Deo Duce Foundation

15/10/2026

Do young people realise how employable they already are?

A new Employability Skills Framework from Skills England is helping young people recognise something that can easily be overlooked: valuable workplace skills aren’t only developed through paid employment. (Read more > https://skillsengland.blog.gov.uk/2026/10/05/helping-young-people-turn-experience-into-opportunity-introducing-the-employability-skills-framework-by-gemma-marsh/)

Team sport can build collaboration and leadership.
Volunteering can develop initiative and problem solving.
School projects require planning, communication and teamwork.
Even hobbies and responsibilities outside school can demonstrate skills employers value.

The challenge is often helping young people recognise those skills, put them into words and understand how they translate into the workplace.

That’s why opportunities to engage with employers and experience the world of work are so valuable. They help young people make the connection between what they can already do and where those abilities could take them next.

And there’s an important message for employers too: when recruiting young people with limited work history, perhaps we should be looking less at where they’ve worked before and more at the potential they can demonstrate.

Are we doing enough to help young people recognise the skills they already have? We'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

12/10/2026

How can we better prepare young people for the world of work?

Plans for new Vocational GCSEs have put practical learning, career pathways and work experience firmly in the spotlight - including an ambition to create an additional 200,000 work experience opportunities for 14–16-year-olds.

Whatever pathway a young person chooses, early exposure to the workplace can play an important role in helping them understand their options, develop confidence and build valuable skills for the future.

It’s something that sits at the heart of our work at Deo Duce Foundation - helping young people make the connection between education, employability and the opportunities available to them.

An interesting development for schools, employers and young people alike.

Read more: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-vocational-gcses-unveiled-in-major-shake-up-to-hands-on-learning-for-teens?

08/10/2026

A brilliant achievement from a young person right here in Harrow. 👏♟️

11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan has just added a third Guinness World Records title to her name, becoming the youngest chess player ever to achieve the Woman Grandmaster title.

Stories like this are such a powerful reminder of what young people can achieve when talent is encouraged, confidence is built and opportunities are there to help them grow.

Huge congratulations, Bodhana. What an inspiration. 💙

Harrow schoolgirl and chess prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan has officially added a third Guinness World Records title to her growing collection. The

06/10/2026

It might only be a month since our 6th Annual Golf Fundraiser… but we’re already planning the next one. ⛳💙

So, mark your diary, clear the schedule and save the date:
📅 Friday 10 September 2027
📍 Stanmore Golf Club

Our 7th Annual Golf Fundraiser will once again bring together a great day of golf, good company and fundraising in support of young people across Harrow.

Each year the event seems to get bigger and better, and we’d love to see as many familiar faces - and new ones - joining us next September.

More details will follow, but for now… get the date in the diary.
To register your interest, email [email protected]

01/10/2026

We love this October calendar from Action for Happiness, packed with simple daily prompts to encourage kindness, optimism and connection.

From checking in on someone to noticing the good around you, small actions really can have a big impact on how we feel and how we support those around us.

At Deo Duce Foundation, we see every day how important confidence, wellbeing and positive support can be for young people and communities.

Which one will you try first?

28/09/2026

This is exactly why local funding matters. 💙

We’re delighted to support CAAS - Centre for ADHD & Autism Support with a grant of £5,811, funding 24 places for Harrow parents and carers through their Understanding Autism and Parent Booster courses.

Supporting young people also means supporting the families around them, and we’re proud to help make this kind of practical, specialist support more accessible locally.

Huge thanks to the CAAS team for the work they continue to do across North-West London.

CAAS is thrilled to announce that we have been awarded a grant of an amazing £5,811 from the Deo Duce Foundation.

This grant will fund 24 places for Harrow parents/carers across:

- 12 places on an Understanding Autism Course, helping parents to understand their autistic child/young person
- 12 places on a Parent Booster Course, furthering parents' knowledge and teaching support and coping strategies

We'd like to give a huge thank you to the Deo Dulce Foundation for their generosity. Your support matters. 💜

24/09/2026

Choosing your Charity of the Year for 2027? Keep it local.

As we head towards the final quarter of 2026, many businesses will already be thinking about who they want to support next year.

If you’re based in Harrow or the surrounding area, we’d love you to consider Deo Duce Foundation as your Charity of the Year for 2027.

Why us?
Because your support stays close to home and helps create real opportunities for young people across Harrow.

Over the past six years, we’ve awarded more than £250,000 in grants, supported 30+ community organisations and helped fund programmes spanning education, employability, wellbeing, sport, confidence-building and community support.

This year alone, £70,000 in grants has been awarded and 500+ young people have been reached through direct funding.

From careers and life-skills programmes to mental health, resilience, physical activity and opportunities for young people who might otherwise miss out, every programme we support is chosen because it can make a genuine difference.

And a partnership with DDF can be more than a donation. Your team can fundraise, volunteer, support events, help spread the word and become part of the work happening across the borough.

So, if 2027 is the year your business wants to make a bigger difference locally, we’d love to have a conversation.

📩 [email protected]
🌐 www.deoducefoundation.org.uk

21/09/2026

Great to see the continued growth of HAF in Harrow and the strength of the partnerships behind it.

As a Foundation committed to supporting children and young people across the borough, we know how important strong local organisations and collaboration are in making sure support reaches families where it’s needed most.

36 providers this summer is a fantastic achievement. Young Harrow Foundation and Harlow Council 👏👏👏

14/09/2026

Young people have the talent. The challenge is making sure they have a route into opportunity.

A new report from Centre for London makes for sobering reading. It argues that London’s youth unemployment problem isn’t primarily about education - it’s about the transition from education into work.

Young Londoners are achieving strongly at school, yet only 17% of 16–18-year-old study leavers moved into sustained employment or an apprenticeship in the latest figures highlighted by the report.

For us at the Deo Duce Foundation, it reinforces just how important it is to create opportunities that help young people build confidence, develop skills, make connections and see what might be possible for their future.

That’s why supporting local organisations and programmes working directly with young people matters so much.

Because education is only part of the journey. Young people also need clear, accessible routes to take that next step.

An interesting and important read from Centre for London.

👉 https://centreforlondon.org/publication/london-youth-unemployment/

In 2026, youth unemployment rose to the top of the public agenda after new figures showed that one in four young Londoners were unemployed. Behind that headline sits a series of...

10/09/2026

From the fairways to the dancefloor… ⛳💃

One of our guests captured this brilliant little snapshot of how the evening unfolded at our Sixth Annual Fundraiser Golf Day and we think it sums up the day rather well!

There was plenty of laughter, a little healthy competition and some fabulous dance moves 😉 … but also an important reminder of why we all came together in the first place.

We were delighted to hear from Elliot Bird from Watford FC CSE Trust, who spoke about the Harrow Change Makers programme and the opportunities it is creating for young people locally, with the Deo Duce Foundation proud to be a core financial supporter.

Dan Burke from Young Harrow Foundation also shared more about the impact DDF funding is having across a range of initiatives supporting local people in Harrow.

And that makes the fundraising total even more meaningful.

We’re still confirming the final figure, but it looks as though this year’s Golf Day may have raised close to £40,000. 💛

That’s an incredible amount that will go a long way towards supporting more projects and opportunities over the year ahead.

So whether you played 18 holes, sponsored the event, donated, helped behind the scenes or simply gave it everything on the dancefloor - thank you. You all played a part.

Same time next year? 😉⛳