Jessica Barratt created Franklin Scholars in 2013 around Benjamin’s Franklin’s philosophy: “When you’re good to others, you are best to yourself.”
Franklin Scholars is an award-winning social enterprise that works with schools to help each young person to tackle their own personal challenges and develop the skills and mindsets they need for success through support programmes. The Scholars themselves are near-peer tutors and mentors. In 2014, Jessica was awarded a Shackleton Leadership Award for her work with Franklin Scholars.
Before founding Franklin Scholars, Jessica was running community education programmes in Mozambique, and simultaneously conducting research and development work around peer-to-peer support. Prior to this she worked in the music industry where she set up a youth mentoring scheme focused around the music business.