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June 2011
Top firms sign up to get London teaming with volunteers
Ten of the UK's business giants are lending their support to help Boris Johnson deliver Team London, the Mayor's ambitious scheme to transform the city by getting thousands more Londoners volunteering.
Launching the £4.5 million Team London programme today, the Mayor revealed that top London-based businesses led by Bloomberg LP and including IBM, Procter & Gamble and Mastercard, have signed up to the scheme.
Team London was made possible by £2 million of initial funding from the Reuben Foundation and £2.5million from the Mayor. New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has provided additional support and resources through Bloomberg LP.
The programme will mobilise around 10,000 volunteers, primarily across six large scale projects to help improve the quality of life in the city. The Mayor wants to create an army of community spirited volunteers who will become leaders of uniformed youth groups, mentors, sports coaches, literacy champions, help green London through planting trees and support learning activities for older people.
Based on the Cities of Service Model pioneered by Mayor Bloomberg in New York and now being pursued in over 100 American cities, London is the first city outside the United States to develop its own plan to bring individuals, public, private and voluntary organisations together to work more effectively to change communities. The scheme will also ensure better co-ordination of existing volunteering activity and help make volunteering in London easy to do and easier to find out about.
The scheme is supported by the philanthropic funding of the Reuben Foundation, a UK-registered foundation created to channel the charitable giving of the Reuben Brothers.
The Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: ‘All across the capital, ordinary Londoners are making an extraordinary difference by volunteering their time. We want to harness this incredible goodwill and the generous philanthropy of the capital's businesses, to make London a safer, cleaner, greener and stronger city. Evidence shows that when we get involved in our city, we all feel better about our city. I’m calling on everyone to sign up and be a part of Team London, so together we can make this the best big city in the world’
New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said: ' We are extremely proud that the approach to address pressing local challenges through high impact volunteer strategies has made its way across the pond, pioneered by Boris. We are looking forward to sharing your success here in the state and then working together to spread the word even further.’
The Reuben Foundation said: 'Team London is an inspirational programme which we believe will drive forward the spirit of volunteering and community engagement in the capital. We are proud to have been able to initiate Team London and are delighted to see it gaining such wide support. We look forward to moving forward with the Mayor on its development, and in particular the full implementation of the first component programmes.’
The Mayor has appointed third sector organisations to deliver each of the inaugural projects, which from today Londoners can volunteer for and businesses can sign up to be become a part of at www.london.gov.uk/teamlondon . There is also information on how to get involved in volunteering opportunities in your local area.
The initial six projects are:
Literacy Champions- delivered in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, the programme will improve literacy habits for children aged 3-5.
Technology Champions for Older People- delivered in partnership with Age UK London, this intergenerational programme will see young people working with older Londoners so that they can improve their IT and computer skills.
Greener London- delivered in partnership with Trees for Cities this programme will increase and maintain London’s tree cover.
Mayor’s Mentors- delivered in partnership with the University of East London and the London Action Trust, the mentoring programme aims to recruit at least 1000 men to help reach at risk young black boys and young men.
Uniformed Youth- delivered in partnership with the Safer London Foundation, the Mayor wants to recruit 1000 youth leaders to clear the waiting lists of about 8000 young people for uniformed groups.
Sports Volunteer Fund- delivered in partnership with the National Skills Academy, the programme will invest in training coaches, officials and sports activity leaders to help strengthen community sports facilities.
In addition, small individual grants will be available for grass roots community groups and charities aimed at increasing their capacity on the ground.
The Mayor will be looking to garner further support from the wider business community and charitable foundations, to expand the scheme even further by running projects in his key priority areas of improving the local environment, tackling crime and increasing opportunities for young people; to make London an even better place.
Boris Johnson recently launched the Team London Star nominations to recognise the thousands of Londoners who already volunteer their time to help others. More than 70 per cent of people in London volunteer their time and energy at least once a year and the Mayor wants to publically recognise this incredible contribution to improving the city, which plays a valuable part in helping to transform the city and improve local communities. At today's launch of Team London, the Mayor was joined by his Street Party Ambassador Barbara Windsor and singer Peter Andre, who is supporting a new literacy programme.
After the event at 11.30am, the Mayor will be taking part in a live Q&A on Twitter about Team London. To take part, follow @mayoroflondon and @TeamLDN, and use hashtags #askboris and #volunteering.
ENDS
Notes to editors
• The corporate partners are- Barclays, Citigroup, IBM, BT, Mckinsey, KPMG, BUPA, Addison Lee, Mastercard and Procter and Gamble.
• The Reuben Foundation has provided £2m funding, with the Mayor providing £2.5 million. At present the following projects have been allocated the following:
Literacy Champions- £250,000
Technology for Older People- £200,000
Greener London- £250,000
Sport Volunteer Fund- £250,000
Mayor’s Mentors- £1.3 million
Uniformed Youth- £1.3 million
Individual grants to community groups- £500,000 (grants of up to £10,000)
[From today organisations can register their expressions of interest at www.london.gov.uk/teamlondon ]
• Team London Star certificates were awarded to-Phillipe Granger (Rushey Green Timebank); Margaret Mizen (Jimmy Mizen Foundation), Joan Bennetto (Founder London Older People’s Strategy Group), Joshia Sukama (Value Life Campaign), Muktari Richards (City Year London Corps) and Margaret Cox(Rocky Park Urban Growers project )
• For more information on how to nominate your Team London Star, go to www.london.gov.uk/teamlondon . The Team London Star nominations are being promoted through the 31 regional titles of the Archant Newspaper Group and the Volunteer Centre.
• The Cities of Service model- In April 2009, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg launched NYC Service, a high-impact plan to engage New Yorkers in volunteering strategies that directly address the city’s highest priority areas of need. In September 2009, Mayor Bloomberg and 16 other mayors from cities across the United States launched Cities of Service, a bi-partisan coalition dedicated to expanding high-impact volunteering. For more information visit www.citiesofservice.org
• Formed in 2002, the Reuben Foundation is a UK-registered foundation created to channel the charitable giving of the Reuben Brothers. The Foundation supports a range of charitable causes, from long-term funding projects to individual charitable donations. For more information visit www.reubenfoundation.com
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