Power 2

Challenge

Many young people aged 11-18 experience challenging home situations and mental health issues. This, combined with exam stress, can lead to low self-esteem, low academic performance and behavioural issues at school.

These challenges have been exacerbated by the pandemic, with many young people falling behind at school due to not having the right technology or support at home. In addition, cuts to local services mean that they are not able to access the same health and wellbeing support as before. This has resulted in high stress and anxiety amongst young people, with 1 in 6 experiencing mental health challenges, up from 1 in 9 pre-pandemic.

Approach

Power 2’s flagship programme Teens and Toddlers enables teachers to refer young people who are struggling at school to a 16-week programme where they are allocated a toddler to mentor. It includes nursery placements, discussion sessions before and after spending time with the nursery children, group coaching and constructive feedback.

When COVID-19 hit the charity launched Power2 Rediscover: a new programme offering young people ten one-to-one sessions with a trained Facilitator to support them in areas including mental health, loneliness and school engagement.

Revenue model

Power 2 is funded by donations from trust and foundations, and individual philanthropists – alongside payment from schools and local councils which commission its programmes. Any surplus funding gets reinvested into the work that it does.

It took on £150,000 in the form of both a loan and a grant from the Resilience and Recovery Loan fund – which provided emergency funding to charities and social enterprises during the onset of the pandemic. Managed by Social Investment Business (SIB) and supported by Big Society Capital, the fund made the Government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) more accessible for social enterprises and charities. The fund provided £25 million in loans and £4 million of grants to nearly 80 organisations – with 40% of it going to the UK’s most deprived areas.

Impact

Over 25,000 young people have taken part in Power 2’s programmes. 91% of Teens and Toddlers participants report an improvement in their self-confidence, and 74% who have been at risk of exclusion are no longer at risk.

Power2 Rediscover has served over 400 teenagers across 29 secondary schools. Following the programme, 87% of those whose wellbeing had been affected by COVID-19 reported an improvement, while 75% of those struggling to re-engage with education improved.

Power 2’s move into the 1:1 mentoring market also enabled it to secure new public sector commissions – which have generated circa £500,000 so far.