Making a difference to young people in our communities

Supporting local charities and our communities has always been a focal point for PDMS. 

For many years we have actively been involved in charitable work, whether it’s a fundraiser in our office or participating in organised fundraising events.  As we are approaching the end of our financial year, we thought we’d look back at some of the many great causes and initiatives we’ve been proud to support in 2021/2022 which focus on children and young people.

Children's charities

Christmas is already a dim and distant memory, but at this time of the year, more than any other, the emphasis is on giving. We chose two local charities that make a real difference, especially to children and families – Isle Help You in the Isle of Man and Includem in Glasgow.  Our raffle prize of an extra day’s holiday went down a storm and our team raised an impressive £660 which was matched by PDMS reaching a total of £1,320.

The money we raised helped buy food packs and Christmas gifts for ‘Isle Help You’ to support the 30 families and 60 children under the care of the family and service team and 28 young people in the care system looked after by St Christopher’s. They were also able to buy some gifts for the seven residential children’s homes on the Island, including televisions, dartboards, footballs, board games and pancake makers to name just a few. 

"Thanks again to you and all the PDMS team for all the support again this year we really appreciate it." - Heidi from Isle Help You

Includem is a charity which was set up in Glasgow to support children, young people and families fighting against the impact of poverty. These people have been struggling to keep their heads above water they are having to make difficult decisions between feeding their children or paying fuel costs.

Includem explained that this winter will be one of the toughest they’ve had to face with the added impact of dramatically rising fuel costs and general cost of living.  They went on to say that PDMS’ contribution would help alleviate this situation for children and their families through the simple act of purchasing Christmas presents and experiences.  

"Please pass on a huge thanks to your staff. Their kindness will make a huge difference to children, young people and families struggling this Christmas. That’s fantastic news that PDMS chose includem!"

In November, we were honoured to be part of a truly inspiring event celebrating children’s champions on the Isle of Man and recognising the achievements of inspirational individuals and groups.

The awards are organised by A Little Piece of Hope charity who help bereaved families and sick children aged 21 and under on the Isle of Man with hospital travel, funerals and headstones, mental health support and vital equipment.  PDMS sponsored the “Skies the Limit” Award, recognising the efforts of young fundraisers on our Island. The award was won by a very deserving young man called Charlie Hurst who had donated his birthday money and raised sponsorship to help feed vulnerable people.   

Mentoring - giving back and gaining

From both a company perspective and as individuals, we’ve always believed strongly in finding practical ways to help young people in our local communities.  One way of providing this support is through mentoring and our team is involved in a number of initiatives.

For the past few years, we’ve supported the Career Ready programme on the Isle of Man with staff volunteering to work with 16-18-year-olds on the Island – equipping them with the skills and experience they need to be ready to start a job or go on to higher education. 

"I have really enjoyed being a mentor with Career Ready - it's very rewarding giving back to local teenagers and helping them become ready to enter the world of employment."

In Scotland, our team is supporting two different mentoring programmes - the Digital Critical Friends Programme in Scotland and MCR Pathways.

Digital Critical Friends Programme is a partnership between tech sector body ScotlandIS, Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) Glasgow and Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) Lanarkshire. Created to bridge the skills gap by helping industries form a valuable relationship with local schools. Fiona, one of our Project Managers, has been matched with a local secondary school for 12 months, meeting online and in-person for regular informal conversations.  

MCR Pathways is a relationship-based mentoring charity covering 75 schools in Scotland.  It helps young people who are at school to become motivated, committed, and resilient, supporting care-experienced and other vulnerable or disadvantaged young people to realise their full potential through education. Our Marketing Executives, Diane completed a training programme and was then matched with a child, meeting them in person each week to talk about anything from further education, career prospects or anything else they are interested in or want to discuss.

Preparing the next generation for the world of work

One charity close to our heart is Junior Achievement and we’ve worked with the Isle of Man arm of the charity for a number of years. It is an educational charity that helps young people to develop skills for the workplace around the world.  Our CEO, Chris is the Chair of Junior Achievement Isle of Man and Nick, our Front-End Developer, is on the Board of the Junior Achievement Alumni Europe. 

Junior Achievement runs the ‘Company Programme’, where students aged 16 to 19, set up and run their own company over the course of an academic year, which involves every aspect of running a business, whilst being supported by experienced mentors.  At the end of the programme, the individual companies take part in a competition, where they present to a large audience, set up their own trade stands and then conclude with a panel interview. 

Charlotte, our Head of People & Culture, plays an active role in Isle of Man charity, LoveTech. LoveTech aims to help inspire and empower girls and young women to explore opportunities in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).  

Work experience is another area where we try to make a big difference in our local communities and we regularly host students from school or university join us on work placements. Our team go out of their way to make sure that our work experience and placement students get the most out of their time with us. It gives us an enormous sense of pride when we see the difference a placement can make to a young person. 

"Having work experience at PDMS has helped me to build my confidence within a business setting. I have learnt how to communicate with colleagues through Teams as well as face-to-face, how to use laptops and software used by the company, and skills specific to my interest in becoming a part of the Marketing sector." - Ella Bignall, Work Experience Student

So that’s just a brief snapshot of some of the very many ways that the team at PDMS contributes to helping young people in our local communities as part of our corporate activities. We're looking forward to seeing what 2022/2023 has in store for PDMS. 

To find out more about our charitable initiatives and activities, visit our Social Responsibility page