We have had an incredibly busy and successful 2022 at SYST (Shropshire Youth Support Trust). With new projects to broaden our reach of support to more young people and broader into the Mercia district, as well as new volunteers & team members, and several invitations to help support other organisations to understand better the barriers that young people are facing. All of this wouldn’t be possible without our supporters, partners, and, of course, our fantastic team at SYST.

I want to thank everyone for their continued support. Our mentors and work coaches have worked incredibly hard over the past 12 months. The feedback from all of our young attendees has been tremendous.

In the past 24 months alone, we have had over 1000 hours of volunteers commit to delivering mentoring sessions & group workshops. Additionally, in the last 12 months, over 250 hours of youth work have been committed to 200 hours, and our own ‘Dragons Den-style panel sessions are run entirely by our volunteer ASYSTORs. A momentous achievement made possible by all of you.

As the year ends, I would like to announce that through listening to our young beneficiaries and recognising its need, a mental health programme is developing to increase support for young people in the county (Telford and Wrekin and Shropshire boroughs). This is possible through collaboration amongst crucial partners in the area. We will also be piloting support for young people at risk within schools, as well as social and learning activities for 19 -24-year-olds in Telford and introducing and transitioning young people into the world of Coding, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. We are also super excited to launch our sponsorship programme and video podcast sessions. More to announce in the new year.

We are proud to say that since starting up seven years ago, we have provided guidance and support to over 2,300 individuals. In addition, we have helped over 210 young people who struggled to gain employment create their job and have since registered a business. These businesses have created over 270 jobs.

In the new year, we aim to broaden our reach by offering our support to young people across the West Mercia area and ask that if you know anyone aged 16 to 24 that is struggling to move forward in life to reach out to us.

On behalf of the charity, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year.

R Nuttall