Resurgo has been awarded a grant totalling almost US $500,000 from the Ares Charitable Foundation, a 501(c)(3) qualifying organization sponsored by Ares Management Corporation that strives to advance economic mobility by helping people prepare and reskill for quality jobs, launch and scale businesses, and build personal financial knowledge.
The grant will be integral to Resurgo’s work over the next three years, supporting NEET young people through the Spear Programme, and will expressly focus on developing the programme in two resource-poor regions in the UK and support evaluation activities to drive efficiency. The grant will also support our communications work by funding thoughtful storytelling through an animated film focusing on young people’s experiences.
The percentage of young people who are NEET in the UK has been steadily climbing and now sits just shy of a million, meaning 13.4% of 16-24-year-olds are not in education, employment or training. The Spear Programme works with 16-24-year-olds not in education, employment or training who are facing barriers to work, by equipping them with the skills, mindset and confidence they need to kickstart their career or return to education. The national programme runs in 17 locations across the UK. With the support of Ares this will grow by two further locations a year for the next three years.
In 2024, Resurgo won the ERSA Youth Employment Award, recognising the impact of the Spear Programme on young people facing barriers to work. In 2022, the UK Government’s Department of Work and Pensions’ Data Lab evaluated the Spear Programme and found that those who completed the Spear Programme were significantly more likely to be in education, employment or training, than a comparable group who hadn’t been through the programme. This means that Spear is one of the best evidenced employability programmes in the UK.
Resurgo CEO, Iona Ledwidge, said:
“I am delighted to be partnering with The Ares Foundation from 2025. Their commitment to equipping young people with the skills they need for career development has a clear synergy with our work at Resurgo. The grant will enable us to accelerate our growth to two new geographical areas of need, as well as allowing us to use new storytelling formats to communicate the difference the Spear Programme makes for the first time. I look forward to sharing the impact of the grant in due course.”