On Tuesday 29th March Business in the Community, the responsible business charity, will take 19 business leaders to Basingstoke to understand the issues facing young people and people who are homeless when it comes to employability and skills.

Business in the Community’s Seeing is Believing programme aims to inspire and engage business leaders on responsibility issues. Through unique visits into the heart of UK communities, the programme offers a powerful way to challenge business leaders’ perceptions on responsibility issues, within their individual businesses, through their supply chains and across industries.

Young people hold the key to the future, but many lack aspiration, support and access to work. People who are homeless often have skills or insights which are overlooked or may face prejudice and other barriers to get back into the world of work.  Business in the Community’s members are committed to turning the tide on these barriers, working to ensure all young people leave school with the aspirations, motivation and skills that will equip them for adult life in the workplace and that people, regardless of circumstance, are given fair opportunities.

The day will be led by David Cook, Director, Corporate Marketing and Public Affairs at 3M and …

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Smart Living, YOU’s innovative assistive technology and telecare service, scooped the ‘Connecting People’ prize this week at the iESE Annual Awards 2011.  The prize, awarded to the service or project that best helps to connect diverse groups of people in the south east, was won following a joint submission by Hampshire County Council and YOU.

“This is a great achievement and really underlines the importance of ensuring cutting edge solutions are available to the communities we work with,” said Mike Chambers, YOU Assistant Director and the inspiration behind the Smart Living project.  “This is the first dedicated Assistive Technology service for people with a learning disability in the South East and really leads the way on showing how technology can overcome barriers to connect people with technology solutions.  It’s great to be recognised for this work.”

Congratulating the winners, Councillor Paul Bettison, chairman of iESE, said, “time and again, I’m deeply impressed by the sheer hard work and imagination of people who find new ways of meeting the challenges facing their organisations and their communities. These awards celebrate their achievements and help share details of their work so that the sector and its partners can benefit from the best.

iESE’s …

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Spring turned out to be an exceptional start for Hampshire charity, YOU, who began by celebrating recognition as the twelfth best Public and Charity company to work for in The Times Best 100 Companies Awards. The announcement was made after the Best Companies were revealed at a gala ceremony held in London last week.

“We’re delighted to come twelfth on the Best Companies list.” said Liz Page, YOU’s Director of People and Learning. “We were 96th last year and were hopeful we’d achieve a better result this year, but coming twelfth was beyond our wildest expectations!” YOU was also awarded two star accreditation by Best Companies and is one of only 158 organisations in the UK to receive this status.

Hot on the heels of the Times Award, came a second win for Liz’s team as they scooped Team of the Year in The News Business Excellence Awards.  The 10-strong team were nominated after a particularly challenging year which included a restructure, staff illness and some particularly challenging scenarios to tackle.  Despite this, they were able to consistently demonstrate a positive, professional and ‘can do’ attitude which saw Chief Executive, Nicola Youern, proudly describe them as “an amazing team with …

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