Eight groups of young people have pitched their social action campaign ideas Dragon’s Den style, to a room of local business, education, public sector and charity professionals.
More than £1,000, donated from the Rotaries of Bedfordshire, was given out to the groups. The winning group, Minds Alrite, received the top prize of £250 towards their mental health awareness project which will roll out in schools during Mental Health Awareness Week in May.
The group is working in partnership with Relate Bedfordshire & Luton.
The group which brought its project together over the last three months said: “It feels incredible to have won. We have all come so far and grown so much as people throughout the [UpRising] programme and we were so pleased to have shown that during Dragons’ Den.”
Other projects included a project in Luton focused on promoting healthy relationships as a way of tackling sexual exploitation issues and an individual looking to highlight the difficulties of young people suffering with Dyspraxia.
The event was hosted at the new Gateway building in Bedford.