Debate Mate combats social immobility and equips young people with key skills such as critical and creative thinking, communication, leadership, teamwork and confidence through delivering debate clubs to young people aged 9-18 living in areas of high child poverty.

The Social Justice Fund sponsored the 2024 Sony Music UK Debate Mate Cup, the concluding event of the national debating competition. Working with around 200 primary and secondary state schools across the UK, the programme brought the rigour plus the fun of debating and improve employability skills among young people. In addition to the Cup, the Sony Music UK Social Justice Fund also subsidised a year of the Accelerate Programme, a debating and mentoring scheme targeting students who are at risk of exclusion, or who are disengaged with education, across eight schools in Manchester and London.

Find out more about Debate Mate here.

Completed Summer 2024.