We are Promise Foundation, a charity dedicated to deploying the resources of the local community to provide young people with a mentoring relationship that unlocks their unique potential through one-to-one mentoring support.
We take a holistic approach to mentoring to motivate and encourage the 13-18 year olds we work with to help them make positive, informed choices about their future, whether in further education or employment.
Mission statement /vision
Our aim is to provide support to young people at a time in their lives when the decisions they take have long-term effects on their future. Central to everything we do is our commitment to social mobility and our belief that this should be a collective responsibility.
Simon Marks
Project Director
Simon brings a wealth of experience to the Promise Foundation, in a career that has spanned both the commercial and charitable sectors. After working for many years in the music business, Simon left to pursue a career with ‘purpose’. Since then he has has worked for two remarkable charities, The Forgiveness Project and FilmAid International, as well as sitting for nine years on the board of trustees at the British Liver Trust.
Trustees
Mike Hulme
Chair of Trustees
Mike is an educationalist who has recently retired after 40 years working in education in the London Borough of Brent. Most recently he was headteacher at Queen’s Park Community School (QPCS), Promise Foundation's partner school. Mike began his career in 1976 teaching handicraft and technical drawing at Aylestone High School, which merged with two others to form QPCS in 1989. As a senior manager, he oversaw the school’s £34million re-build and expansion in 2003 before taking up the post of headteacher.
Camilla Lewis
Trustee
Co-founder, Trustee and mentor, Camilla has spent her career creating high-quality, entertaining programmes for the world’s best broadcasters. She has created and overseen some of the best-known brands on British television including Four Rooms, Great British Railway Journeys, Escape To The Country and Grand Designs.
Josephine Campbell
Trustee
Co-founder and Trustee, Josephine has worked as a literacy teacher, teaching assistant and mentor in a number of secondary schools in inner city London. She coordinated the mentoring programme at Promise Foundation from its inception in September 2013 to September 2017. Josephine is a qualified Art Teacher at a secondary school in Berkshire.
Promise Knight
Trustee
Co-founder, Trustee and former mentee, Promise has worked for a number of Parliamentarians in both Houses of Parliament and at Citizens UK as a Community Organiser responsible for the London borough of Islington. Promise is currently a Councillor representing Stonebridge Ward at Brent Council where she is also the Cabinet Lead for Community Safety and Engagement.
Tim Whitwell
Trustee
Tim Whitwell is Creative Director at Shine Television. His shows include the BAFTA and RTS award winning format The Island with Bear Grylls. Tim joined Shine in 2012 as Head of Programmes, previously working at Optomen TV where he was Editor of Documentaries and Features. At Optomen he won an RTS for Heston’s Feasts (C4) and executive produced Kevin McCloud’s Man Made Home (C4). He has been a series producer on projects including Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (C4) – for which he also won a BAFTA. Previously, Tim spent 10 years in the BBC’s documentary department where he produced and directed many observational documentaries and factual entertainment projects.
Armstrong Yakubu
Trustee
Armstrong is Partner at Architects Foster and Partners, and also a full-time member of the Design Board. Armstrong is engaged in the practice-wide design review process and is also responsible for special projects. He joined Foster and Partners in 1987 and has since been involved in a diverse range of projects, including the CityCenter development in Washington DC, 50 United Nations Plaza in New York, the Murezzan in St Moritz, the Elephant House at Elephant House and the Cathay Pacific lounges at Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong International Airport.
Narice Ramsay
Trustee
Narice is currently working for BT as a Client Services Director, managing a team of professionals who are responsible for the ‘end to end' service contract for a number of business clients across all commercial sectors. Narice is passionate about developing and supporting young people and believes that every individual can succeed if they are committed and receives the right support.
Caroline Miller
Trustee
Caroline Miller is the founder and MD of Indigo Pearl PR agency that specialises in video games and entertainment technology. She lives in Kensal Rise and has two children who have attended QPCS, she has been involved with the Promise Foundation since its launch and has been an active mentor for the past five years.
What We do
QPCS programme
Our mentoring programme takes place at Queens Park Community School in NW London a secondary school of 1,202 pupils, with a catchment area of the entire Borough of Brent including many pupils from the priority areas of Harlesden and South Kilburn.
We aim to tackle educational disadvantage by providing mentoring, advice, and training to young people from underprivileged backgrounds and with a core focus on what we term the ‘silent middles’ (by this we are referring to those young people who make up the bulk of the comprehensive educational system – those who are not identified as ‘Gifted and Talented’ nor displaying Special Educational Needs and therefore have no recourse to specific public funding or interventions).
Our mentees come from low income or complex households.
How it works
Mentees are referred by educational staff, based on the following: Pupil Premium, living in lone-parent families, in care, or young people from families otherwise identified as having complex needs such as crowded housing. 60% of our mentees do not have English as their first language.