Published
By Toby Belshaw
The 'Giving Back' funding will acquire a three-year subscription to the Wisdom app which provides in excess of 1,900 students the opportunity of 24/7 counselling support, as well as a whole raft of additional benefits, including meditation sessions, healthy recipes, finance, debt, legal and medical info, whenever required, including outside traditional college hours. For more information on the app, click here.
Vice Principal of Student Support, Theresa Amarawansa, said, “We can’t thank CPC enough for the support they have shown Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College! We applied to the ‘Giving Back’ charity for one year’s subscription to the app and were delighted to find out that we’d been awarded three! In this day and age, this is just something that never happens and we are so grateful for the support CPC have given the students.
This app will not only help support our learners, but also help our staff guide students with their mental health. This is such an important topic, one that is very close to our hearts at the college, and the app will go a long way in helping to safeguard our students in the future”.
Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College both supports and works closely with the local charity ‘I’m George’s Mate’, which was set up by the parents and friends of a pupil who tried to take his own life in 2023. The charity’s mission is to #getyoungpeopletalking and to “give young people the knowledge and skills to support their mental health and prevent suicide”, with the new app for learners helping to support this important mission.
Since formation, ‘I’m George’s Mate’ has held lots of different fundraising initiatives with more set to follow in 2024, including a local music festival in Barnard Castle in May, as well as sponsored charity days, runs and walks. You can support the charity and learn more about their amazing work here.
The parents of George and four of his close friends attended a presentation to receive the 'Giving Back' funding in late February, alongside representatives from CPC and Queen Elizabeth College.
'Giving Back' is CPC’s flagship charitable arm, where any surplus organisational reserves made are put into a pot of money that CPC members can apply for, via the annual funding window held around October of each year. Any time they use CPC’s various procurement services, members are helping to give back to the wider education sector, helping to fund important projects, such as this. Since launching in 2019, 'Giving Back' has designated some £1.56 million of funding to 134 educational institutions across the UK.
CPC MD, Darren Lowe, who sits on the 'Giving Back' panel, said, “This project is one which touched the hearts of every panel member when combing through the hundreds of applications, I am confident the funds 'given back' to Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College will provide valuable support to staff and students over the next few years.