Three scholarships awarded to homeless young people through Accumulate

Three fully-funded scholarships to Ravensbourne’s Access to Higher Education Diploma were recently announced as part of their partnership with Accumulate — who work with hostels across London to deliver creative workshops to young homeless people.

Crystal Alleyne, Koffi Serge Pacome Nguessan and Jeancy Mutuayai were awarded scholarships funded by Straight Forward Design, Simmons and Simmons and Ruth Keetch respectively. Additionally, Imani Caprice and Shannon Stevenson were also awarded places on the course.

The announcements were made at the opening of Accumulate’s ‘Youth Culture’ exhibition held at the Autograph Gallery in Shoreditch. The exhibition celebrated the achievements of this year’s workshop participants, including work ranging from photography to fashion design. To date, nine Accumulate participants have received places on Ravensbourne’s digital access courses, with a number progressing onto degree courses.

Commenting, Crystal said: “It still hasn’t sunk in yet but it feels good! Everyone else did a really good job so I didn’t think I would have won. I think the future holds a lot for me now, I’m going into editing and motion picture. I enjoyed every bit of the Accumulate scheme — I enjoyed doing the photography, I enjoyed the fashion side of it and the podcasting and creative writing too. I want to say a massive thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Marice Cumber, Accumulate’s Director said: “The culmination of the Accumulate course is awarding selected participants scholarships to study on the Ravensbourne Access to Higher Education Diploma. These scholarships make higher education accessible to people who thought it was beyond their reach. It was incredibly rewarding to award Accumulate participants places to study at Ravensbourne and know that, through the charity's work and collaboration with Ravensbourne, we are able to change people's lives through creativity and give them a positive future.”

Find out more about Accumulate on their website.