Since we launched our 1 Per Cent Campaign two issues ago, the charities we have written about have been taking important new steps to address the UK’s social ills: here’s what’s been happening since the campaign started.
As we reported in Spear’s 25, Durand Academy in South London is opening a Sussex boarding school for 600 thirteen- to eighteen-year-olds this September. Good progress is being made with this project. Although Greg Martin will remain at the heart of Durand, a new headteacher has been appointed to start in September, who will be overseeing the development of the whole school, from age three to eighteen. Nine new classrooms are being built in the West Sussex mansion — seven for general teaching, one for music and one for science — and the project is almost halfway complete.
As a result of our campaign, two young entrepreneurs will be visiting the school during the autumn term to talk to the students about the trials and tribulations of starting and running your own business. Ross Marshall, whose company Your Golf Travel now has a turnover of nearly £30 million, will be speaking, as will Richard Hurtley of Rampant Sporting, a clothes company he founded at university.
Hurtley (pictured above) is hoping to inspire the pupils of Durand’s new boarding school: ‘Something as little as providing a story which might show students another perspective, a goal to strive for or even create a seed of enterprise to appear in someone listening makes it well worthwhile.’
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Soldier On!, a charity helping servicemen and women discharged on medical grounds with the transition to civilian life, has also been busy since it was profiled in the last issue: two injured servicemen have been offered internships with the security division of an investment bank. Founder Nicholas Harrison says that these placements demonstrate the potential of this workforce: ‘One of the candidates stated that he was totally prepared to start at the very bottom and work his way up. But the bank was having none of it and said that that he was easily management material.’
The venture philanthropy organisation Impetus has secured an important new grant from the Social Action Fund (SAC) since we wrote about it. The SAC is managed by the Social Investment Business on behalf of the Cabinet Office to fund social action projects in England, and Impetus works with it to provide business professionals with pro bono opportunities in the third sector. In recognition of the organisation’s success in matching expert volunteers with their portfolio charities to work on social projects, it has been awarded £300,000.
We will give more updates on our partner charities in the next issue. In the meantime, please continue offering these charities your time, expertise and money.
Read more about the Spear’s 1 Per Cent Campaign
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