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

Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs shortlisted as a finalist in the Kent Charity Awards

by digitalbeans

Kent Charity Awards FinalistWe are excited to announce that we have been shortlisted in the first ever Kent Charity Awards. You’ll find us in the ‘Community Charity Award Category‘ plus there’s a chance for us to win overall charity of the year. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for us.

What are the Kent Charity Awards?

The aim of these awards is to showcase the hard work and perseverance that charities and voluntary groups undertake to make the lives of others better. There are currently no similar awards in Kent and these awards will be unique and become an important date in the third sector diaries. The awards will be open to both small and large charities whether a branch of a national charity, a small community based charity or a voluntary group.

When do you find out if we have won?

We will be attending a gala evening on Thursday 19 March at The Corn Exchange in Rochester, hosted by BBC South East TV’s Rob Smith.  There are six categories this year; Heritage and Environment Award, Care Sector Award, Animal Charity Award, Voluntary Award, Community Charity Award and Children’s Charity Award. There will be one winner from each category and then an overall Charity of the Year winner. We will be sure to keep you in the loop of how we get on via our newsletters but if you really can’t wait all the latest news will be on our social media channels Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin

Kent Foundation News

Big Lottery Funding received for Edenbridge Enterprise Initiative

by digitalbeans

We are pleased to announce that we have been awarded funding from Awards for All a Big Lottery Fund initiative that funds small, community based projects across the UK.

The Edenbridge Enterprise Initiative will work with young people aged between 16-25 to provide enhanced skills, knowledge, confidence and self esteem in order to become gainfully employed or start their own business. Although the majority of West Kent is fairly urban, Edenbridge has been identified as a rural area within West Kent with high youth unemployment, with no secondary school coupled with infrequent transport links to nearby Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks. With a lack of employment opportunities in the area this has a direct result on some of the local young people, increasing the likelihood of low aspirations and self worth.

We feel it is important to address these issues so Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs has teamed up with social enterprise Target Your Potential who will prepare young people with the necessary skills needed to enter in to employment. This will be paired with exploratory workshops delivered by us into starting a business. To further increase the chances of success young people who participate in the training will be able to access free support from both organisations through monitored work experience or Business Mentoring.

Be a part of it:

As part of the project we will be looking for local business owners and professionals to put themselves forward and get involved. In order to build a community based project and keep the support network within easy reach of young people the involvement locally is crucial. We are on the lookout for those who would be able to offer their services in the form of work experience or becoming a Volunteer Business Mentor. Your input could make a huge life changing impact to the life of a young person and not only that but we are almost certain that you will find the experience highly rewarding. It’s your chance to be a part of their future!

Big Lottery Fund Awards for AllTarget Your Potential - Youth Employment Services

Kent Foundation News

Exploring Business as a Career Option – West Kent

by digitalbeans

Exploring Business as a Career option…

Not something young people immediately think of, but we think it should be a realistic option.

So on the 14th August we headed over to Swanley Youth and Community Centre and held a workshop for 16-19 year olds to discover, explore and find out more about what’s involved in starting a business.

It involved, effective introductions, confidence building and how to sell. The day was capped off with the group split in three teams to design/create their own business, promotional materials and exhibition space. Guests were invited in to visit the exhibition, pose questions to the ‘business owners’ providing a superb environment to practice what had been learnt throughout the day. Overall a great success with plenty of enthusiasm, creativity and thought provoking ideas! Here’s a few snaps from the day:

Post by Kent Foundation for young entrepreneurs.

Do you want to get involved?

We are in Sevenoaks on the 20th September from 11:00am – 2:00pm covering business planning, effective communication and how to market/promote your business. Visit the Sevenoaks Business Start Up Workshop event here…

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

Wealden Business Group Raises £5000 for Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs

by digitalbeans

Wealden Business Group (WBG), a Tenterden-based business networking organisation chose us as their charity of the year and presented a cheque for a fantastic £5000.

WBG has been busy raising money throughout the year with a series of events, including a black tie dinner in February which was attended by Liam Behn, Marketing and Communication Coordinator at Kent Foundation.

Donate to Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs
Picture shows (from left) Paul Barron, Director of Kent Foundation, Anne Webster, Charity Dinner Committee Member and WBG’s immediate past chairman David Meredith.

“It was obvious that a lot of time, effort and enthusiasm had gone in to the planning and preparation of the evening and this was reflected in the guests that attended. I was joined by two young entrepreneurs who played a vital role in reflecting the work of Kent Foundation. Daniel Warren, young entrepreneur and owner of Mint Fresh Services delivered his business story to the audience and it really hit home to the guests just how vital business support can be to business success. Many of the guests congratulated him and were asking for his business cards”

Paul Barron, Director of Kent Foundation was presented the cheque at one of the weekly networking events held every Wednesday at the Little Silver Country Hotel in and told members of WBG:

“Myself and the rest of the team at the Foundation are extremely grateful for this generous donation from Wealden Business Group. There is a lot of synergy between the Foundation and WBG in the belief that networking is a crucial marketing tool in business, sometimes it’s not what you know but who you know. The contribution will help us to nurture the development of young people starting their own businesses, who are increasingly important to the future economy of Kent.”

1493291_662175307158740_880489715_oAs a business support charity all of our services are offered free of charge to young people under the age of 30 living in Kent. We believe in delivering a personal service and that every individual and business is different. We meet with every aspiring young entrepreneur on a one to one basis to deliver one to one information, advice and guidance. Ongoing support is provided provided by our trained Volunteer Business Mentors who are all business owners, experts and professionals from across Kent.

Donations such as this are vital in helping us to sustain the delivery of free business support to Kent’s young people and ensuring their best chance of business success. If you are passionate about business and would like to raise funds we have some fantastic Sponsorship packages on offer, or alternatively donating is easy via our Charity Choice Page.