HELPING YOUNG LONDONERS GROW IMPACT REPORT 2020 Solicitor OUR IMPACT 2020 AT A GLANCE KITCHEN SOCIAL 336,485 22,637 meals children and young provided people engaged COUNT ON US 8,171 95% children took part in of teachers noticed the Maths Challenges an impact on their pupils’ confidence levels ACCESS ASPIRATION 2,400 1,724 young Londoners employer encounters signed up from including work across 32 schools experience and mock interviews CREATIVITY WORKS 150 75% young people took part expected to move in the programme into employment, education or training 2 3 THE MAYOR’S FUND FOR ENGINEER LONDON The Mayor’s Fund for London is an independent charity championing opportunities for young Londoners from low-income and Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. We use our campaigning, convening and galvanising power to make the case for investment in opportunities for young people across the capital. Our work raises awareness of the barriers OUR THEORY facing young Londoners, promotes the activities OF CHANGE which best increases their opportunities and brings together the partnerships to Underpinning both our campaigning and make a measurable impact on their lives. charitable activities is our Theory of Change. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is our patron. This identifies four key outcomes to transform the life-chances of young Londoners: Our charitable activities focus on wellbeing, skills and employment and enterprise. ASPIRATION: a sense of ambition, purpose and self-worth We work with young people aged 4 –24 years, with a focus on those from low-income households ABILITY: development of core skills who are struggling or who are from vulnerable underpinning employment groups. We target our interventions in schools and AWARENESS: knowledge of where to look communities in areas of economic disadvantage. for opportunities In particular, we: ACCESS: to the opportunities that London has to offer Use our campaigning, convening and galvanising power to bring together the funding and partnerships to tackle food insecurity. OUR ADDED VALUE Champion numeracy in schools as a As the Mayor’s Fund for London, we realise that prerequisite to accessing a full range of fulfilling we have a unique position that enables us to careers and an essential skill for life. bring together key stakeholders from the public, private and third sectors, including young people Improve linkages between employers and the education and training system themselves. In particular, we: to create career pathways in areas of skills Contribute to the Mayoral priority of social shortage and growth sectors. integration and community cohesion Consider and identify the challenges faced by young Londoners in all 33 boroughs Create and support solutions, evaluate impact and scale success and share best practice 4 2020: A YEAR IN REVIEW One year on, Covid-19 continues to have a huge Our focus now is to get young people impact on our society, back on track; and it is our ambition to transform the life chances of with poverty levels 100,000 young Londoners by 2023. increasing, social exclusion deepening and inequality imperative and one we will not ignore until the Aiming to get a better understanding of how issues are solved at national level. accelerating at pace. young people experienced the pandemic, we created a global platform for young people Meanwhile, many young people are urgently in in London and New York – My City and Me. need of catch-up support in school, particularly We know that the disruption and strain of living They shared their response to Covid-19 in areas of core skills such as maths. A major innovation was enabling our amidst a pandemic has been profoundly felt by through art. In virtual events, young people community network to distribute goods We are also aware that young people, both in young people from low-income backgrounds, and heard from professionals at Facebook, (educational materials, hygiene products, etc) and outside the classroom, desperately require in particular, those from Black, Asian and minority Instagram and Pinterest, showcased their high-quality careers advice and training to help ethnic communities. The future has the potential alongside food. Kitchen Social also pioneered and launched ‘Take & Make’ – a high quality work to a global community and learnt them find jobs. Indeed, in a recent Mayor’s Fund to look bleak for this generation, unless we take recipe box series, with fresh ingredients for critical skills in the process. for London survey with teachers, 85% said urgent and immediate action to help address the families to take home and cook with their they believed Covid-19 would negatively affect inequalities deepened by this crisis. However, the year has not only been about children. students’ career opportunities in the next year, delivery. We have increasingly used our convening Despite the many challenges of 2020, our reach whilst most believed Covid-19 may potentially Our response to schools and businesses and campaigning power, to effect change, including: has been impressive. The organisation supported intermittently closing doors was to develop have a ten-year impact on students’ careers. close to 40,000 young Londoners, across all an online offer for our education and A major report launched at City Hall with Our focus now is to get young people back 33 boroughs. We worked in partnership with employment programmes. The Count on global management consultancy, Oliver on track; and it is our ambition to transform over 1,000 schools and engaged more than 100 Us Maths Challenges for primary and Wyman, demonstrating the broken ladder the life chances of 100,000 young Londoners local community groups. Our modus operandi secondary schools has been adapted to to social mobility in London. by 2023. continues to be open and collaborative, bringing run online, without losing the programme’s Our influencing work to put the issue of We will ensure that we innovate to meet need. a real ‘value add’ to communities in London. unique collaborative focus. We were also ‘holiday hunger’ (food insecurity) on the We will work more closely with young people proud to support Maths Week London again Over 75% of our charitable impact touches national table, culminated in the first ever in influencing London’s social mobility agenda in the summer. the lives of young people from Black, Asian or Children’s Food Summit, addressed by and actively champion their voices across our other minority ethnic backgrounds; in an era of Building on our experience of face-to- the Children’s Commissioner for England networks. We will continue to forge partnerships increased awareness of ongoing disadvantage and face careers opportunities, we were able and held in partnership with the Food to support our programmes and leverage our discrimination, the Mayor’s Fund, as a charity, has to quickly pivot our Access Aspiration Foundation. connections and harness expertise so that a record of which it can be proud. strategy to design and deliver impactful The launch of a creative sector ‘Manifesto London benefits long term. online encounters. This enabled young people Children’s right to food, vital skills education and for Change’. This collaborative piece focused to continue to access high-quality employer- We were helped throughout 2020 by an access to career enhancing activities were very on how industries could become a more led sessions safely, with business volunteers extraordinary range of partners, including much at the top of our agenda in 2020 and are diverse and inclusive place for young people and students logging in to webinars from corporates, Trusts and Foundations, charities, now more important than ever in aiding London’s from all backgrounds. We showcased home. Our programme public bodies and educational institutions, all of 5 recovery. We are particularly proud that: Creativity Works practical examples of how to implement focusses on those industries which the five-point manifesto aimed at inspiring whom were motivated by the desire to help young have been thriving during the pandemic people at a time of national crisis. The charity was As the pandemic hit, our holiday food and others to take action. (particularly digital and multimedia), whilst also helped in its endeavours by its Trustees, its activities programme, Kitchen Social, Advisory Board plus its Youth Board. As a source delivered an outstanding emergency response, supporting the recovery of sub-sectors that 2021 is already bringing its own set of challenges. 6 have traditionally been vital to London’s of support and challenge, these structures have ensuring that young people out of school had The need for all children to be able to access economic success. been consistently invaluable. access to sufficient quality food and supplies. high quality food throughout the year remains INCREASING . OUR IMPACT Children and young people from low-income backgrounds, especially those from ethnic minority communities in London, have been among those most affected by Covid-19. The pandemic has not only revealed but intensified widespread disparities in our capital: London child poverty rates are now the highest of any UK region. 63% of students on our Access Aspiration programme say their wellbeing has been affected by the pandemic. 75% of families taking part in our Kitchen Social programme have reported having less money for food. One in three young people do not have adequate resources to study from home. Youth unemployment has increased by 66,000, a 13% increase on one year ago. Poverty has detrimental effects on individuals and their communities, Producer providing significant barriers to leading happy and fulfilled lives. BLOGGER Children growing up in poverty are: More likely to face social exclusion Less likely to do well in school Earn less as they progress into adulthood. Many young people feel that their future hangs in the balance. With the economic downturn gathering pace, our services have never been more in demand.