Year 11 student and Young Leaders Award graduate Amelia has started her own social young enterprise company, donating all profits to the homeless.

After taking part in the Young Leaders Award, 15-year-old Amelia became passionate about reaching out to her local community in order to support those who live around her. She noticed the need to support those who are homeless in her community, so committed to do something about it.

Challenged to get other people also wanting to do something about it, she delivered assemblies in school about homelessness, inspiring 42 students and 7 members of staff to sleep rough for a night outside her school.

From this sleep out, 10 students formed a social young enterprise company called ‘Supporting the Streets’, of which Amelia is the Managing Director. This is the first social young enterprise company to donate all profits to the homeless.

On the day of the sleep out, Supporting the Streets provided over 600 portions of soup from donated produce for the homeless. Amelia and her team coordinated letters to local companies and made personal visits in order to make over 100 ‘Bags of Love’ which were also distributed to the homeless. The ‘Bags of Love’ contained an outfit, new underwear, a coat, snacks, a book and toiletries. Over 300kg of textile waste was used for these bags which was diverted from landfill, creating an environmentally friendly gift for those in need. To help fundraise for Supporting the Streets, Amelia has held stalls at fairs, including Manchester Christmas market, designing and making Christmas cards and other gifts, raising significant funds for the homeless.

“I am extremely proud of what we have achieved and I am very optimistic about the future, I hope that we continue to learn from our experience of sleeping outside and the impact our actions can have on others, however small.”

Amelia

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