200 young people attend Your Future 09’

Over 200 young people visited the first ‘Your Future 09' at Basildon's Towngate Theatre on Friday.

Along with offering 16-24 year olds from the Basildon district careers and training advice, help with their future direction and exhibitions from college and training providers, visitors were also treated to a motivational speech from two times Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell OBE.

James Cracknell won gold at Sydney 2000 as part of the legendary coxless fours of Sir Steve Redgrave, Sir Matthew Pinsent, and Tim Foster. After four years of intense training and determination, James repeated this incredible performance in Athens, winning his second Olympic Gold medal in a nail biting final with Sir Matthew Pinsent, Steve Williams and Ed Coode. James is also a six times world champion.

Since his retirement from rowing, he has taken part in many adventures for charity, most recently racing across the South Pole with Ben Fogle which led to the making of BBC 2's ‘On Thin Ice'.

Cllr Mo Larkin, Chairman of the Council, attended the event and introduced James Cracknell. She said "The event was excellent, and James Cracknell's speech was brilliant. He was very inspiring, and I think his speech will have given many of the youngsters the motivation to get into work or training."

The event was funded by the Basildon Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) and is part of the LSP's and Basildon Council and Basildon Renaissance Partnership's response to the recession, and its ongoing commitment to help young people access skills, education and employment.