Kent Foundation News

Charity Golf Day Boosts the future of Kent’s young people

by digitalbeans

Golf DayA charity golf day sponsored and hosted by by SLA Partnership and Woodfall Wealth Consultancy raised vital funds to boost the future career prospects of Kent’s young people. The event held on 2nd June to raise funds and awareness for Kent Foundation and Medway Youth Trust saw a mass of positive golfers and fundraisers brave the wet and windy weather at the prestigious London Golf Club.

Why young people?

Sarah Landry, Managing Director of SLA Partnership, Trustee Director at Medway Youth Trust and Volunteer Business Mentor for Kent Foundation enthusiastically addressed the audience about her involvement with both charities:

Kent Charity Golf Day 3“Charity pays a large part in my life, I understand how difficult forming a career or building a business can be and I genuinely believe that all young people should be given a helping hand to reach their full potential. Today has not just been about golf, but about your generosity and engagement with the aims of these two charities who deliver indispensable support services to young people to give them the support, belief and encouragement to succeed.”

James Woodfall, Managing Director of Woodfall Wealth Consultancy and headline sponsor was quoted:

“Kent’s young business owners play a huge part in the development of the future economy of the County. They are the business leaders of the future who will create future employment and business opportunities. Business success comes when we provide the correct support to help those young businesses to realise their potential. ”

A chat with the charities…

Two prominent Kent youth charities Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs and Medway Youth Trust were the beneficiaries of the awareness and fundraising event. Here’s what they had to say about the importance of their work.

Paul Barron, Director of Kent Foundation a business support charity whose flagship service is Business Mentoring said:

Kent Charity Golf Day 2“We meet with a wide range of young people, all with one thing in common – they want to start a business. They come to us with their enthusiasm to bring those ideas to life. One way in which we do this is through our flagship Business Mentoring Service. Our network of trained Volunteer Business Mentors support young business owners by creating a platform for them to make informed decisions about the future of their business. Having someone to listen, respond and engage to their ideas on a regular basis has been proven to increase the chances of business success.”

Graham Clewes CEO of Medway Youth Trust which delivers specialist employment, young carer and parent support:

“Picture in your minds a cliff much as we have along the Kent coast. Now imagine young people falling over the edge. Too many children and young people are making this fall in their lives and in the UK we tend seem to prefer to build services and institutions – for example prisons and hospitals – to treat them when they land at the bottom. But what we need are more fences at the top to prevent them from falling in the first place; they are cheaper and prevent long term difficulties. Our work at Medway Youth Trust is designed to build those metaphorical fences through early intervention, support, information and guidance, study programmes and encouraging young people to undertake social action. Today, as participants in our golf event, you have helped us to build more of these necessary fences for young people”

The day was polished off with a 3 course meal, a charity auction to win some incredible prizes and an inspiring yet humorous Q&A session in to the world of Rugby with ex Welsh Rugby legend Steve Moore.

The weather may not have been quite up to scratch however this did not deter from the positivity of the day with many asking us how they can book their place for next year. It couldn’t be easier, just press below…

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Kent Foundation News

Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs a proud Finalist at Kent Charity Awards

by digitalbeans

Kent Charity Awards Finalist:

Community Charity of the Year Award

We are pleased to announce that we were crowned a Finalist in the first ever Kent Charity Awards. The awards received almost 160 entries, so we were mightily pleased to be one of the final three to be short-listed in the Community Category.

Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs Finalist Kent Charity AwardsKent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs Finalist Kent Charity AwardsKCA14_15_FinalistKent Charity Awards

Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs Finalist Kent Charity Awards

About us and our work:

The Kent Foundation is a business support charity that is dedicated to promoting, encouraging and supporting business start-up and growth amongst Kent’s young people.  We actively engage with all your people who seek business support and specifically target young people in the area of Kent with the highest levels of youth unemployment.

All of our business support services are provided free of charge to Kent’s young people. We are privileged that the business community of Kent is so willing to invest their time in to the future development of Kent’s young business people through volunteering, networking and sponsoring. In the past 4 years we have gained the support of over 100 Volunteers who have completed our training to become Business Mentors.

Support us:

To donate, just click below, and don’t forget to include Gift-Aid, it gives us that little bit extra 😉
Donate Now Button

To sponsor us head over to our Contact Us page to send us a message

To become a Volunteer Business Mentor, check this out…

Kent Foundation News

A Blast! creates a real buzz about business start-up in Kent

by digitalbeans

On Tuesday 10th June Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs in partnership with The Enterprise Foundation hosted a whole day of business support activities in Maidstone under the working title ‘A Blast!’.

