As we reach the end of the 2025–26 academic year, we're taking a moment to reflect on what has been an incredibly busy and rewarding year! We've been delighted to continue supporting our long-standing partner schools in Blackpool and Leeds, while also working with schools across Stockport and the wider Greater Manchester area. Throughout the year, we've delivered drop-down days, social action projects, careers sessions, Future Ready programmes and work experience opportunitie

Thanks to funding from TransPennine Express through the TransPennine Route Upgrade (TRU), a group of young people from Fairfield High School for Girls have transformed Fairfield Station while developing valuable skills and exploring exciting career opportunities. The project began with students carrying out a station audit, identifying ways to improve their local station and learning how social action can create positive change. Working within a real project budget, they plan

What have we been up to? NextGen Our NextGen project has finished its second phase! You can find out more on our blog here. Future Ready @ Unity Blackpool Both groups have been busy this month planning their social action campaigns! With the end of term fast approaching they are busy getting their launch events ready and their informative content made! L!STEN ACT CHANGE We are so pleased with how our new programme is going! The group have chosen to focus on the lack of work e

We are excited to officially launch our new Future Ready project with Year 9 students at Unity Academy Blackpool. This project has been made possible thanks to funding from the Commissioners Member of Parliament Fund, and we are incredibly grateful for their support in helping us deliver meaningful opportunities for young people in Blackpool. This cohort already holds a special place for us, as we have been working with many of these young people since their transition from p

What have we been up to? Culture Kitchen After being with the group since December, our Culture Kitchen project at St Annes has come to an end! This group has been a pleasure to work with and it's great to see all that they have achieved. TEMA trip to Trafford! To celebrate the end of the project and their hard work, the group from TEMA visited the Trafford Centre where they enjoyed some games of laser tag and a delicious Wing Stop! Unity Blackpool Our Future Ready programme

On Saturday, we proudly hosted our Step Up Family Fun Day at MakeGood, organised and delivered by our incredible Step Up Mentor Group! The event was a wonderful opportunity to welcome our new Step Up 2026 cohort and their families as they prepare for the exciting transition from Year 6 to Year 7. The day was all about helping young people feel supported, confident, and excited about the journey ahead. Our fantastic mentors worked hard to plan and run a variety of fun stalls a

What have we been up to? L!STEN ACT CHANGE Engagement sessions - We're recruiting for our new project and have been visiting other local groups to drum up some interest. This month we have been at Groundwork's Women Warriors group and Stockroom. It has been great hearing the views and opinions of young people across Stockport who we don't usually get to meet! Unity Academy Blackpool Our Future Ready project has started this month in Blackpool with 2 groups of Year 9. We have

The Step Up Mentor group have had a fab start to the Step Up Mentor programme so far. The Step Up Mentors are young people who took part in our Step Up transition programme last year and have now volunteered to support our 2026 Step Up cohort as peer mentors. It has been brilliant to see them stepping into leadership roles and embracing the opportunity to support others who will be making the move to secondary school in September. During the first session, the group explored

Our third consecutive year delivering a hate crime awareness project is something we genuinely look forward to, and this year was no exception. Thanks to funding from Manchester City Council, we were able to work with the EAL department at Chorlton High School, focusing particularly on international new arrivals and students who have joined the UK education system at different points in their journey. The project combined informative workshops with a powerful youth-led outcom

We’ve recently wrapped up an exciting Climate Project with students at The East Manchester Academy (TEMA), and what a journey it’s been! A huge thank you to Manchester City Council’s Neighbourhood Investment Fund for making this project possible – funding like this allows young people to take real action on the issues that matter to them, and this group definitely did just that. The project brought together a core group of students who met weekly to explore climate action and

what we've been up to this month: Here's our full monthly update on our projects! -Climate Project @ TEMA: This month we have been completing some speedy social action at The East Manchester Academy. After the huge success of this project last year with Stockport schools we have ventured into Manchester time time. The group have been amazing - buzzing with lots of ideas. Their campaign on paper waste and recycling has led to them getting new paper recycling bins for each cla

We're pleased to publish this year's Youth Summit Impact Report in full! Here at PIE, the Youth Summit is a big date in our calendar! We spend weeks visiting schools and laying the groundwork, liaising and planning with partners and funders to make the Summit as successful as possible. This year's Summit was bigger than ever, so give our report a read below, and scroll to the end for a quick update from Evie about what has happened since.... Youth Summit Follow Up - from Evie

On Wednesday 25th February we had the pleasure of delivering a Positive Futures Day at Bridgehall Primary School for all of their Year 5 and Year 6 pupils. The day was coordinated by PIE (Pursuing Individual Excellence) on behalf of the AdsBridge Youth Connection partnership, bringing together several local organisations to run a series of interactive workshops for the young people. In total, 46 pupils took part in the full-day programme. The aim of the day was to give youn

From December to February, we’ve been busy delivering Creative Launchpad with Chorlton High School and Burnage Academy for Boys — and what a few months it’s been! The aim of the project was simple: to help young people understand what a career in creative communications actually looks like, and to give them the chance to experience it for themselves. Creative Launchpad was delivered in collaboration with Tangerine , a leading PR and social agency based in central Manchest

On Tuesday 10th February, the stunning Ballroom at Stockport Town Hall was filled with energy, ideas and ambition as we hosted the third annual Youth Summit, delivered in partnership between PIE, L!STEN and Stockport Council. With over 200 young people, educators, community organisations and local leaders in attendance, the summit demonstrated the strength of youth voice across Stockport. From the moment schools began exploring the vibrant marketplace of local opportunities,

Each year, we take on some students to support our work, and so they can complete work-placements that will in turn, support their research. Since October Emily, Tilly & Holly (find out a bit more about them here ) have been getting stuck in with day-to-day PIE life, but they are soon delving into their own research and dissertation writing, so we thought we would take a look at their plans and themes and see how they link to our work! ----------------------------------------

We're really proud to share our latest impact report! Compiled from our data over the year, we are so pleased that our work as a team of 5 is translated into these numbers. You can take a look at last year's report here if you fancy comparing. Well done to the whole team and here's to another exciting year!

The West Hill Tameside Tracks group had a fantastic day last Thursday as they hosted the Tameside Tracks Community Day at Stalybridge Train Station! Tameside Tracks is a brilliant social action project driven by a passionate group of West Hill School students. Since May, they’ve been working with PIE and bursting with ideas on how to brighten up Stalybridge Train Station and make a real difference in their community. The project gave young people the chance to develop new ski

It's time to welcome some new faces to PIE for this academic year, welcome to Emily, Tilly & Holly!

Our Digital Leap Pilot has been a great success! Working in partnership with Starting Point Community Learning Partnership, we’ve been delivering this new digital confidence programme in Stockport thanks to funding from the GM Strengthening Communities Fund. Planning began in May, and in June, members of the PIE and Start Point teams had the incredible opportunity to attend the FOSI 2025 European Forum at Netflix’s EMEA Headquarters in Amsterdam. The forum, themed “The Philos