'I wouldn't be where I am without Children In Need'

Aimee Clasby said the Turtle Dove charity, which is supported by BBC Children in Need, had given her back her confidence

A young woman has said a charity given a grant by Children in Need has helped to get her confidence back.

Aimee Clasby, 22, from Cambridge, has been supported by Turtle Dove, which helps women aged 14-24 who are unemployed or at risk of it, and she now works for them.

The trainee youth development worker said the charity had supported her since 2021 to find a job and she now wants "to give back".

"I don’t know where I’d be without Turtle Dove," she said, "but I would not be smiling as much and I wouldn’t be where I am today."

Katie Fryer-Olliffe's young women's development worker role is supported for three years by a grant from BBC Children in Need

Turtle Dove Cambridge aims to improve the future of young women who do not have the confidence or experience to seek employment.

Young women’s development worker, Katie Fryer-Olliffe, said: "We support them to gain skills in hospitality work and we offer peer support and mentoring.

"Our hope is... that at the end of working with us they will have the confidence to go into the workplace.

"Aimee, our trainee youth worker came here as a young woman and now she supports us to do baking sessions with new young women who have joined."

Her role is supported for three years by a £45,000 grant from BBC Children in Need.

Aimee Clasby teaches girls how to make simple nutritional meals on a budget and runs peer support sessions

Ms Clasby said she was disengaged from education "pretty much from the start of high school", but she had loved cooking from about the age of two and she had taught herself, with help from her mum and grandmother.

She worked in a kitchen from the age of 14, learning the ropes and now, having been a chef for eight years, she is passing on her skills to others by training to be a youth worker and "continuing the support I’ve always had".

She teaches how to make simple, nutritious meals on a budget and runs peer support sessions.

"Before [Turtle Dove] I felt anxious, very anxious. I still am, but it's not as bad," she said.

"I felt isolated and didn’t really do anything. I had a job but didn’t enjoy it.

"[Now] I can use cooking as a tool to support the young, and often vulnerable, young women.

"It’s often misunderstood that young women are OK all of the time because we are, we have to make sure we are, but in actual fact were struggling just as much as everyone else.

"Turtle Dove have helped me so much that I want to give back."