Thank you so much to all who attended the Future Foundations Annual Awards 2014. It was brilliant to see so many familiar and new faces there, and your energy and enthusiasm created a fantastic day.
Congratulations to all the nominees and winners of the awards, but of course you are all superstars and we hope you had a lovely afternoon.
Thank you to those who presented and for your inspiring words, and to Madonna and Jon for hosting and bringing their stories and ebullience to the afternoon.
There is lots in store for 2015 so do keep in touch and thanks again for being part of the day.
Our annual awards bring together our students, staff, funders, alumni and partners to recognise and celebrate our collective achievements and contribution to society during the year.
Our 2013 awards launched the start of Future Foundation’s 10th year. FF’s birthday was the 20th December so these awards celebrated this years achievements as well as looking at some of the highlights from the last 10 years.
AWARDS CATEGORIES AND CRITERIA
Please click on the plus signs to read about the awards in more detail.
For all the nominated categories 3 candidates were selected and invited to attend the award where the winners were announced.
Legacy Careers Project Team of the Year
The team that wins the Legacy Careers Project final taking place on 2nd December will be invited to show their presentation during the main programme. All members of their team will be invited.
Good luck to all teams!
Following the event on the 2nd December, we will be in touch with the winning team to invite them to confirm their registration.
If you are a member of the winning team and have any questions with regard to your presentation, please contact kate.suart@future-foundations.co.uk.
NCS Team of the Year
Future Foundations delivered the National Citizen Service in the region of Berkshire this summer and autumn. We would like to invite the teams that were selected at their graduation to represent their wave due to their exceptional community projects, to attend our FF Annual Awards.
Each team will be asked to present at a wave (three from summer, one from autumn) competition held on the morning of the main awards at Wellington College, and one team will receive an award for the most outstanding project, presented at the awards ceremony in the afternoon.
Good luck to all teams!
Partner Special Recognition
Future Foundations could not deliver the scale and scope of our programmes without the incredible partners we work with. We believe in the importance of collaboration and playing to organisation strengths, and through this collaboration we can create a more sustainable society.
We would like to recognise the partner organisations who have helped Future Foundations to make a significant impact on young people’s lives, worked closely in partnership on one or more programmes and have shared our passion for helping every young person achieve their full potential.
Staff Member of the Year
We want to recognise the staff member who has lived the FF Principles and made a tangible difference to themselves and others.
Criteria:
1 The nominee has extensively and tangibly improved the lives of others and has already created a significant impact on the lives of others in measurable ways.
2. The nominee has created great awareness about his/her issue or cause and exhibits excellent communication skills, which they use to motivate and mobilise community members, promote their programmes, and develop relationships with media, government, other not-for-profits, individuals, and funders.
3. The nominee is confident and enthusiastic about being a leader, they are honest and passionate leaders who take on challenges for the greater good.
You are invited to nominate only one individual for this award.
A short list of nominated individuals will be invited to the FF Festival, and the winners of each category will be announced on the day.
UK Social Leader of the Year Award
Have you continued to lead social action in your community since graduating from a Future Foundations programme? Have you created a project that you would like to share? Do you know someone that has?
You can either nominate someone for this award, or you can nominate yourself. The nominees will be judged against 3 criteria:
1. Your impact on the community and others
2. Your learning/knowledge and skills gain
3. Special recognition: Creating a sustainable project and involving other people and organisations.
A shortlist will be invited to attend the FF Annual Awards and during the main programme we will announce the overall UK Social Leader of the Year.
Eligibility:
We are inviting students who have participated in the following programmes:
- National Citizen Service (Summer or Autumn): (please note students will only be eligible if their NCS programme was delivered by Future Foundations)
- McKinsey Leadership Academy (2011, 2012 and 2013)
- Other (if you have participated in other FF Summer Programmes and been inspired to create a Social Action Project and to lead change in your community, you may be eligible to apply for this award)
GSL Impact Award - Team of the Year
Future Foundations and the Wellington Leadership Institute are committed to supporting and celebrating young people who are working on innovative social action projects across the globe. We have invited graduates of the 2014 Global Social Leaders programme to apply for the Global Social Leaders Impact Awards.
For the Team Award the students must apply as a team.
The winners will receive an allocated mentor for 3 months to help maximise the impact of the project.
The deadline for applications is 12 noon GMT on the 30th November 2014.
