We are really excited to share that we have commissioned specialist service design company, Peopletoo, to work with us to identify the needs and the gaps in services and support for young people in care, leaving care or not in education or learning. Peopletoo will work with us to design between 2 to 3 brand new services that we will then find the funding to establish and deliver over the next 12 months.
Many people do not know that the story of our Trust began in 1858, when our founder Sir Josiah Mason built Almshouses in Birmingham for women over 50 years old and orphan girls. The demand for a home for children was so great that Josiah went on to build the largest Orphanage in Birmingham which led to the official founding of our Trust on the 29th July 1868. The orphanage closed in the late 1950’s and whilst the Trust’s school remained open for a while, this finally closed in 1960. Since then, we have done very little to directly support young people and this was always the vision of Sir Josiah when he founded our charity. This year, this will change.
Peopletoo provide support to organisations across Local Government and Health through the design and implementation of affordable and outcome focussed services. They are passionate about helping clients provide improved and sustainable services to all children, young people and their families and they have delivered over 100 projects across Social Care, Early Help, Children with Disabilities / SEND, Looked After Children and Care Leavers, including both review & implementation programmes. David Healey, CEO at SJMT said ‘We are delighted to work with them as we embark on this adventure to return to the vision of our founder and help improve the lives of many young people in need.’