Wilkins Kennedy

The sequence of events kicked off with the Maidstone Business Breakfast, followed by two business start-up workshops all topped off with a large business networking evening to celebrate business in Kent.

The Breakfast was kicked off by guest speaker Paul Nixon, Wilkins Kennedy who told the audience:

“The most enjoyable clients I work with have to be business start-ups. I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing a seemingly small idea transformed in to something much bigger. Being a part of that process on the way is highly rewarding.”

More than 30 people who were looking at creating their own employment through starting a business attended workshops. A range of people attended from the unemployed right through to students from Mid Kent College who were considering their career options after their studies.

Amy McManus AM Marketing

To conclude the day young entrepreneurs, business start ups, established businesses and professionals from all across Kent joined a celebration of business at A Blast! The room was a real hive of activity with 10 young entrepreneurs exhibiting and three of them being interviewed on stage. Gemma Blacker – This Art of Mine kindly took charge of the stage to interview Amy McManus (below) and Lucy Hall of Kent Social Media.

Young entrepreneur, Amy McManus of AM Marketing expressed her gratitude on Facebook saying:

“What a great evening with some fantastic Kent businesses exhibiting! A fabulous event with the gang from Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs. Some great businesses and people showing off their products and services!”

Philip Gearing of Foster Gearing the guest speaker for the evening spoke about his journey in business and how the support from Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs back in 1990 spurred him on to never give up.

Philip Gearing Guest Speaker “It all started off at a small market one day where my business partner and I had sold next to nothing. But we learnt something special that day; never to be beaten. To always get back up again, never say no, try again and you will succeed”

Philip who is the man behind the WW1 memorial arch being opened by Prince Harry in Folkestone on 4thAugust this year went on to say:

 “Don’t be scared. I don’t think anyone is ever completely ready, so the moment to do it is now. If you don’t ask you don’t get. I remember calling up my first potential large client with a proposal to rebrand their business and what did they say – YES” 

None of these events would have been possible without the funding and support from Community First, Golding Homes, Wilkins Kennedy, Let’s Do Business Group, Maidstone Borough Council and Kent County Council.

 A picture says a thousand words…Click here to watch the event unfold in pictures thanks to Photographer Tom Phillips. 

Check out the young entrepreneurs that exhibited:

All of our services are provided free of charge to Kent’s young entrepreneurs, so if you would like to support our work please donate through Charity Choice.

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Post by Kent Foundation for young entrepreneurs.
Kent Foundation News

SLA Partnership chooses Kent Foundation for it’s Corporate Support

by digitalbeans

A boost for young entrepreneurs!

Two of the County’s leading charities helping young people reach their business and employment aspirations are to benefit from a major new sponsorship deal.

Recruitment specialists SLA Partnership are to give £6,000 a year (£3000 to each charity) to support the Kent Foundation and the Medway Youth Trust. The Maidstone-based company is also looking to back the organisation of a sponsored golf fund-raising event for the charities later in the year.

sla-partnership-ltd-sponsors-kent-foundation-rectangle-685Welcoming the deal, Paul Barron, Director of Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs said:

“This is a significant commitment by SLA to support our work and we are grateful to them for their commitment and generosity. As well as the money, their expertise in the job market will be invaluable in transforming ideas and initiatives into reality for those people that we engage with. Like all charities, we have to work really hard to find financial backing and I am delighted that they have chosen to back us at this challenging time.”

Medway Youth Trust’s Chief Executive, Graham Clewes, said:

“SLA’s support through their money, time and expertise is a tremendous boost for Medway Youth Trust and for our careers and employability work with young people in Kent and Medway. I am particularly struck by SLA’s desire for a long term partnership to help us in our work and I hope their lead will be an encouragement to other companies”.

Sarah Landry managing partner of SLA Partnership LTD had this to say:

“We pride ourselves on taking a thoroughly professional approach to our business, using our industry expertise and experience to provide candidates and clients alike with a service that is efficient and user-friendly. This is an ideal fit with the work of these two charities who, like us, look to encourage ways of achieving aspirations and ambitions. We focus on providing a quality of service to find a perfect match and I believe we have now achieved this with our sponsorship deal for Kent Foundation and Medway Youth Trust.”

Promote your business whilst supporting others!

To find out more about becoming a sponsor:

Call: 01622 694 341

Email: kent.foundation@kent.gov.uk