Jonathan Freeman

In my role as Managing Director of Mosaic, a charity committed to improving the future of young people living in deprived areas in the UK and internationally, I am always extremely grateful to the many people who volunteer their time to help us towards achieving our mission.

Quite simply, without the generosity and support of our network of mentors, we would not be able to progress our important work. With mentors at the heart of our success, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the brilliant work of our recent ‘Mentor Hero of the month’ Brooke Greville.

Mosaic has several programmes operating across primary and secondary schools, prisons, as well as internationally. We are now approaching one of the most exciting events in our calendar — our annual Enterprise Challenge competition.

Launched during Global Entrepreneurship Week with James Caan CBE and other leading entrepreneurs in November last year, the competition aims to foster and promote entrepreneurial skills amongst pupils in secondary schools across England.

Last year, nearly 4,000 students from over 100 schools took part and after a series of regional and national finals, the overall winner was a team from Skinners’ Academy in Hackney, North East London.

The mentor of the winning team was Brooke Greville, Chief Executive of XineX, an investment company in technology, sport and equestrian-related ventures.

Looking back at the event, Brooke said, “The success of Skinners’ Academy was the highlight of a very busy business year for me personally. I have come to really care for the school and I am confident that this year’s team will fight hard to defend their title.”

Brooke decided to become a Mosaic mentor in 2013 after being introduced to the charity by Uzair Bawany, a Mosaic board member. With a demanding job, Brooke saw mentoring as a great opportunity to inspire young people and help them work towards building successful careers. “It is exceptionally rewarding to be a mentor and to make a difference to young peoples’ lives,” he said.

As for his advice for any current or prospective mentors, Brooke said, “It is important for students to feel that the mentor is really committed; it makes them more likely to commit to attending every session. With a demanding job, it is difficult to find the time every week, but it’s very important.” For me, one of the areas of my role I most enjoy is watching the relationship develop between our mentors and the mentees. It can initially be a daunting experience for both sides: for the mentees, it may be the first time they have seriously considered their futures and what they could achieve, and for the mentors, leaving the office and returning to the classroom can feel just as challenging. The feedback I often receive from our mentors is not only do they feel a sense of achievement from developing and helping their mentees towards a positive future, they also feel equally inspired by the relationship as they return to their normal jobs with a fresh perspective on their work and lives. The success of the Skinners’ Academy team with Brooke’s mentorship is exactly why we run the Enterprise Challenge; to celebrate the outstanding achievements young people in underprivileged areas are capable of achieving with the dedicated support of our mentors. I am very excited to see what the students have in store for us this year, and I hope you will join as a mentor in next year’s competition.

Jonathan Freeman is Managing Director of Mosaic

For more information on becoming a Mosaic mentor, please call 020 7566 8734, visitwww.mosaicnetwork.co.uk or email mosaic@bitc.org.uk. 

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January 19, 2015: In the first of a regular column, Jonathan Freeman,Managing Director of HRH The Prince of Wales’s charitable mentoring initiative Mosaic (www.mosaicnetwork.org.uk),writes about the benefitsmentoring can bring to corporations and businesses as well as the personal rewards fortheir employees.

Founded by HRH The Prince of Wales, Mosaic’s award-winning and accredited mentoring programmes help boost thefuture prospects of thousands of young people fromour most disadvantaged communities. Mosaic’s core mission is to strengthen and nurture a society in which everyone is valued and plays an important part. Sadly, here in the UK, those from Muslim communities are disproportionately over-represented in disadvantaged communities, so we work particularly to help these young people.

In October 2013, The Prince of Wales spoke at the first World Islamic Economic Forum outside of the Muslim World. His Royal Highness made plain that, if we are to take proper account of the uncertainties and risks that come with the rapid changes we are seeing in our ever-more interconnected world, collaborative efforts will be key in establishing the dialogue and trust needed for success.

The Prince of Wales saw a clear answer as to where he saw the solutions lying to the global challenges of climate change, population control and the widening gulf between rich and poor: “It is clear from the Koran and, indeed, from the Bible too, that humanity has a sacred responsibility for the stewardship of the Earth.”

There is an important role for the Islamic finance industry in this context. The perils faced by financial and business organisations are notseparate from wider society. So, as The Prince of Wales suggested, it is surely only sensible to explore how the spirit inherent in the “moral economy” of Islam could enable a more just and ethical approach towards the management of systemic risk in economics, in business and in finance?

Business ethics are increasingly under the spotlight. With advances in social media, the smallest indiscretion can quickly fuel conversations online, making organisations more accountable for their actions like never before. With this in mind, more and more corporations are taking steps to give something back to society.

Mosaic delivers four mentoring programmes aimed at primary and secondary schoolstudents and ex-offenders, as well as our International Leadership Programme. Last year, we supported 6,545 young people, thanks to the huge efforts of over1,200 volunteer mentors. We engage countless corporations both in terms of providing financial support and, more importantly, by providing their employees with the opportunity to make a difference to someone else’s life for just a small proportion of their time.And they really do make a difference!

With the help of volunteer mentors, we can bridge the aspirations-attainment gap. By linking young people with inspirational role models in this way, we boost their confidence, self-efficacy and long-term employability.We’re so confident in the great work our volunteers carry out that we’ve partnered with the renowned National Centre for Social Research to undertake a ground-breaking five-year study of the impact mentors make on young people’s life chances.

So, of course it makes good economic sense for businesses to encourage their people to volunteer in the community. But the moral case for companies to be grounded on solid ethical foundations, as so powerfully set out by our Royal Founder is, frankly, far more important than short-term PR gains.

The post Giving back to society appeared first on International Finance.