Raise Your Hands

On #IWD2025, here’s to all of the brilliant women who lead our charities: Jude Williams, The Literacy Pirates Katharine Sacks-Jones, Become Paula Timms, Kidscape Amanda Ely, Chiva Sian Williams, Switchback Sita McIntosh, Go Live Nicky Goulder, Create Charity Sharon Berry, Storybook Dads Dympna Cunnane, Our Time Charity Sue Balmer, Happy Baby Community Marsha Powell, BelEve And last, but not least, our very own Slaney Wright! Thank you for your wisdom, intelligence, compassion and leadership. #internationalwomensday2025 #femaleleadership #workingwomen #femaleleaders #womeninbusiness #charityleadership

Do you think your team has the IQ and competitiveness to win any intellectual game? Do you have a group of friends that relish out-puzzling the puzzler makers? When it comes to completing treasure hunts that no one else can do, are you the person standing on the X that marks the spot? If so - unite your colleagues or your friends - and come together as the most ambitious immersive challenge ever created takes to the streets of London once more. To compete in this corporate challenge fundraiser - the likes of which you will not have seen before - contact us.

Happy World Book Day! Some of our Dot Impact partner businesses to have been lucky enough to take part in schemes that really make a difference to children's literacy, regardless of how much time they have to give. One of the RYH platform charities, The Literacy Pirates, is an education charity develops the confidence and perseverance of children who are falling behind on literacy skills in the classroom. Through their Fan Mail scheme, we've been able to pair corporate volunteers with children. They read the child's stories and poetry and sends them an encouraging letter of ‘Fan Mail’, explaining what they loved about their writing. The children are delighted to receive the letters and the well-deserved words of praise, giving them a massive boost of confidence. Some of our Dot Impact volunteers also recently spent a few hours aboard the Literacy Pirates Ship in London, tidying up the toy chest, navigating the library shelves and giving the young pirates a better space to learn, play and build their skills. It's a magical place! To find out more about schemes like these and how Dot Impact mobilise company giving for the benefit of brilliant small children’s charities, head to https://lnkd.in/ecq2g4vT

We’ve just welcomed BelEve to the Raise Your Hands platform – a brilliant grassroots charity that is transforming the lives and opportunities of girls and young women in south London. Poverty, mental health challenges, peer pressure and a lack of aspirational role models can all result in young women missing out on opportunities to get educated, into work and thrive. BelEve’s strong sisterhood supports participants to re-engage with education, gain work experience and internships and find routes into rewarding careers. Their innovative business partnerships give young women the chance to find out more about a wide variety of roles and industries, while accessing mentoring from inspirational professional women. Find out more about BelEve and how you can support their work, here:?https://lnkd.in/gUWeYbya

As part of the LinkedIn community, we know how important it is to have access to role models (personally and professionally) and to have people that you can talk to, that can inspire, help, and guide you. Unfortunately, according to a survey by GirlGuiding, 55% of girls aged 11-21 in the UK feel they lack access to relatable female role models, and this is one of the many reasons why we have brought BelEve onto our platform. BelEve is investing in the leaders of tomorrow (who'll one day be using LinkedIn!) by providing mentoring opportunities to girls and young women in south London. BelEve’s female mentors come from a range of professional backgrounds including medicine, education, HR, IT and marketing. Mentors support participants to explore career paths and discover their training needs. They hear first-hand what it’s like to work in a variety of sectors, giving young women increased access to professional networks and opportunities. Find out more about BelEve and how you can support their work, here: https://lnkd.in/gUWeYbya #femalementoring #rolemodel #professionalnetwork #ryhcharity #smallcharityuk

We're focused on supporting small charities with big impact, like our new charity StreetDoctors Last year, more than 10,000 young people took part in emergency first aid training with StreetDoctors. This innovative programme teaches young people who are at risk of being involved with street violence, giving them vital knowledge and skills to manage situations when someone is bleeding or unconscious. This brilliant charity shows that putting young people at the heart of a problem and working with them on the solutions, results in powerful and sustainable peer-to-peer education and shared responsibility, impacting not only those that do the training, but their whole community. You can find out more about StreetDoctors here: https://lnkd.in/gC7KCErH

In the news last week another young person lost their life to alleged knife crime. In the UK, possession of, and harm done by, weapons such as knives continues to rise. For every reported offence, injury or tragic death, there are thousands of young people, family members and communities who are impacted both physically and emotionally. When we bring a new charity onto the Raise Your Hands platform, we look carefully at what makes it stand out. For StreetDoctors, it was the ability to meet a rising and pressing need in tackling street violence. Its model of peer education empowers young people and gives them the skills to become part of the solution to violence rather than being seen as part of the problem. The root causes of street violence are complex: poverty, lack of opportunity and social exclusion. StreetDoctors recognises that the solutions are a shared responsibility and include: ? Early intervention – supporting ‘at risk’ young people? ? Peer-led initiatives – giving young people in local communities the skills and knowledge they need ? Education – offering the chance to gain qualifications and work with medical professionals You can find out more about StreetDoctors here: https://lnkd.in/gC7KCErH #knifecrime #streetviolence #youthviolence #peereducation

Brace yourself – we’ve a big Raise Your Hands announcement! Thanks to your generosity last Christmas, we can now announce the two new charities we’ve brought on to the Raise Your Hands platform. ?? DRUM ROLL PLEASE… ?? Welcome StreetDoctors and BelEve StreetDoctors is an award-winning national charity that empowers young people affected by violence to keep themselves and others safe. StreetDoctors delivers emergency first aid training to more than 10,000 young people each year. The training gives young people the skills to save lives and the tools to understand the medical and psychological consequences of violence. BelEve focuses on empowering young girls and women in South London. It provides support, mentorship, and opportunities for personal and professional development. The team works closely with businesses to equip girls with the skills, confidence, and resilience to achieve their goals. We will be telling you much more about these two incredible charities over the coming week, the impact they’re having on young lives, and why we selected them to join the Raise Your Hands family. In the meantime, see their amazing work for yourselves: StreetDoctors: https://lnkd.in/gC7KCErH BelEve: https://lnkd.in/gUWeYbya

Thanks so much Tempest Photography for your support and belief in our work!

??RECRUITING - A Chair of the Board of Trustees?? Switchback is ambitious to do even more to support the young men we work with. We also want to contribute to strengthening the resettlement landscape through sharing our 16 years of learning with communities and organisations across the country. And we want to change both national policy and public perception through growing our influencing work in pursuit of increased social and racial justice. We’re now looking for a new Chair of the Board of Trustees who can help us turn these ambitions into reality. Switchback are proud to be working with Charity People | B Corp to recruit for this role. So please click the below link for details on how to apply and find out more information: https://lnkd.in/gAF6hdqu