A rewarding evening

PEF launched its Full Potential Awards on 30 June to highlight the plight of the nearly one million young people currently not in education, employment or training (NEET). The event raised a fantastic £500,000 to tackle this urgent issue and provided PEF with an opportunity to showcase its work with its charities, celebrate the inspirational young people helped and to thank those whose extraordinary commitment makes PEF possible.

The evening’s highlight was the presentation of the Young Person’s Full Potential Award to Millie Greatrex. Millie’s transformation from “an unruly and disaffected ‘no hope’ teenager into a bright and witty young lady”, as one staff member put it, started when she joined Tomorrow’s People in an attempt to stay out of trouble with the police and curb her problem with drink and drugs. Now, with the charity’s support, she volunteers to help young people in care, has taken GCSEs and A Levels, and hopes to become a psychologist. Without PEF’s investment, Tomorrow’s People wouldn’t have been able to sustain the programme in Plymouth which Millie attended.

Other winners included School-Home Support (SHS), a charity which works to improve children’s attendance at school by helping pupils and their families deal with any disruptive problems, such as housing or domestic violence. When receiving the award for Most Successful Portfolio Charity Jan Tallis, the chief executive, said “PEF’s involvement with SHS has seen our reach grow by 37 per cent from January 2009 to April 2010, meaning we are able to support an additional 6,095 children and young people.”

Last but not least, the event offered the opportunity to thank those who have donated exceptional pro bono expertise, not only to PEF but also to its charities. Clifford Chance was given the Most Dedicated Company Supporter award for its unstinting work, amounting to some 1470 pro bono hours, and David Evans, a partner at Deloitte, was named Most Dedicated Individual Supporter after personally donating 245 hours.

Shaks Ghosh, Chief Executive of PEF, said “We continue to face a crisis in our communities; a shocking 1 in every 7 of our young people is not in education or employment. But the cause is not hopeless, and neither are we helpless. PEF’s 17 inspirational charities are already changing young lives. Our model, which brings together the private equity ‘tool kit’ of long term value creation, with pro bono business expertise, is helping them to become bigger and better, with every £1 donated to PEF having a five times impact.

“I would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank our member and supporter firms, who together make PEF possible and to say a special thank you to our hosts J.P. Morgan for this evening. Last, but certainly not least, my congratulations to all our award finalists and winners; their stories are the best illustration of why and how PEF is empowering more young people to achieve their full potential.”