Eligibility:
1. They were a participant in the Global Social Leaders programme at Wellington College in 2014
2. The project focuses on social change in the community
3. They have started a project since attending the programme which has already had an impact
They will be judged on:
1. Their measurable impact to date on the community
2. Their personal growth: learning/knowledge and skills gained so far
3. Creating a sustainable project
4. Involving other people and/organisations
GSL Impact Award - Individual of the Year
Future Foundations and the Wellington Leadership Institute are committed to supporting and celebrating young people who are working on innovative social action projects across the globe. We have invited graduates of the 2014 Global Social Leaders programme to apply for the Global Social Leaders Impact Awards.
For the individual awrd the students must apply as an individual who is leading a project, supported by other non-GSL young people.
The winner will receive an allocated mentor for 3 months to help maximise the impact of the project.
The deadline for applications is 12 noon GMT on the 30th November 2014.
Eligibility:
1. They were a participant in the Global Social Leaders programme at Wellington College in 2014
2. The project focusses on social change in the community
3. They have started a project since attending the programme which has already had an impact
They will be judged on:
1. Their measurable impact to date on the community
2. Their personal growth: learning/knowledge and skills gained so far
3. Creating a sustainable project
4. Involving other people and/organisations
Volunteer of the Year
We want to recognise the volunteers who have lived the FF Principles and made a tangible difference to themselves and others.
Criteria:
- The nominee has extensively and tangibly improved the lives of others and has already created a significant impact on the lives of others in measurable ways.
- The nominee has created great awareness about his/her issue or cause and exhibits excellent communication skills, which they use to motivate and mobilize community members, promote their programs, and develop relationships with media, government, other not-for-profits, individuals, and funders.
- The nominee is confident and enthusiastic about being a leader, they are honest and passionate leaders who take on challenges for the greater good.
You are invited to nominate only one individual for this award.
A short list of nominated individuals will be invited to the FF Festival, and the winners of each category will be announced on the day.
Special Recognition Award
This award will recognise a person who has contributed above and beyond what is expected to living the FF Principles over a sustained period of time and over a range of different projects.
Student of the Year
We want to recognise the student of the year, someone who has lived the FF Principles and made a tangible difference to themselves and others.
1 The nominee has extensively and tangibly improved the lives of others and has already created a significant impact on the lives of others in measurable ways.
2. The nominee has created great awareness about his/her issue or cause and exhibits excellent communication skills, which they use to motivate and mobilise community members, promote their programmes, and develop relationships with media, government, other not-for-profits, individuals, and funders.
3. The nominee is confident and enthusiastic about being a leader, they are honest and passionate leaders who take on challenges for the greater good.
You are invited to nominate only one individual for this award.
A short list of nominated individuals will be invited to the FF Festival, and the winners of each category will be announced on the day.
THE WINNERS

LCP Project of the Year – Cannonball Chaos, St Angela’s Ursuline School
St Angela’s ‘Cannonball chaos’ team presented their Fusion – International Food Hut business proposition as a way of continuing the legacy of the Games in 2012 by having international chefs from around the world cooking up food that will attract the diversity of East London. Fusin – The International Food Hut will be located in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and will attract people from the local area to the Park and experience a multi-cultural street food market. The judges were so impressed with the proposal they were voted the winners and were praised for their preparation, presentation skills and for presenting the most sustainable project.
NCS Team of the Year – KCF, SSH Sensory Garden
The FF awards saw the top 4 Future Foundations NCS teams from 2014 compete to be awarded team of the year. The 4 teams from the Summer and Autumn programmes presented their projects to a panel of judges before the main award ceremony. Strive2Provide had signed up over 200 people to the organ donor list, Self-Belief partnered with the charities Mind and Neuro Foundation getting people to write positive messages to attach to the Positivity-Tree, Remember Me created an information booklet on Alzheimer’s encouraging young people to have more awareness of the disease and volunteer in care homes in a buddy system. Undoubtedly, 3 amazing project. However the one that took our Team of the Year was SSH Sensory who raised over £1000 to create a sensory garden in a local primary school. Since graduating the team won a further £2000 funding and have created a second garden in another school working with over 30 volunteers. Check out their facebook page to watch their video’s and stay up to date with all their future plans.
A huge well done to all the teams – they all have achieved incredible things and we are looking forward to seeing what they do next!


Partner Special Recognition Award – Highgate School
We would like to recognise Highgate School who have helped Future Foundations to make a significant impact on young people’s lives. We have worked closely in partnership with them on numerous programmes including Year 10 and 12 Chrysalis Summer School and Looked After Children. They have shared our passion for helping every young person achieve their full potential.
