All young people have the right to live happy and healthy lives. However, many young people in LCR face considerable disadvantage when trying to secure meaningful work, which in turn can have a negative, long-lasting impact on their health and wellbeing, financial security and sense of purpose. Socially excluded, vulnerable young people often find themselves furthest away from the job-market, and professionals around them often have limited tools and resources with which they can instigate real change. ‘Thrive’ is a coffee shop situated in Liverpool City Centre but importantly it is a dedicated space for care experienced young people and the adults who care for them to discuss what matters most to our young people many of whom are experiencing digital poverty. We want to tackle the digital poverty faced by this vulnerable group by digitalising our space to enable us to connect care experienced young people with employers, training and other service providers.

What we'll deliver:

• Purchase the equipment needed to digitalise our project
• Use the equipment to stream daily interactive careers sessions across Thirve and partner organistation
• Purchase software and maintenance support services to secure onlinbe activities
• Provide a dedicated safe supported environment for care experience young people
• Remove the barrier of digital poverty for young people who are furtherest away from the job market

Why it's a great idea:

Thrive will ignite a passion for work amongst this cohort of hard to reach young people by identifying careers that matter most to them. We will lift the lid off work by engaging with LCR employers to deliver interactive careers sessions, virtual tours of workplaces, work experience opportunities and employment opportunities. Within the first 12 months Thrive will relieve some of the pressures faced by key workers who care for our vulnerable young people, allowing them to concentrate on the emotional needs of the young people. A minimum of 300 young people will benefit from our interactive careers sessions and we will work with 50 LCR Employers to deliver careers advice, support and job opportunities. We believe digital connectivity plays an important role in combatting feelings of loneliness and isolation experienced by young people; this combined with promoting self-belief and goal setting also reduces the risk of grooming and exploitation.

Steps to get it done:

• Purchase digital equipment
• Get the careers hub 'online'
• Deliver our first digital careers session

We will work with employers to maximise opportunities through the kick starter scheme and have a dedicated employer engagement officer to drive this forward. We will engage with partner organistations to stream support srrvices available to young people, showcasing what LCR has to offer our young people.