The story so far

In the summer of 1994 a small group of students and young professionals trialled a holiday club for young lads in Hulme, Manchester. A year later the success of the Manchester project inspired another group to spring up in Glasgow. Ever since the early days, the vision of Citywise has always been to see young people flourish as they discover their passion and purpose.

The vision of Citywise is that all young people we interact with would develop the tools to unlock their potential, lead flourishing lives, and make a positive contribution to their communities. Our work is targeted towards young people experiencing socio-economic disadvantage for a variety of reasons, and seeks to improve their life chances by providing support that may not otherwise be available to them.

Our mission is to support young people to discover the beauty and the practice of lifelong character growth. We see this as a primary means by which young people can develop agency and take hold of their own futures. 

The projects we deliver follow a ‘character curriculum’ which, through mentoring, teaches the young people we work with our core values of resilience, self-control, good judgement and fairness. Our work is also rich with opportunities to develop academic, social and communications skills, reinforced through character growth. 

As a mentoring organisation we pair young people with positive role models who can introduce them to the concepts of positive character growth and how to develop it. We believe that mentoring is an act of self-giving through which both parties grow, and we work hard to ensure that those volunteering with us as mentors are also given opportunities to reflect on their own character growth.