UK Projects

banner01

James Reuben - Team London Speach

MR MAYOR, MRS CAMERON, MY LORDS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

Having the Mayor of London, Mrs Samantha Cameron and Michael Bloomberg as my warm-up act is hugely humbling.

It is a great honour and privilege to be with you here taking part in the launch of Team London. It is a project that my family and I are genuinely excited to be involved with.

Whether you’ve spent all of your life here or have just arrived, there is a very definite sense of shared pride in being a Londoner. In a city as huge and diverse as ours, this common identity, purpose and energy is what helps to make our capital so great and so envied. It is very unusual, and it matters a great deal to our success and our optimism.

In sponsoring Team London, the Reuben Foundation wanted to harness this unique spirit – this sense of community. The scheme’s goal is simple; to help Londoners help their fellow Londoners. London has a fine tradition of volunteering and all of us involved with this programme feel certain that with the right assistance and encouragement, Team London will help create a renewed focus on community engagement.

Through the creation of mentoring projects, partnerships with businesses, volunteering networks, education initiatives and many other things beside, the legacy of Team London will be, I hope, a city in which Londoners’ priority will be to work together to give something back.

In creating that legacy Team London can do no better than to look to the dedication and generosity of spirit that is present in this room. Your example of selfless giving - time, money, effort - is a benchmark for us all. I would like to echo the thoughts of others and thank you on behalf of our Foundation - and my father and my uncle in particular - for leading the way.