supporting brighter futures for 20 years
supporting brighter futures for 20 years
We’re celebrating two decades of changing young people’s lives through online mentoring.
Brightside is born
John, Jim and Angela decide to form a charity to give young people the kind of advice they benefitted from.
Our first online mentoring project
We match 50 widening participation pupils interested in medicine with undergraduate medical students.
Brightside is born
John, Jim and Angela decide to form a charity to give young people the kind of advice they benefitted from.
Our first online mentoring project
We match 50 widening participation pupils interested in medicine with undergraduate medical students.
STEM mentoring begins
We partner with The Royal Society of Chemistry, The Royal Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Physics to deliver national mentoring programmes for young people interested in careers in STEM.
STEM mentoring begins
We partner with The Royal Society of Chemistry, The Royal Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Physics to deliver national mentoring programmes for young people interested in careers in STEM.
We launch Bright Knowledge
Our resource bank covering education, careers, and student life, which is available to any young person searching for advice online. In 2022, more than 283,000 young people used Bright Knowledge resources.
We begin working with Realising Opportunities
To support young people considering research-intensive universities. Together, we’ve supported over 5,000 young people.
We launch Bright Knowledge
Our resource bank covering education, careers, and student life, which is available to any young person searching for advice online. In 2022, more than 283,000 young people used Bright Knowledge resources.
We begin working with Realising Opportunities
To support young people considering research-intensive universities. Together, we’ve supported over 5,000 young people.
We begin working with leading law firm Allen & Overy
The Smarter Futures programme inspires talented and ambitious young people (who might not consider a career in law or business) through work experience, application support and mentoring.
We begin working with leading law firm Allen & Overy
The Smarter Futures programme inspires talented and ambitious young people (who might not consider a career in law or business) through work experience, application support and mentoring.
Virtual work experience launches
Our Get In, Get On project pioneers the concept of virtual work experience, combining online learning and mentoring. This leads us to develop our Sector Insight programme.
Healthcare mentoring
Our partnership with the NHS matches young people who aren’t in education, employment, or training (NEET) with mentors from the health service to support skills development.
Virtual work experience launches
Our Get In, Get On project pioneers the concept of virtual work experience, combining online learning and mentoring. This leads us to develop our Sector Insight programme.
Healthcare mentoring
Our partnership with the NHS matches young people who aren’t in education, employment, or training (NEET) with mentors from the health service to support skills development.
Mentoring awards
We hold our first ever mentoring awards to recognise and celebrate our most inspiring mentees and their mentors.
Mentoring awards
We hold our first ever mentoring awards to recognise and celebrate our most inspiring mentees and their mentors.
New programme for universities
We design our first programme supporting young people to successfully transition from school to university with Edge Hill University, a model now used across the country.
New programme for universities
We design our first programme supporting young people to successfully transition from school to university with Edge Hill University, a model now used across the country.
We launch our Theory of Change
To set out the skills and behaviours we want to develop with our mentoring and build robust evaluation frameworks to measure our impact.
Targeting cold spots
We work on the south coast to target schools in social mobility cold spots – it’s the seed that grows into our Spotlight programme.
We launch our Theory of Change
To set out the skills and behaviours we want to develop with our mentoring and build robust evaluation frameworks to measure our impact.
Targeting cold spots
We work on the south coast to target schools in social mobility cold spots – it’s the seed that grows into our Spotlight programme.
New programme for visually impaired young people
In partnership with LOOK UK, we deliver a project connecting young people with visual impairments to a peer mentor.
New programme for visually impaired young people
In partnership with LOOK UK, we deliver a project connecting young people with visual impairments to a peer mentor.
We launch Spotlight
Partnering directly with schools to help them build meaningful careers programmes that address the needs of every pupil.
Global pandemic
We deliver Prepare for Uni to help universities support young people in a time of crisis using our digital expertise and experience.
We launch Spotlight
Partnering directly with schools to help them build meaningful careers programmes that address the needs of every pupil.
Global pandemic
We deliver Prepare for Uni to help universities support young people in a time of crisis using our digital expertise and experience.
A new impact report
We publish our first ever annual impact report, shining a light on project outcomes and student journeys into education and beyond using Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) data.
A new impact report
We publish our first ever annual impact report, shining a light on project outcomes and student journeys into education and beyond using Higher Education Access Tracker (HEAT) data.
Award-winning Bright Carers programme
We develop a programme for young carers with seven universities and The Children’s Society, which wins a Children and Young People Now award.
Award-winning Bright Carers programme
We develop a programme for young carers with seven universities and The Children’s Society, which wins a Children and Young People Now award.
Brightside is 20!
We’re marking our 20th anniversary by celebrating the brilliant young people we’ve worked with, continuing to innovate our technology through the addition of video capabilities and going bilingual with Welsh language on the platform.
We’re celebrating the fact that, since we began using our current reporting systems in 2016, we’ve worked with over 200 partners on 5,000 projects.
Brightside is 20!
We’re marking our 20th anniversary by celebrating the brilliant young people we’ve worked with, continuing to innovate our technology through the addition of video capabilities and going bilingual with Welsh language on the platform.
We’re celebrating the fact that, since we began using our current reporting systems in 2016, we’ve worked with over 200 partners on 5,000 projects.
To mark our anniversary, we’re celebrating the positive impact we’ve had on young people in the last two decades through events, awards, webinars and videos.
Since 2003
The IMD combines information from the seven domains to
produce an overall relative measure of deprivation.
The domains are combined using the following weights:
• Income Deprivation (22.5%)
• Employment Deprivation (22.5%)
• Education, Skills and Training Deprivation (13.5%)
• Health Deprivation and Disability (13.5%)
• Crime (9.3%)
• Barriers to Housing and Services (9.3%)
• Living Environment Deprivation (9.3%) source.
Anniversary Events
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Hear from our past mentees
We spoke to young people who were matched to a mentor years ago to find out the long-term impact it’s had on them now they’re all grown up.
Hear from our longest standing mentors
We spoke to volunteers who’ve been mentoring with us for over a decade to find out why they love it.
Since 2016
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Partner hall of fame
Brightside and partner stories
Learn more about our origin story by reading interviews with our longest standing partners, current and former Brightsiders. Or, take a trip down memory lane to see what the world looked like back in 2003.
