Why now?
Young people in the UK are facing some of the biggest challenges and worst economic prospects for generations.
With our help they can overcome these barriers. We link mentors with high social capital to young people who have low social capital, to accelerate social mobility.
Through the provision of trained volunteer mentors from within the business world and community, 1MM boosts support and advice for young people in the areas of education, employment and social action.
What we do
1MM harnesses the power of one-to-one mentoring, creating connections that make a difference.
We want to give young people the opportunity to gain the knowledge, networks, skills and confidence they need to succeed.
1MM connects young people with businesses, professionals and people within local communities who have the experience and expertise in the world of work and want to share it.
One connection, one regular conversation… One life changed.
Our History
In 2016 1MM was just an idea of the co-founders Rushanara Ali MP and Alveena Malik inspired by the Referendum vote and the fractures in society which rapidly bred fear and division amongst communities in the UK. In particular, both Rushanara and Alveena were concerned by the number of conversations they were having with alumni from the UpRising Leadership programme, who felt fearful for their own future, as well as for family, friends and future generations in their local communities. Young people were anxious about what Brexit would mean for them, especially those that came from marginalised or disadvantaged communities, who were finding it increasingly hard to navigate the changing and challenging times ahead.
Rushanara and Alveena’s response was to establish a big, bold and ambitious programme to connect one million young people to one million trained mentors who would act as trusted adults. These trained mentors would provide one-to-one mentoring in order to support and guide young people at a scale not seen before in the UK. The impact would be two-fold; firstly to support young people, especially those with unmet needs with educational attainment and securing meaningful employment. Secondly to bring local people across difference to build trust and resilience in order to deal with the ever-changing landscape.
In 2017 1MM started in two or three schools in each region and by 2020 we were proud to offer 1:1 face-to-face mentoring, one hour, once a month to almost all the secondary schools in Cardiff, 90 % of secondary schools in Manchester and had a presence in the majority of colleges in West Midlands and East London. We were confident that we would hit 100% reach across educational institutions in each of the regions by the end of 2021. Our mission to scale began to feel very real, backed by independent research from the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) which concluded that our offer had an impact on young people’s confidence, personal skills, employability skills, social connections and well-being.
When the pandemic struck we had to suspend our model of face-to-face mentoring which no longer became viable. Like many organisations we needed to pivot quickly and developed a virtual mentoring offer focusing our efforts to support the growing numbers of young people (aged 18 to 25) at risk of unemployment.
Since March 2020 1MM has focused on providing high quality 1:1 virtual mentoring to over 18s. The ability to connect people across geographical boundaries has been transformational as has our ability to offer mentoring to young people in places that seemed too difficult to reach in our early years such as in Llandrindod Wells, Rotherham, Wigan, Dagenham and Sunderland.
In October 2021 1MM launched its independent research report (Read the Mobilise UK independent report here). The report analysed the benefits of face-to-face and in-person mentoring vis a vis virtual mentoring by video calls. 80% of the 1MM mentors and mentees consulted said they would prefer a hybrid approach to mentoring with intermittent opportunities to meet in person, conducting the remaining sessions online.
This research, our strong community and employer networks and significant investment in our technology has put us in a unique and exciting position to provide choice to our mentees to have face-to-face mentoring , hybrid mentoring or virtual mentoring. This is a real game-changer for 1MM positioning us strongly to reach our ambition of achieving a million mentoring relationships.
R&D Phase
1MM Pilot
Partnership
Launched
Mentoring Impact
Delivering in East London
Established 2000+ Mentoring Relationships
Virtual Offer
Independent Evaluation
Read the Mobilise UK independent report here