Bedford Giving
Enabling more children and young people facing disadvantage to achieve their potential
The Harpur Trust is a founder member and host of Bedford Giving, funding its support costs and helping to deliver its programmes. Bedford Giving is a collaboration of passionate local businesses, charities and partners, who have come together with a united goal to help create a brighter future for the next generation, overseen by the Bedford Giving Board.
This year, Bedford Giving has:
Expanded
2
existing programmes – career mentoring and community panels.
Created
4
amazing new programmes – Taste of the Workplace, Safe Space in a Youth Place, Free Activities and Town Centre Youth Hub.
Launched
1
new campaign and website to support young people’s mental health and received over 150,000 views of our social media posts & more than 5,000 interactions.
This has done by bringing the community together, with
190
amazing volunteers together contributing 1,782 hours of their time, worth around £34,000, to support Bedford’s young people.
Aspirations and Opportunities
Taste of the Workplace
A brand-new programme
turned work experience on its head by bringing six local employers – bpha, M&J Roofing, Skanska, Anglian Water, Bedfordshire Police, and the NHS – into 2 schools to deliver project-based workplace introductions.
100% of students
said they had improved key skills like speaking, teamwork, and confidence.
The programme also had a huge impact on social media, with one post alone receiving more than
2 million views!
Career Programmes
Career Mentoring Programme Expanded
this year providing inspiration, guidance, and new skills to 90 Year 10 students at 5 local schools.
91% of mentees
said the programme had helped them in school.
While up to
46% of participants
reported making improvements on key workplace skills like confidence and business acumen.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Another new programme launched last year was
Safe Space in a Youth Place.
Responding to research showing that young people struggle to find help with day-to-day mental health challenges, the programme provides mental health training to adults whose daily lives bring them into contact with young people.
Of the 50 participants trained in the first months of the programme,
98%
told us that said they now felt confident talking to young people about their mental health.
The ‘Follow The Pink Link’ campaign and website help parents to navigate the tricky challenge of talking to their children about mental health.The website, which features articles about topics like how to start conversations about mental health, so far the webpage has received more than
Free Activities and Safe Spaces
Bedford Giving’s research into the borough’s “cold spots” – areas with few opportunities for young people – flagged Wixams as a priority – so Bedford Giving took action.
- It started with a pop-up skatepark, giving more than 50 young people the chance to try out skating and BMX skills.
- Then over the summer, Bedford Giving teamed up with partners to deliver a 4-week programme of activities for young people aged 5 to 16
- 251 children and young people took part – including 16 with special educational needs.
- Bedford Giving also teamed up with Bedford Borough Council and local art groups to run a series of workshops for young people aged 11 to 16. Across four sessions, 63 participants explored a range of creative skills.
- Following this successful pilot providing a central space in the town centre where young people meet, feel welcome, and get support, Bedford Giving has teamed up with One YMCA and Bedford Borough Council’s Family Hubs to create a Youth Hub.
Youth Voices and Community Panels
Community panels give local people the chance to shape their communities by awarding grants to projects that address local areas of need.
- This year, projects chosen by panel members supported more than 2,600 young people in Bedford.
- Thousands more are expected to benefit from 2 further panels ran this year – one led by parents of children aged 0-5, the other by young people aged 16-18.
- Between them, the panels allocated £170,000 to 16 projects targeting a wide range of local issues.
- Over 130 attendees from across the borough came together for the second annual Bedford Giving Young Voices Conference, that placed young people at the heart of the conversation about community, leadership, and change.
Bedford Giving also sponsored the Youth Voice Award as part of the Everyday Hero Awards, celebrating young people who speak up and drive change:
- The award was presented to Sporting Aid – The Next Generation Podcast, a space run by young people, for young people
- Leo Telford, co-author of Between, was highly commended for raising awareness about trans issues.
- As well as the Kimberley College Ready2Lead? Group, for supporting young girls with period education and wellbeing resources.
FUTURE PLANS
BEDFORD GIVING
We will continue to work closely with Bedford Giving to deepen impact, grow partnerships that help young people thrive and help amplify youth voices, as well as host the movement to carry on focusing on its four core areas – Aspirations & Opportunities, Mental Health & Wellbeing, Youth Voices and Activities & Safe Spaces. We will also support Bedford Giving to build more community‑led projects, expand and enrichment opportunities, and create clearer pathways for local volunteers and organisations to get involved. As Bedford develops, Bedford Giving will stay rooted in collaboration, listening closely to young people and designing programmes that respond to their needs, ambitions and creativity, so young person feel supported, confident and connected.
More Impact
Find out in more depth in the links below about how we impact the community in a variety of ways helping to unlock potential, provide high quality education and improve people’s lives through our Grants Programme.
Our mission is to nurture potential and improve people’s lives. Our strategy, Together for Bedford, commits us to enabling more children and young people facing disadvantage to achieve their potential, to provide high quality education with an impactful bursary programme, and to maximise our impact on the community in Bedford. Find out more below about how we have achieved these aims in 2024-25.
More children and young people facing disadvantage achieve their potential
Our Accelerator Programme aims to enable more children aged 0-11 eligible for Free School Meals to reach the expected standard. We also host Bedford Giving, a collaboration to bring together the whole community to support children and young people in Bedford.
High quality education with impactful bursaries
For more than 400 years, we’ve helped generations of young people in Bedford to unlock their promise and embrace their moment to shine.
Maximum impact on community needs
Each year, we award £1m+ in grants, giving a diverse range of community groups the resources they need to tackle issues and seize opportunities.