At the start of September, we talked about the excitement of a new school year, but also the pressures that can sit behind it.
For some young people, returning to school means worrying about making friends, fitting in, or keeping up academically. For others, the weight is heavier: low confidence, poor mental health, financial hardship, caring responsibilities, challenges at home or uncertainty about what their future could look like.
These pressures might not be visible when a young person walks through the school gates, but they can have a profound impact on their confidence, wellbeing, engagement with education, and aspirations for the future.
Our More Than A Backpack campaign has been about raising awareness of these hidden challenges and highlighting what can happen when a young person has someone in their corner.
At the heart of our campaign has been Lacee’s story. We’ve shared how JET’s Blue Skies programme helped her step beyond her comfort zone, develop vital life skills and begin to see herself and her future differently.
One of the things Lacee told us was: “If it wasn’t for JET, I wouldn’t be as confident to try something new.”
Our programmes aren’t simply about providing young people with an exciting day away from the classroom. Through long-term support, inspiring experiences and trusted relationships, we help young people build aspiration, confidence, motivation, resilience and goal-setting abilities -essential skills for the workplace or future training and further education opportunities.
We want young people to understand their strengths, develop skills for life and, crucially, believe that opportunities are within their reach.
Creating more stories like Lacee
Lacee is one young person, but her story represents exactly why our work is so important.
Through Blue Skies, we provide intensive, long-term support to young people who may be struggling with confidence, self-belief or engagement with education; and through Inspirational Outreach, we can extend that impact further, working with wider school communities and using career workshops, STEM engagement days, inspirational speakers and professional role models to help thousands more young people broaden their horizons.
But none of this happens on its own.
Behind every JET session is a network of people who make it possible: our corporate and military partners, trusts and foundations, patrons, volunteers, fundraisers, donors and regular supporters.
Their support creates the opportunities that allow young people like Lacee to discover just how much they are capable of.
As we look beyond September, our commitment to young people continues. Their challenges do not end when our campaign does, and neither can our support.
The funds raised by our supporters help us provide consistent, long-term programmes and meaningful opportunities for young people across the UK. Every donation helps create another chance for a young person to try something new, meet an inspirational role model, discover a career they didn’t know existed, develop a valuable skill or experience that all-important moment of thinking: “Maybe I can do this.”
And making a difference doesn’t have to mean making a huge donation or taking on an enormous challenge.
There are so many ways to be part of JET’s story.
Whether you give £20 a month, sign up for the JET Lottery (for the cost of your weekly coffee!), run your first 10K, hold a bake sale, volunteer your time, involve your workplace or simply tell someone else about JET, you are helping us lighten the load.