Envision

Who we are

At Envision, we have a long and proud history of using social action programmes to help young people build their essential skills.
 

What started as four friends wanting to make a difference in their community has grown over the past 20 years to become a national programme empowering thousands of young people to drive change for themselves and their local communities.

It is not acceptable that young people from less advantaged backgrounds too often miss out on the opportunities to build their self-belief and essential skills and confidence needed to succeed in later life... We want to live in a society where all young people have equal opportunities to develop their skills and confidence.

Over the past two years we’ve opened up conversations and reflected on who we want to be as a charity, an employer and as role models for the young people we support. We’ve reviewed our practices, policies and culture, and have made a commitment to share our successes and challenges.

We support less-advantaged young people to develop the essential skills and confidence they need for life and work. 

We work closely with teachers in our partner schools to target the young people who will most benefit from our programmes, including those from low socio-economic backgrounds (for example, those eligible for Free School Meals or 16-19 Bursary) and those identified as having low levels of self-confidence. 

How do we measure and manage impact?

The Envision Essential Skills Framework sits at the heart of our outcomes, our curriculum, and our impact-management systems.

Our young people complete baseline and endline self-evaluation surveys based on the skills statements in our framework, assessing the frequency with which they use each skill so that they can reflect on their progress and we can learn what's working and what's not.

At the midpoint of the programme, after completing their first milestone challenge, young people consider their progress so far and re-set a personal goal for themselves. At the end of the programme, they reflect on their skills development and usage, as well as the development of their confidence and their understanding of meaningful social action. They’re also given the opportunity to provide feedback on programme content.

We continue to stay in touch with our graduates up to 18 months after they leave the Envision programme, monitoring their continuing skills progress and EET (Education, Employment, and Training) outcomes. Over time, we will use this data to learn more about the effectiveness of our programme, to ensure it builds essential skills that go and grow with the young people we serve.

Our culture and values

·  Keep it fun

We come with the positive attitudes, energy and ideas needed to achieve our goals for ourselves and our young people. Fun is a key part of everything we do

·  Bringing people together

We put young people at the heart of everything we do and unite young people, schools, business, and local partners to make a meaningful change to their lives.

·  Drive change

We’re focused and passionate about changing the lives of young people. We’re ambitious, determined and use evidence and our expertise to make this happen.

·  Value everyone

We’re an inclusive organisation that respects, values, and learns from the experiences and backgrounds of each and every person we work with.

·  Reflect & learn

We value learning and look closely at what's working, what isn't, and how to do better. We proactively seek ways to improve our impact and share what we learn with others.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy sets out our commitment, vision and ambition to create an inclusive workplace and society.

We’ll hold ourselves accountable and have set some goals to measure our progress against:

Diversify our staff and governance

Embed equity, diversity and inclusion within our culture and practices

Seek equity, diversity and inclusion within our partnerships

Our action plan is led by our internal EDI working group and our Impact and Strategy Board Sub Committee. EDI is at the forefront of our conversations on the big and small decisions that are driving change over the coming years.

Each year we will publish a report on our progress, successes, and learnings. We can’t wait to share this with you… watch this space!