Young Futures was set up in memory of Finlay Poole, a young man from Wirksworth, with the brightest of futures ahead of him, who sadly took his own life in early 2021, during the Pandemic lockdown, whilst studying at University.
Sadly Fin’s death is not unusual, suicide is the biggest killer of our young people, bigger than cancer, bigger than traffic accidents.
The loss of Finlay has been devastating to all who knew him. In 2022 Fin’s family and friends set up the Wirksworth Young Futures Fund to support the wellbeing and mental health of local young people.
Work is split into 3 key areas:
- Working with local schools to develop an in schools programmes
-Working withe the local community to set up an out of school bereavement support group for young people and their families
- Fundraising to support the programmes of work
The Anthony Gell Foundation, a charity which supports the education of local young people, heard of our work and as we shared similar objectives, kindly offered to host Young Futures, within a designated fund of the charity. We are eternally grateful to the Anthony Gell Foundation for this, as it provides the charitable support and oversight we need but without all the administration required to set up and run our own charity and allows us to concentrate on supporting young people.
Charity No 527178