GSL Team Impact Award – Lucy Price + the ‘Peg Games’ Team
The winning team for this award focused their project on tackling the decreased interest in charity fundriaisng at their school.
After seeing the work that a micro-loan company called Deki do whilst on GSL 2014 they decided to use this idea to engage their peers with charity fundraising. They focused on raising awareness of the personal stories of the entrepreneurs that would benefit from the micro-loans.
The team organised the ‘Peg Games’ at their school and plan for this to be an annual event to keep young people excited and engaged with fundraising.
GSL Individual Impact Award – Lavender Yan
Lavender was a participant on GSL 2013; this year she returned as an Alumni and was a true inspiration and source of knowledge for the young people on the programme.
Lavender has been working on a project with the aim of bridging the inter-generational gap in the small town she lives in. You can see in her video that she went to meet local craftsmen and is sharing their stories to the wider community.
UK Social Leader of the Year – Katharine Waldron and Erenie Mullens-Burgess
Katherine and Erenie supported an international micro finance charity giving small loans to groups of women in Sub-Saharan Africa following attending our McKinsey Leadership Academy. They challenged students at their school to invest £5 in mini businesses, ultimately raising £4,000 from a starting capital of £200, in only four weeks. We want to celebrate the success of their project and hope it can continue to grow in years to come.

Volunteer of the Year – Tam Phan
This award went to one of our volunteers whose actions completely embody the values of Future Foundations and has contributed their time tirelessly to help us achieve our mission. Tam’s dedication and enthusiasm on NCS Summer were unrivalled. His commitment to travelling from Nottingham to Berkshire each week (for three weeks plus the training) was a clear demonstration of his desire to be the best he could be at his role. He developed massively as a staff member and his interaction with the young people was positive and progressive.
Staff Member of the Year – Owen Bailey
Owen has contributed to so many programmes this year, including NCS Summer and Autumn, Legacy Careers Project, Higher Education experiences and Leadership days. He has been dedicated, enthusiastic and always on his A-game. He is always asking how he could do things better and is supportive of the whole team. His enthusiasm for the development of young people is an inspiration. Owen truly lives the FF principles and as he says, if you cut him, his blood runs blue!


Student of the Year – Catherine Lawrence
Catherine took part in NCS Autumn 2014 and was the project leader for the ‘The Creative Space’. She was an amazing project leader creating fantastic reports and spreadsheets each week tracking all the team’s hours and successes. She was extremely organised and always got things done on time and to a high standard as well as overcoming a lot of challenges during the programme. Catherine is not always standing at the front but works hard behind the scenes to get things done and drive the team forward. She is passionate and committed to social action.
Special Recognition Award – Mary Daniels
Mary has had an unprecedented impact on Future Foundations as an organisation, on our facilitators and on every student she has worked with. After programmes students have noted how much they miss her presence and the safe and supportive space full of possibility on programme. She has coached for FF for many years, course directed multiple programmes; from our first NCS delivery for young people from 9 cities through to the McKinsey Leadership Academy and NCS Leaders programme for two years in a row. More recently she has been an Advisor and Mentor to the office team. She is a true inspiration.

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS
Future Foundations – the story so far…
Future Foundations was founded in 2004 with a mission to support young people to aim high and reach their full potential. The last ten years has seen the organisation grow its team, network of facilitators and our impact on our young people and society. We started with a focus on how to support graduates into the world of work, and soon realised that we could have a greater impact if we worked with young people at an earlier age.
Our first major project was winning a bid to design and deliver Vodafone’s Take A Chance programme. Highlights over the past 10 years have been running our flagship summer schools in partnership with leading independent schools, being selected by NESTA to create a new model of work related learning, running the Labour government’s Leadership residential for young people from 10 parts of England, delivering NCS in 9 cities, and launching our first global project in 2013.
We could not have done all of this without the passion and determination of our people, who are what set apart Future Foundations. Every member of staff believes in the power of people, and in the importance of creating a safe space to explore who you are and where you want to go. Together we have created transformational leadership opportunities for 1000’s of young people. December 20th 2014 is exactly 10 years since our founder Jack Butler registered Future Foundations as a company. Since then, as an organisation, we have been on as big a journey as the young people on our programmes. We are proud of what we have achieved and are excited about what the next 10 years will bring.
What’s your Future Foundations story?
Have you been on programme with us as a staff member, student or client? Have you had a memorable experience that you would like to share? We would still love to hear from you! Please click on the button to tell us your FF story.
