Young people from Shawlands Academy Mosaic group attending Prince’s Trust Scotland’s annual Mosaic Connect event at MacRoberts LLP were delighted to find out they have been awarded £2,500 from Development Awards funding to help them make their dreams of creating a learning app a reality.   

The annual event bringing together the wider Mosaic network to promote the value and impact of mentoring featured a special Q&A from Mosaic Mentor and keynote speaker Rupa Mooker, HR Director and Employment Solicitor at MacRoberts. Pupils from Shawlands Academy who have previously been mentored as part of the Mosaic programme, acted as interview hosts at the event, asking Rupa questions about mentoring and her experience of being a volunteer with Mosaic.

News of the young people’s Development Award was sprung on the group as part of the celebration event, with hosts announcing that the group of five pupils had been successful in being awarded a cash grant of £500 each - a total of £2,500 - to help bring their idea of a learning app to life.

The young people first came up with the idea as part of a Mosaic Enterprise Challenge, where they were tasked with coming up with an enterprise idea to benefit their community, and went on to represent Scotland in the UK wide Mosaic Enterprise Challenge final with their idea. 

Talking about the app, Yaseen Hafeez, one of the young people from the Shawlands Academy Mosaic group said:

We hope our app will connect pupils together and be a source of support for all of their studies. Features will include ‘group-chats’ for classes which would serve as a forum to ask for help with school work and homework, and there will be lots of resources available for download, as well as information about local youth clubs and events.”

It’s amazing we can now actually make our idea a reality. We’re excited to get going.”

Commenting on the Mosaic Connect event Atif Bashir, Chair of Mosaic Network in Scotland said:

We are delighted to have been part of a successful evening connecting like-minded individuals with the positive benefits that mentoring programmes can have on the lives of young people.

The group from Shawlands Academy are a fantastic example of what young people can achieve with the right support and encouragement.

Please visit www.mosaicnetwork.co.uk for more information