One In A Million is a Bradford-based charity that engages with children and young people, through sports, the arts and enterprise. Bradford has one of the fastest-growing youth populations in the country with many of its children living in areas of high deprivation.
The communities the charity works in within the Bradford District are amongst the top percentile of the most disadvantaged in the country. It uses both formal and informal education as a delivery mechanism to break the cycles of deprivation over these young people’s lives, valuing and celebrating their uniqueness, and letting them know they are ’One in a Million’.
We began working with One In A Million charity in Bradford back in 2012 through our then flagship community programme, Good Neighbour, by providing funding for a youth worker at one of the community centres it worked in. Our partnership has evolved over the years, and although we no longer provide direct funding to the charity, we have continued to support it by including it in programmes we fund through our other partners. This means we are able to bring a holistic approach to enriching the lives of these young people.
Since our work began we have supported it in the following ways:
- Financial support: – We funded two youth workers from 2012 to 2018 investing almost £300,000 into the communities they work with.
- We have contributed to the funding of a School-Home Support practitioner since 2017.
- We provide funding for a group of young people from the school to attend an Outward Bound course each year.
- Through our work with Leading Children we have funded a Reciprocal Reading and Maths Mastery programme, a revision programme for Year 6 students at the school and, more recently, a creative critical training programme for youth workers in the community.
- Through our work with National Literacy Trust young people at the school have taken part in the Words for Work programme.
- We sponsored an award at its annual ceremony to celebrate achievements of the young people it works with.
Colleague engagement
Colleagues have supported the charity and school in a number of ways:
- Annual Easter egg donations.
- Christmas gift appeals.
- Taking part in the annual football and golf fundraising events.
- Taking part in a team challenge to create a garden area at the front of the school.
- Volunteering as part of the Words for Work programme.
"One In A Million is delighted to be a partner of Vanquis Banking Group, our journey together spans over a decade. It's support is a strength and has proved critical to our growth. It's commitment of sharing our hearts for children and young people living within disadvantaged communities of the Bradford district, continues to help us raise the aspirations and increase the life chances of those children and young people we work with."
Wayne Jacobs, Co-Founder, One In A Million charity.