YOUR FF STORIES
Raheem – Alumni
Following my attendance at the McKinsey Leadership Academy, we pledged to complete a management project in time for our reunion the following year.
Being caught up in an academic time of my life, I neglected my passion for music, so I sought the opportunity to undergo a project in which my final aim was to have some of my music licensed on the iTunes store.
My ambition is not to score a number one hit, or even a top 40, but in the process of my project I have managed to get back in touch with old friends, including my old “Partner in Rhyme” who moved abroad, and together we are moving forward in fulfilling what can be described as a childhood dream.I have been on quite a journey with FF since doing my first NCS project two summers ago. My first Future Foundations experience was at Bassingbourne – an old army base, where we camped for a week. My work with Future Foundations has taken me from that tent, to jumping into the sea, to fundraising outside Reading Festival by face-painting and hair-chalking: all in the name of social action!
I have also been into lots of different schools and colleges and had the opportunity to work with some truly inspirational young people. I believe that Future Foundations helps to shape the leaders of the future, equipping young people with skills they do not learn in school. I have said before that I wish I could have done NCS myself when I was 16, I would have learnt so much, but now, I have learnt so much about being a leader from FF and it is great to think that maybe I have inspired some young people along the way.Making someone realise that they have all the tools they need to go to university, or that they can have a positive impact upon their community, or that they can get up and speak in front of hundreds of people, those things make every late night and long coach trip worth it.
Elhaam – Alumni
The terms ‘leadership role’ or ‘ice breaker’ were like poised knives teasing the thread my stomach was hanging on and so I naturally dreaded and tried to avoid anything that even started to sound like it. When the word about the Future Foundation’s opportunity of mentoring Year 9’s went aroun, I was a little curious and so decided to sign up and attend the first introductory session at my college.
It was nerve wracking. I sat trapped in a chair surrounded by a group of people I’ve only seen from afar, right next to me. I could just about get my name out when it came to the introductions. I thought I was inadequate for this role to be honest and how can someone like me possibly take on such a huge role like this. But of course, I wasn’t alone. My anxiety died down a little and I felt slightly better because over the holidays there was a session covering what we were going to be delivering to the teenagers at the secondary school.
As the sessions went by I grew more confident and realised that no one knew me so I could be confident for their sake at least. I thought it went really well; it was amazing to meet so many new characters and hear about their future aspirations and it made me think how lost I was at their age and how lucky they are to be getting this opportunity to discover and develop themselves before they go to college.
Taking part in this project was my first step outside my comfort zone. I’m glad I did because I developed my own confidence whilst helping others develop theirs and it has taught me not to shy away from anything outside my comfort zone.
Heather – Volunteer
I did my first Future Foundations summer school in 2010 as a Year 11 student. I was very shy and anxious and I was really unsure about taking part but it was an amazing 3 days and I needn’t have worried. Jon and the other Future Foundations team members were lovely and helpful and the activities were fun and engaging.
I gained so much confidence from those 3 days and from doing the presentation of what I learnt at the end that in 2011 I did another Future Foundations summer school, this time as a volunteer. On the first day I helped with the Year 11 workshops and I even gave a talk introducing myself and the programme at the beginning!
Over the next 2 days I participated in workshops aimed at my age group and I enjoyed it just as much as I had the year before, I was sad to leave! These workshops are brilliant and really engaging; you learn a lot and gain a lot of skills whilst still having a really fun time. I would recommend them to anyone and I am really thankful to Future Foundations for helping me to gain some more confidence!
Chioma – Alumni
A lifelong learning opportunity is hard to find, but with the Chrysalis Summer School I found that opportunity. I met people that were inspiring and extremely talented. I acquired confidence, knowledge and most of all support from people who want the best for you, people that want to help you be the best you can possibly be. I had the chance to hear life stories about university from student ambassadors, the coordinator Mary, tutors and lessons learnt from it.
My Spanish tutor was very supportive and really cool. She taught us about Spanish Literature and the importance of speaking Spanish on a day to day basis to gradually become better even if you stumble. I met charismatic students, with creativity and most importantly vision. They knew what they wanted to do, where they wanted to go next and it’s their confidence that motivates me to try harder, to dream bigger.
On a lighter note, one of my best moments was the final subject presentations. I found that even the subjects regarded as mundane by some turned out to be the funniest one’s showcasing talent and personality. Those that took part in the Chrysalis Programme may remember Charlie’s and Songyan’s speeches which were amazing! It was undeniably, one of the best experiences of my life so far.
I wish I could do it all over again.