Nasrin Akthar, West Midlands Mentor of the Year, receiving a bouquet of flowers

Mosaic has held a special event to celebrate another successful year of its work in the West Midlands.

The event took place at Edgbaston cricket ground, home of Warwickshire County Cricket Club, featuring a keynote speech from Roxana Silbert, Artistic Director of Birmingham Reparatory Theatre.  Guests were also entertained by a brilliant performance by ‘Just Steel’, a steel pan band from nearby Washwood Heath Academy, a school Mosaic works with closely to deliver its Secondary School mentoring programmes.

Attending the event were many mentors and mentees from across Mosaic’s programmes who had the chance to meet and talk with a large number of Mosaic’s leadership team and several of Mosaic’s benefactors.

Roxana Silbert said: “It’s been very enjoyable to part of such well-deserved celebrations. I love working in the West Midlands: it’s an area of energy and potential and to see the difference Mosaic is making to young people locally is incredibly inspiring.

One of the stars on the night was speaker, Mosaic beneficiary and A-Level student Haleema Akthar, who said: “Mosaic is one of the most amazing experiences one can ever encounter, with the experience opening doors to young people to a life of potential and a life of dreams. One of my favourite quotes is ‘dream, believe and achieve’ and I feel that mosaic really embodies this by helping promote young people fulfilling their aspiration in every aspect of their life”.

Dr Haseena Lockhat, Chairman of Mosaic’s West Midlands Regional Leadership Group, also attended the event. She said: “I think it’s vital that we make the time for events such as these. The whole Mosaic team has been so busy all year that I think we sometimes forget to take the time to pause and reflect on the amazing projects that have been taking place across the region.  I am so proud of the support and inspiration that our team of mentors have given to young people across the West Midlands and I’d like to thank them all for their passion and commitment.”

The event also saw the crowning of the Mosaic West Midlands Regional Mentor of the Year, who will go onto represent the region on the National Princess Badiya Mentor of the Year Awards in September. Taking the mantle this year was Nasrin Akthar from Birmingham City University, a remarkable mentor who has mentored in 12 Primary School mentoring programmes in the region in less than 5 years, as well as organising multiple world of work visits for students on the Mosaic Secondary School Group mentoring programme.

Responding to her win, Nasrin said: “I have always considered Mosaic as a blessing because of all the positive experiences I have seen many mentees and mentors – including myself – go through. Being chosen for the West Midlands Regional Mentor of the Year award was completely unexpected and I feel so honoured. I cannot thank my fellow mentees, mentors, link teachers and the West Midlands Mosaic staff for all the support and amazing experiences they have allowed me to be a part of and I hope to remain part of the Mosaic West Midlands family for as long as they will let me!”

The West Midlands is one of Mosaic’s busiest regions in the UK with the charity running both its Primary School and Secondary School programmes as well as the Enterprise Challenge and Ex-Offender programme in the region.

Mosaic would like to thank Dr Qamar Nawaz, Big Johns, Paul Bassi and Nabila Zulfiqar and colleagues from the Solicitors Regulation Authority for their generous support of the event.