TWO schools from Hyde are to benefit after a social enterprise received a £68,820 grant from the Co-op Foundation.
The money received from the Co-op’s charity will enable Stockport-based PIE (Pursuing Individual Excellence) to deliver its ‘Into the Mix’ project.
They will be working youngsters with the Hyde High School and Alder Community High School helping youngsters transition successfully from primary to high school.
The PIE team, which works all over the North West, expects to engage with more than 350 young people from Tameside over the next two years.
PIE has worked with Hyde High School for the last two years on other projects which is where the initial link came from.
They are also partnering with another organisation, SENDCode who are supporting our delivery of the project. Their founder Seamus Mannion previously worked at Alder which is where that link came from.
Beth Nunn, PIE Founder and former teacher, said: “We are excited to be launching this programme in Tameside to help bridge the gap between primary and high school.
“This is always such a huge step for young people, which has been made even more challenging as a result of the ongoing pandemic.
“The programme will work with Key Stage 3 students to develop leadership and peer mentoring skills, which they will then be able to put into practice through support offered to Year 6 students at feeder primary schools as part of the transition process.
“We are particularly excited about encouraging so many young people to get involved with social action campaigns to help make a difference to their local communities.
“Communities and supporting each other has never been more important, and we are looking forward to helping make this happen with our partner schools in Tameside. The first year of the programme will start with us working with Hyde High School and Alder Community High School, and their associated feeder schools.”
The Co-op Foundation awarded the grant as part of a £3 million extension to its #iwill Fund, designed to empower young people to improve spaces, wellbeing and skills.
The #iwill Fund is a £50m joint investment from the National Lottery Community Fund, using National Lottery funding, and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to support young people to access high quality social action opportunities. The Co-op Foundation acts as a match funder.
Co-op Foundation has already awarded over £2m in grants since it first partnered with the #iwill Fund in 2017.
• Subscribe to the Co-op Foundation blog to find out first when funding applications open: www.coopfoundation.org.uk/blog
For more information about PIE go to www.pieuk.org