JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT TO HELP MORE STUDENTS THANKS TO GRANT

Manx Lottery Trust has awarded Junior Achievement a grant of £15,000 which has allowed it to employ a part-time Volunteer Manager for a period of 12 months.

Junior Achievement is the Island’s largest educational charity which helps up to 4,000 students a year develop their financial, literacy, and entrepreneurial skills, enabling them to get a job or start their own business. It’s supported by trained volunteers from businesses and the wider community to deliver workshops in schools, with 21,000 contact hours being donated in the last academic year.

Covid has put severe strain on the charity, and in the last 12 months it has lost approximately 50% of its volunteers, leaving it struggling to meet its commitment of supporting young people. The volunteers are the lifeblood of the charity, passing on valuable real-life knowledge to the students. By hiring a Volunteer Manager, the charity hopes to re-build its volunteer resource and continue its important work.

Sue Cook, Junior Achievement Chief Executive, said: ‘The pandemic resulted in a loss of volunteers to work in schools and overnight our database reduced by 50%. This was due to businesses struggling, some volunteers lost their jobs and others left the Island. Volunteers are so important to our charity and we simply couldn’t continue without them!

‘We welcome anyone who wants to give back to our community by volunteering with Junior Achievement and would encourage you to contact our new Volunteer Manager for a coffee and a chat to learn more. Antoinette Taylor can be contacted on 666266 or by emailing [email protected].

‘We would like to say a big thank you to Manx Lottery Trust for their generous funding which will help us achieve this goal.’

Sarah Kelly, Chairman of Manx Lottery Trust, said: ‘We’re delighted to support Junior Achievement with this grant, and hope they can increase their volunteer numbers quickly to enable them to continue developing young Manx students.’

Manx Lottery Trust has been delegated to distribute National Lottery money that has come from The National Lottery Community Fund. To find out more about the Community Awards programme, please visit: www.mlt.org.im/grant-programmes