Mosaic has held a special event to celebrate another successful year of its work in Yorkshire and to crown the ‘Mentor of the Year’ in the region.

The event took place at the iconic Queen’s Hotel in Leeds and featured a keynote speech from Professor Aaqil Ahmed, Head of Religion and Ethics at the BBC and Professor at the University of Bolton, as well as a memorable band performance from Mosaic mentees at Swallow Hill Community College.

The event celebrated a record-breaking year in the region, where 1698 beneficiaries were impacted through 315 mentors across 56 institutions, with the evening providing an excellent opportunity for Mosaic’s Yorkshire mentors and mentees to meet and talk with members of Mosaic’s leadership team and senior supporters from across the region. Guests were also treated to a replay of the winning Enterprise Challenge regional pitch by Team Hands Up from Dixons Kings Academy, who came runners-up nationally, as well as hearing a powerful presentation from students at Fagley Primary School, who spoke passionately about their experiences of participating in Mosaic’s Primary School Programme.

Keynote speaker Aaqil Ahmed said afterwards: “It’s always a pleasure to celebrate with our great mentors and mentees. Yorkshire is one of our most successful areas and seeing just how our work is helping shape the next generation never stops inspiring me. I look forward to Mosaic growing even further here in Yorkshire and seeing all our mentees achieve success in life.”

Also at the event, Kelly Martin, who works for Leeds Building Society, was announced as Mosaic’s Mentor of the Year in Yorkshire. The award was in recognition of her fantastic support as a mentor on Mosaic’s Secondary School programme, for which she recruited colleagues and mentored alongside them at Swallow Hill Community College in Leeds. Kelly also organised a ‘World of Work’ visit for pupils from the college to visit the offices of Leeds Building Society and even convinced the CEO to make time in his busy schedule to speak to the group. Kelly will now go onto represent the region at the national Mosaic Princess Badiya Mentor of the Year Awards.

On her win, Kelly said: “I’m absolutely speechless after winning the mentor of the year award. Thank you to Mosaic firstly for all the opportunities you have given me – it’s given me a lot of personal satisfaction and I have learned some much about myself. I have every intention of continuing the mentoring and plan to recruit even more colleagues!”

Mosaic also awarded its inaugural Yorkshire Regional Teacher of the Year award, which went to Hamzah Khan from Dixons Kings Academy, who has continuously gone beyond the call of duty to support his students in the delivery of both the Secondary School and Enterprise Challenge programmes this year. Highly commended awards were also given to two mentors for their commitment and dedication this year: David Worthington, winning Enterprise Challenge mentor for Dixons Kings’ Teams Hands Up and Kamran Rashid for his stellar efforts on the Secondary School Group Mentoring Programme.

Sarah Khan-Bashir MBE, Chairman of Mosaic’s Yorkshire Regional Leadership Group and Mosaic Board member, added: “It’s been another brilliant year for Mosaic in Yorkshire and it’s important that we take the time to celebrate at events such as this. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the dozens of volunteers mentors who donate their time so generously to inspire and support young people across our region.”

Mosaic runs all of its programmes across Yorkshire, namely its Primary School and Secondary School programmes as well as the Enterprise Challenge and Ex-Offender programme.