In June the University played host to the first ever ReachOut graduation. ReachOut is a charity that aims to change the lives of young people from disadvantaged communities through one-to-one mentoring. The charity provides academic support and character education for primary and secondary learners and the University’s is proud to be one of ReachOut partner organisations.

During 2016/17 ReachOut ran 9 projects in Manchester and Oldham. 76 University of Manchester students volunteered across the projects, providing one-to-one support on a weekly basis to young people aged between 9 and 14. These students contributed 1,254 hours to ReachOut and all spoke very highly of their experience. All of mentors felt that their mentee’s Maths and English had improved during their time working together.

In June around 70 pupils and their teachers from 5 schools attended the very first ReachOut graduation ceremony on campus to celebrate their progress, achievements and their commitment to the ReachOut programme.

The event had a real celebratory tone and included an aspirations fair, supported by the University’s Science Buskers, and a formal awards ceremony. The event closed with some words from The University of Manchester’s Making a Difference award winner, Memona Shahid, who talked about her own experiences of volunteering and encouraged the mentees to use the skills they had gained from ReachOut and “not to be afraid of a challenge”.

The event was a great success and the University is looking forward to working closely with ReachOut in the future and hosting the next graduation event in 2018.

More information about the event is available on the ReachOut blog and details about ReachOut can be found on ReachOut website.