We Rise

Once again we want to shine a light on Verizon Business and in particular huge supporting We Rise partners Ademola Odusanya and Dean Dennis for showing two of our Alumni Jhovari Grant and Nana Frimpong how their business works. 'The work experience was so useful. Ade and Fatima taught us a lot of useful tips and tricks. They did an amazing job. I would definitely go there again.' High praise from Nana. Shelley-Ann Dennis Virginia Payne Raymond Mcfarlane Andy Ankrah Mohammed Osman Maria Taylor

We've been wanting to create an animation for a while as an accessible and engaging way to share project ideas generated by some of our alumni. Introducing our animated avatars for We Rise alumni Regina, Sia and Skye Cozier who are all phenomenal! More on the project will follow........... Thanks so much to PRD and Mary-Helen Young Rose Jump Chris Paddock for the collab and to GRAFT for the visuals! Elle Moss

Our latest impact report is live and we are proud to share how much we have achieved: - over 47,000 hours of inspiring opportunities delivered to date 🏆 - we have now worked with 83 companies and organisations 💪🏼 - and have delivered over 60 projects to create engagement and insight for everyone involved 🧠 Find out more here: https://lnkd.in/eCCskNGv https://lnkd.in/eHDrTCu3 Thanks to our delivery partners Ipsos, Fashion Minority Alliance CarverHaggard Tisserin Engineers The Felix Project Linda Jackson LDN Collective Linkcity ITV Tipalti Verizon Arup London Borough of Lambeth Leo Burnett 3Space Squire and Partners LHC Procurement Group Heather Link Polly Waterworth James Flitcroft Virginia Payne Andy Ankrah Mohammed Osman Maria Taylor Raymond Mcfarlane Abigail Melville

We are so pleased to be able to share that Sam Dusucces has won our inaugural Reece Simwogerere We Rise Alumni Award! Read his story in the blog post below to find out what an amazing journey he's been on. Thank you so much Andrea Speziale Bagliacca for always supporting him. Moonbug Entertainment Virginia Payne Mohammed Osman Andy Ankrah James Flitcroft Raymond Mcfarlane Maria Taylor 3Space London Borough of Lambeth Polly Waterworth https://lnkd.in/eMX5CvgT

It’s great to have been able to celebrate this with those who have made it happen. #lambeth #youthempowerment #mentoring

Congratulations to @samdusucces for winning our inaugural Reece Simwogerere Alumni Award 2024! Sam is fantastic as everyone Moonbug Entertainment knows. When We Rise first met Sam he didn’t smile much or make much eye contact and confidence wouldn’t be one of the first things you would use to describe him.  He was fresh out of school and maybe had an idea about what he wanted to do but had no real plans for how to do it. In fact we only met him because someone dropped out of our second ITV Win advert project and he was top of the waiting list, he was ready, waiting and willing.  It was then that it became apparent that his lack of confidence was not matched by any lack of ambition when he stepped out of his comfort zone and took the presenter for the advert, TV legend Andi Peters aside to ask him for his personal career advice.  Wow that must have taken a lot of courage - not because Andi wasn’t nice - he is lovely! Then our next encounter was on our 81 acts of exuberant defiance film project where he brought such insight and consideration to everything he raised during the round table discussions.  It wasn’t long after that that the best thing that could have ever happened to him happened - he joined our mentoring programme and was matched perfectly with one of our brilliant and committed Mentors - @andreaspezialebagliacca Andrea worked closely helping Sam perfect his CV, coaching him through applications and interviews. He secured places on top calibre traineeships including at the BFI and then all of Sam's hard work and talent shone through as he won a paid internship at leading animation company Moonbug Entertainment, which he successfully converted into a permanent role. This is the impact he has had at Moonbug: 'It has been an absolute privilege to witness Sam find his voice and to be a small part of his journey. He is a captivating, deep thinking, eloquent storyteller that goes from strength to strength. He draws you into every sentence and leaves you wanting to hear the next line. I'm genuinely excited about his talent: his growth is precisely why I come to work. What's more, his openness, honesty and willingness to share has been really key to helping others to feel comfortable to be themselves.' We are so glad Sam joined our work experience project and the work experience project that we run really do change lives - if you want to be part of a story like Sam's and you want your organisation to make a difference then get in touch. Polly Waterworth Virginia Payne Mohammed Osman Andy Ankrah Clare Richards James Flitcroft Shelley-Ann Dennis Dean Dennis Gianluca Rizzo Harry Owen-Jones Dunraven

We are so excited to be launching our We Rise Alumni Programme and the Reece Simwogerere Alumni Award this Thursday evening. We are so looking forward to catching up with all of the Alumni who are coming and our wonderful clients, partners and supporters. After delivering so many successful projects for clients over the past 5 years with countless amazing young people in the driving seats we are formalising how we support them when they outgrow our school age projects and programmes and how they can help shape We Rise going forward. If you want to help us celebrate and want to find out more about We Rise or our Alumni then book your place here: https://lnkd.in/eqvfYvPb

We are so proud of this film and it's message. We Rise exists to empower young people to create successful futures and help industries diversify their work force. We do it through projects exactly like this - ones that are designed to reach young people of colour because they come from the creative ideas of the young people of colour who have been involved in making them. La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls' School Nicola Weekly The Elmgreen School Aidan Ryan and The Norwood School - your students made this so let's get it shown to all of your students and their friends next term! Sia-Roshanda Pinnock-Marah Joel Bjarni Marlinarson Stella-Maris Alozie Lex Leo-Kelly dannielle modzaku Gabrielle Adjaye Zoe Ogbonna - what do you think? Especially big thanks to Leo Burnett UK Missing Link Films Publicis Groupe Hayley Power Ashley Francis-Roy for making this happen - it was a brilliant experience. Charity Bedu-Addo you were perfect! Shelley-Ann Dennis Abigail Melville James Flitcroft david njie Raymond Mcfarlane Virginia Payne Maria Taylor Andy Ankrah Mohammed Osman Polly Waterworth

Our strong relationships with schools like La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls' School and really supportive teachers like Nicola Weekly mean our project are successful and incredibly impactful for the students who take part in them! Thanks so much to the The Felix Project for the work experience commission and Linda Jackson for the collaboration!