Our History
Trust Youth began on a hillside in Nepal on a Whizz Kidz fund-raising trek. John Crossman, deputy chief executive of Education Extra, and the Whizz Kidz education team outlined a scheme to introduce young people to the principles of fundraising and working in the voluntary and community sector. The scheme was trialled in a couple of schools but really took off in 2005 with new energy and momentum when teacher Susie Whigham joined us having run the scheme in her own school.
Through Susie we set up an excellent partnership with the British Red Cross, who were brave enough to trust us when we began and provided our training for all the schools.
Together John and Susie went to UnLtd and they came up with the funds to run a pilot in six schools in London during 2006. After the success of the pilot we asked those who had taken part to help us write the future strategy of the scheme. Over £2,000 was raised and Mark Astarita, Director of Fundraising for the British Red Cross made presentations to all the schools involved at an excellent Celebration evening when all schools told us of the fun they had had.
Since then we have gone from strength to strength. With further funding from UnLtd, grants from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Garfield Weston Foundation and Awards for All (Big Lottery) we were able to employ a project manager, London co-ordinator and Northern Ireland co-ordinator and rapisly expand the number of schools in which we work.
In addition to the British Red Cross, who continue to provide Trust Youth teams with invaluable mentor support and training, we have grown our charity supporters to include Age Concern, Action for Children, Great Ormond Street Hospital, the YMCA and the Dogs Trust.