City Bridge Trust

In London, a place of great culture, vibrancy, enterprise and wealth, there are still many young people who get left behind. However, with support from City Bridge Trust, we're able to help some of the most disadvantaged young people across the capital.

The City Bridge Trust strategic partnership represents the largest single pledge ever received by The Prince’s Trust.

Together we aim to engage with some of the hardest-to-reach young people across London and give them the skills and confidence to get into work, training and education.

Our outreach teams in London lead our engagement directly with young people in their communities, offer information and advice about our support, and refer those young people onto appropriate programmes.

The grant supports young people facing barriers including mental health issues, those in the care system and ex-offenders, through a range of courses such as our Fairbridge programme - an individually tailored personal development course for vulnerable young people.

As the economy recovers and overall youth unemployment falls, a bigger proportion of the young people we support are becoming harder-to-reach. We're already seeing a rising proportion of unemployed young people who have been out of work for more than six months. With City Bridge Trust’s support, we want to help those young people take their first steps into education or training so they can access sustainable employment.

Louis Whalley, aged 20 from Haringey, struggled throughout school, leaving with no qualifications. Having Asperger syndrome meant he also found it difficult to socialise with other people. However, after completing a Get Started with Film course, Louis felt much more positive about his life.

Louis says: 

I don’t know what I would've been doing without The Prince’s Trust. It's increased my chances because it’s a good thing to put on my CV as one of the accomplishments I have. The best skill I learnt was working with people from different backgrounds. When we first went there everyone was shy. Now we're all keeping in touch because we made a bond. I now work at a local restaurant.

Jeremy Mayhew, Chairman of the City Bridge Trust, says: "Our grant to The Prince's Trust strengthens our existing support and the extremely valuable work it does for deprived communities in London."

Mark Boleat, Policy Chairman of the City of London Corporation says:

The issue of NEETS remains a cause for concern in the capital, with higher than average rates of unemployment among young adults. This issue not only impacts social mobility and cohesion but is leading to a skills gap in the workforce.

"The partnership between City Bridge Trust and The Prince’s Trust reinforces the Corporation’s on-going commitment to reducing youth unemployment and ensuring that young Londoners have the skills and opportunities to succeed in today’s fast-paced economy."