Giving every
young person
the chance
to choose
Welcome to empower
Working in primary & secondary schools around the Braintree and Halstead areas, Essex, UK.
Our Mission
we are passionate about seeing young people in schools take ownership of their lives, decisions and beliefs, and as a charity we aim for the work we do to empower them to do just that.
Our Services
we offer a wide range of services to schools, from regular activities to one-off projects.
Assemblies
We deliver over 300 assemblies every six weeks in the local primary and secondary schools.
We regularly receive positive comments from staff about their impact and we love the challenge of presenting new assemblies every half-term.
Lunch Clubs
Over the course of a year, we run several clubs in our local primary and secondary schools.
All of the young people come of their own free will in their spare time, so it's lovely to have such large turnouts.
Some serve as a simple drop-in club while others cover interesting topics related to life, wellbeing and citizenship. Sessions are always fun, never boring and tend to have a good turnout from teachers too!
Mentoring
We provide student 1:1 mentoring to all our secondary schools, seeing over 80 students each week.
Divorce, bereavement, behavioural issues and a range of other scenarios can mean they feel they have no-one to speak to. We help as much as we can by giving them a good listening to!
All staff are appropriately trained and adhere to current safeguarding practices.
Man Up
A six-week project intended for secondary school lads to address a variety of issues surrounding self-esteem. The course takes the form of a journey, visiting various stages on the route to improved self-esteem and a fresh understanding of self worth. Students are chosen by the school to take part and it works best in small groups of around five or six to encourage trust and confidence.
The course has been run at various times over the past few years and has proved to be an extremely effective tool for those taking part. A training day is also available to allow similar charities around the UK to acquire the resources and skills to deliver Man Up in their own area.
The Big Step
Running since 2000, our Year 6 transition project has reached over 20,000 young people.
They're introduced to our secondary schools team as the primary schools team hand over the baton, along with presenting the students with "It's Your Move", a super book filled with advice, jokes and stories to help them with The Big Step.
Equip
Studies have shown that many lads struggle to open up in a typical 1:1 session, but thrive while undertaking an activity. So, we created Equip!
Launching in 2024, Equip is a six-week bike maintenance course for secondary school lads, particularly school refusers and those struggling to integrate.
Each weekly session triggers a chosen discussion, while undertaking a different element of basic bike maintenance.
Lads feel listened to, they grow in self-confidence having succeeded in repairs and the feel empowered to make positive choices in the future.
Lessons
Secondary school lessons typically follow an interview format, where students prepare questions related to the modules they are studying. We are particularly in demand in the build-up to GCSEs due to students being required to interview someone of faith as part of their examinations.
Primary school assemblies tend to cover a pre-arranged theme and most recently have addressed The Lord's Prayer, Creation, The Cross and Angels. It's always fun writing assemblies to cover a wide range of ages, but the team ably rise to the challenge!
A-Cross The World
A-Cross The World is an interactive primary schools RE project showing children how the cross is represented differently around the world.
Earning itself rave reviews over the years, it has proved invaluable in helping schools meet current National Curriculum requirements in Religious Education.
Anam Cara
Our Reflection Room project commandeers a secondary school classroom for an entire week and fills it with a variety of activities for students to undertake during a typical lesson.
Each activity focuses on an area of self-esteem, wellbeing and empowerment, meaning students are able to spend time reflecting on any given situation.
Its impact is tangible throughout the week and as such is in huge demand.
Square Pegs
New for 2025, this course has been developed to help those who are struggling to 'fit' in secondary schools. Aimed primarily at new Year 7 students but also ideal for those with similar issues, Square Pegs takes a small group of students through a six-week course of understanding their new enivronment, embracing the change and allowing them to grow in self-confidence and wellbeing.
Like our other courses, this is available to other charities by way of a training day and provision of all necessary materials and resources to deliver the course in other areas.
If you would like to know more about any of the services we offer, please contact us
assemblies delivered
243
lessons delivered
120
mentoring sessions
2,960
Our Impact
we delivered the following opportunities during the 2023/24 academic year
lunch clubs taken
245
big step children seen
1,300
anam cara students seen
560
across the world children seen
500
