(formerly Stephen Lawrence Trust)

The organisation was founded in 1998 by Baroness Lawrence OBE in memory of her son, Stephen, who was murdered in a racist attack in 1993. Today, Blueprint for All works with young people and communities to create an inclusive society in which everyone, regardless of race ethnicity or background can thrive.

Blueprint’s programmes provide inspiration, opportunities, and support to talented young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, enabling them to succeed. Working with innovative organisations and businesses to address disparity of opportunity, the charity empowers communities across the UK to tackle disadvantage and discrimination for long-term, sustainable change.

Our £301,000 grant in 2019 over three years funded the Pathways to Professions programme, based around employability workshops, mentoring, work experience, inspirational talks, and support in accessing job opportunities in 15 schools from deprived parts of Birmingham, London, and Manchester.

Careers advice in schools can be patchy and even inadequate, and youth unemployment in the areas to be targeted by the project is disproportionately high. For young people from communities experiencing racial inequality and from low-income backgrounds, good career guidance is a significant factor in ensuring their future life chances. Working with schools as the access point to young people, and encouraging those schools to embed a programme of careers education and guidance, Pathways to Professions aims to support young people, at an early stage, to understand the breadth of career opportunities available in today’s economy, and to help them acquire the skills needed for success in the workplaces of the future.

Pathways to Professions will support young people to access professional careers not typically available to them through a series of workshops, downloadable educational resources, activities, and mentoring – a programme with national reach via Stephen Lawrence Day.

This was our second grant to Blueprint for All. We previously awarded the charity a £150,000 Better Futures grant in 2016 for a two-year Transitions Programme supporting young people from three secondary schools in the deprived boroughs of Lewisham and Greenwich in South East London into further or higher education, or employment opportunities.