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Making social mobility a reality with Project Flourish
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The number of young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness is continually rising, exacerbated by economic concerns, employment barriers, and deepening social rifts. But youth homelessness doesn’t have to be a reality, and the right opportunities can make all the difference. Our response is Project Flourish: a groundbreaking, free pro-bono employability service created in collaboration in with EveryYouth, our UK charity partner.
Leveraging our world of work capabilities, and bringing together experts from across organisations, we’re helping disadvantaged young people secure jobs with real prospects, and equipping employers with the skills and knowledge needed to support their journeys.
We would like to thank our key employer partners, along with the many others who have supported us, for their invaluable contribution in helping us pilot and shape Project Flourish across multiple industries and sectors.
How it works: our employability service in five steps
Collaboration is at the heart of Project Flourish. We work with employers who share our goal to create a more equitable world of work and invest in future generations. If you have a proven record of fair employment practices, a willingness to learn with us, and a commitment to providing a young person quality mentorship, you can expect a wealth of support and a unique opportunity to help create lasting change.
We support each young person throughout the recruitment process, and advise participating employers on inclusive hiring practices, designed to assess skills and behaviours over work experience. We’ll also help shape your DE&I strategies to create supportive and positive cultures that allow young people to flourish, and empower your organisation to develop more diverse and innovative teams.
To create an environment where young people can succeed from their first day, we deliver free ‘Employer Awareness Sessions’ to your teams, based on Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) principles tailored for employers of disadvantaged young people. And to help overcome the unique challenges that each young person faces, the Hays Super Boost bursary provides unprecedented support; from funding essentials such as clothing, food, and accommodation, to covering transportation and pastoral support.
Once a young person has been successfully integrated into their new role, we continue to provide them dedicated support and intervention to scaffold their professional journey and increase the value they bring to your business. We bring in experts across organisations to ensure the continued success of a young person’s placement, including dedicated mentor support providing pastoral and ‘on the job’ care, and additional expert consultation for the young person’s individual needs, such as award-winning financial education via our partners at FinWell. And no matter where they are based, each young person can access our remote Learning Management System (LMS) – a digital hub for employability, wellbeing and upskilling resources – offering continuous support for their evolving needs.
Project Flourish is the only initiative of its kind to be validated by Social Value Portal – industry-leaders in measuring social value – offering a unique opportunity for organisations to deliver long-term outcomes. By taking part in Project Flourish, we’ll work closely with you to continually improve processes and highlight how your efforts have contributed to the bigger picture, optimising your social purpose strategy and elevating your EVP.
Insights into our Project Flourish journey at Hays
As a Homewards Activator, we’re securing commitments for job and training opportunities, addressing needs from Local Action Plans, and providing insights to overcome employment barriers for those facing homelessness. Discover how your organisation can join us in making a lasting impact.
Through Project Flourish, I hired a young person who had been through extreme hardship. Here’s my experience and why I think other employers should get involved too.
Discover how organisations can provide young people meaningful employment opportunities and help break the cycle of youth homelessness through closer collaboration.
As homelessness numbers are on the rise, find out what your organisation can do to help, from supporting current employees to hiring homeless people.
An in-depth look at the rising homelessness in England, misconceptions about hiring homeless individuals, and the systemic barriers they face in securing employment.
I’m Jamie, project lead of Flourish. I’m determined to help some of the most disadvantaged young people in the UK gain meaningful employment, and to help get them out of homelessness. Follow my three-day visit to London to support this mission.
Lesley Trapasso, Bid Director at Hays, and Akame Hotaru, Bid Administrator at Hays, talk about their experience with Project Flourish. Akame was hired into Lesley’s team through Project Flourish, and passed her probation with flying colours. Following a difficult time in Akame’s life, securing her first corporate role has given her the fresh start she deserved. Watch this video to find out more about their success story.
Our partners
Youth employability is a societal issue that affects us all. That’s why we work with a range of organisations who help support the mission of Project Flourish, drawing on our combined skills, networks and resources to empower young people’s futures.
Project Flourish is a collaboration between Hays and EveryYouth, created to tackle inequality in employment opportunities for young people at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Alongside this collaboration, we also support EveryYouth’s wider services through year-round volunteering, fundraising and by sharing our world of work expertise to help strengthen outcomes for young people.
Hays is an official activator of The Royal Foundation’s Homewards programme, a five-year programme created by Prince William and The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales that aims to demonstrate that it is possible to end homelessness.
working with Homewards to create employment pathways for those experiencing, or at risk of homelessness across the six Homewards locations – Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Lambeth, Newport, Northen Ireland, and Sheffield.
As a signatory to Crisis’ Homelessness Alliance, and a member on the advisory board, Project Flourish is providing insights through pilots to support our pledge to prevent and end homelessness through inclusive and supportive employment practices.
We’re award-winning members of Movement to Work’s employer-led initiative to tackle youth unemployment in the UK, expanding our networks and helping to facilitate knowledge sharing.
Our collaborative partners at FinWELL offer bespoke financial education, training, guidance and support services for young people. And for every young person enrolled with FinWell, they contribute 10% back to our bursary scheme, synergising good business and social value.
Go1 is supporting delivery of our Learning Management System, helping us provide young people with access to a broad range of learning content in one accessible digital hub. Through this platform, Project Flourish participants can build confidence, develop employability skills and access resources that support their progression in work and life.
We’re partnered with AutonoMe to provide greater support to neurodivergent people, leveraging the organisation’s expert guidance and digital content to provide staff and employers essential training and knowledge.
The Bloomfield Trust and the National Autistic Society’s Autism at Work programme aims to bridge the gap between skills shortages in industry and talented autistic candidates, providing employers the training and resources to engender more inclusive workforces.
Find out more: Project Flourish FAQs
The aim of our employability and career support programme is to help some of the most disadvantaged young people in finding and sustaining meaningful employment. We want to prove that social mobility can be possible for everyone, including those facing homelessness and poverty. In collaboration with charity EveryYouth, and their delivery partner charity network, we’re supporting their mission to end youth homelessness.
Our programme provides disadvantaged young people the skills and tools needed to secure and succeed in meaningful employment, as well as supports the employer to create inclusive processes and positive environments, enabling the young people to ‘Flourish.’
There are many barriers which prevent them from gaining and importantly, sustaining, meaningful employment. Sometimes, they haven’t had the close support networks we may take for granted, or they may have lived through traumatic experiences which impact their behaviour and confidence.
Some may have had disruptions in education, resulting in fewer qualifications. Others don’t have access to financial support or struggle with navigating the benefits system, making it extremely difficult for disadvantaged young people to compete with their peers for job vacancies.
Homelessness is a vicious cycle: if a young person doesn’t have a fixed address, it can be challenging to secure employment, which then creates further barriers to finding a job. By breaking this cycle, we prove that social mobility is possible, and we help young people have equal career opportunities. We see employment as a critical element to breaking this cycle as all young people deserve to ‘flourish’ in work and life.
The bursary is highly flexible, helping to finance a range of supporting measures designed to overcomes the unique challenges that each young person faces. We’ve contributed an initial £60,000 for the bursary, which has so far helped fund essentials, such as clothing, food, accommodation and pastoral support, but can also be used to deliver more bespoke intervention, such as transportation, driving lessons and more.
In this video, we hear from Nick Connolly, CEO, EveryYouth, Karen Young Social and Environmental Purpose Director, Hays, and Jamie Houlders, Project Flourish Lead, Hays, about this groundbreaking initiative.
