About The Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust
Background
On the eve of the Beijing Olympics in July 2008, Kelly Holmes set up her charity the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust.
Her vision was make the most of world class athletes experience and the life skills they learn competing at the highest level, to mentor disadvantaged young people. Quite simply, Kelly’s charity helps the young people ‘get their lives on track’.
Why?
What many people don’t know is that Kelly is the mixed race daughter of a white mother who was left by Kelly’s biological father when she was just a year old.
Being a single teenage mum in the early 1970’s was tough and Kelly was in and out of care homes for the first few years of her life. Things were so tough that she was put up for adoption, until at the very last minute she changed her mind took Kelly home. As home life became more settled, Kelly went to school, but in time didn’t find this easy either until somebody saw her talent: running.
That moment changed her life. It gave her the chance to set her sights on a goal and motivated her to try and achieve a dream. Now she wants to give other kids who haven’t had the best start in lifethat chance too.
How?
Competing on the world stage is tough, just like life can be. You have to learn to really dig deep when life doesn’t go your way. So the DKH Legacy Trust uses the challenges and experiences that elite sports performers go through to help young people.....not only in sport, but in everyday life too.
All of the charity’s projects are delivered by world class athletes, most of whom are Olympians, Paralympians, World and Commonwealth Champions.
The story so far....
In the first three years the charity reached over 15,000 young people. Over the past year, the charity has supported a further 36,373 through a range of programmes and the help of 101 world-class athletes.
Volunteering is central to many of the charity’s programmes and the DKH Legacy Trust was recently recognised by the Queen in the 2012 Diamond Jubilee Awards.
In these tough economic times the charity works hard to make every penny count and for every £1 raised, 91 pence is spent on supporting young people through these programmes.
About Get on Track
Get on Track, the charity’s flagship programme which supports disadvantaged young people who are ‘NEET’: not in education, employment or training*.
The three month intensive mentoring programme uses sport and physical activity to engage young people aged 16-25 years old. With the support of mentoring from world class athletes the young people plan, develop and deliver volunteering projects working with community groups and local businesses, to benefit local people who need help.
Examples include refurbishing an outdoor play area for a special school, running a multisport festival for primary school children, and redecorating a community hall for leisure activities. The young people also link with businesses, engaging in work experience to get them ‘work ready’, e.g. Cisco and Morgan Hunt Recruitment.
Through Get on Track the young people develop their own self confidence, self esteem, and interpersonal skills, getting them ‘fit for work and fit for life’.
Since October 2009, Get on Track has been delivered in Liverpool, Manchester, Reading, London (Croydon, Southwark, Haringey, Lewisham, Hackney), Birmingham, Bristol and Luton.
Key figures to date:
- 291 young people have been supported through Get on Track
- 241 young people completed the mentoring programme and ‘graduated’
- On average, 65% of young people who were previously unemployed, progress in to Education, Employment and Training.
- 2,857 people in local communities have benefitted from the volunteering projects
The story so far...
Demographics of young people**
- 81% of young people on Get on Track are male
- 14% have a physical or learning disability
- 12% have a criminal conviction
- 66% were unemployed, and of these, 1 in three young people had been out of work for 6 months or more.
What the young people said:
Young people*** engaged in ‘Get on Track’ were asked to complete an attitudinal survey at the beginning and end of the project.Questions focused on how young people felt about key areas of their lives and the challenges they were facing.
Key highlights from these results include:
- 45% increase in Reading on feeling good about future
- 32% increase in Reading on confidence about physical appearance
- 25% increase in Birmingham on getting on with family members
- 17% increase in Birmingham on seeing something through
- 32% increase in Luton on confidence about physical appearance
- 19% increase in Luton on how to make exercise a regular part of my life
Notes
- *Or are at risk of being NEET
- **Demographics taken from participants in Get on Track Reading, Birmingham, and Hackney.
- ***Attitudinal questionnaire results from young people on Birmingham, Reading and Luton projects.
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