the organisation’s history. He said: “I think it is because we all know a young person, or young people, who may have needed help at some time in our lives. We naturally want to be there for the up and coming generations and to help get them on a solid footing.”
He added: “Young people today are facing so many challenges that we would never have imagined years ago, not just turbulent economies, but massive cultural shifts, environmental catastrophes, the onset of AI, there are so many issues they have to grapple with that it is not surprising so many just do not know where to turn.”
Another committee member, Louise Harper, said: “If we can help, even in a small way, offering an hour of our time now and then, or providing longer term mentorship, then I think it is incumbent on us to do that.
“The simple act of making ourselves approachable, being available to talk to, passing on some of the lessons we have learned on our own journeys, could help change young people’s lives. We all want to bring on the business-people and thriving communities of tomorrow.”
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