The Queens Awards have announced that that the new refocused Promoting Opportunity (through social mobility) category of the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise is now live. The Promoting Opportunity category recognises organisations that have supported people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds in improving their job skills and their chances of finding work.
This year, the category has been refocused to give applicants a better understanding of the application process, enabling those whose organisations’ core aim is to provide opportunities for others, and also those with a social mobility intervention or programme, to be recognised and celebrated. It is also now easier for organisations to demonstrate how they have supported socially disadvantaged individuals in improving their job skills and their chances of finding work and provide evidence on the impacts and benefits of their interventions.
There is also a list to help guide applicants about who we define as socially disadvantaged for the purpose of the application and this is below :
• People from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, including Gypsy and Traveller people;
• Asylum seekers and refugees or children of refugees;
• Young people (over 16 years old) with English as a second language;
• Long-term unemployed or people who grew up in workless households;
• People on low incomes;
• Lone parents – single adult heads of a household who are responsible for at least one dependent child, who normally lives with them;
• People who received free school meals or if there are children in the person’s current household who receive free school meals;
• Homeless and insecurely housed, including those at risk of becoming homeless and those in overcrowded or substandard housing;
• Care leavers – people who spent time in care before the age of 18. Such care could be in foster care, children’s homes, or other arrangements outside the immediate or extended family;
• Young people (over 16 years old) who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) or are at risk of that;
• People who attended schools with lower than average attainment or if there are children in the person’s current household who attend school with lower than average attainment;
• People whose parents’ or guardians’ highest level of qualifications by the time the person was 18 was secondary school;
• People with a physical or mental disability that has a substantial and adverse longterm effect on a person’s ability to do normal daily activities;
• People recovering or who have recovered from addiction;
• Survivors of domestic violence;
• Military veterans;
• Ex-offenders;
• Families of prisoners.
Please note to be eligible for the award, the participants have to be based in the UK and be over 16 years old at the start of the engagement.
Further information on the Queens Awards along with details on how you can enter can be found here.