At the start of the year, we began a project to understand and think about how best to communicate the work that ReachOut does and the impact we have as an organisation.

Why? Partly it was because we had a hunch that we were underselling the scale and breadth of the work that the charity has been doing. Our last positioning review was almost ten years ago and things were, perhaps, starting to look a little stale. But mainly, in an increasingly competitive environment, we wanted to make sure that we were clearly communicating what was different about ReachOut and our approach to working with young people. Why should anyone choose to engage with us over the many other fantastic education, youth and mentoring projects out there?   

After some brilliant initial work by our friends at Prophet, we took a couple of months to carry out a detailed research and listening project.  In total, we heard the views of almost 100 of the ReachOut extended family – past, current and future: staff, volunteers, trustees, funders, partners, other charities and – most importantly –  our mentees.

What did we find out? The short answer – more than we expected; much of which confirmed our thinking, but also some fascinating new insights, challenges, and curveballs.

Here are a few key insights which help explain some of the changes we’re making: 

1) Mentoring is central to ReachOut, but talking about it in isolation doesn’t do justice to the breadth, length and intensity of the interventions ReachOut delivers.

2) Our focus on character is what makes ReachOut different. To some, talking about character can seem a bit old fashioned, but to us and the young people we work with, developing character is practical, urgent and more relevant than ever. Our Character Strengths of Fairness, Good Judgement Staying Power and Self-Control are a bedrock for aspiration, success and fulfilment. For more on what we mean by character see here.

3) Alongside character, confidence is recognised as perhaps the most important outcome of what we do. Unprompted, this is what the majority of our mentors, teachers and young people see as the primary benefit of being involved in ReachOut.

4) There are many other outcomes of the work that ReachOut does – social mobility, academic success and social cohesion being a few important examples. However, these come about as a result of our core mission to support young people to grow in confidence and character. It’s those two things which we believe spark change in young people and society.

5) We’re changing how we talk about the young people we work with. No one likes to be described as “vulnerable”, “disadvantaged” or “lacking aspirations”. We work with amazing and ambitious young people – individuals, facing individual challenges and barriers (which our interventions can help them to overcome). The language we use needs to reflect this.

6) ReachOut is widely seen as friendly, enthusiastic and fun (not to mention professional, efficient and even inspirational). Our close and local relationships with our mentors, schools and communities are among our greatest assets. As we grow and continue to develop a national presence, we don’t want to lose the culture and connections that make us different.  

So, what’s changing?

Firstly you’ll notice our new logo and strapline. We hope this better speaks to the heart of what ReachOut is here to do. You will also see some new wording and imagery on our website and social channels. There are changes to how we explain what we do, what we’re trying to achieve and how we talk about the young people we work with. Over the coming weeks this will be rolled out across other ReachOut’s materials. There will also be plenty more exciting new content coming out across our channels soon… watch this space!

We’d love to hear your opinion!  Do you like it? Love it? Hate it? Please do get in touch and let us know what you think (just be a bit gentle if you hate it!)   

Finally, we’d like to say thank you to everyone who responded to our surveys and took part in our interviews. We’d also like to thank our friends at Prophet and Edmonds Elder for all their invaluable expert support at various stages of this project. 

James Williams

Head of Marketing & Partnerships