Hackney

Our Hackney Programme has its roots in supporting educational achievement and delivering focused regeneration through innovative partnerships. Building on ELBA’s flagship Hackney Schools’ Mentoring Programme that has been running for over a decade, the latest focus is to support access to employment and to help tackle the ‘worklessness’ agenda which is a key strategic priority area for the borough.

The programme is championed by Eileen Taylor, Global Head of Diversity, Chair of the Hackney Area Forum and managed by Louise Muller, Programme Director for Hackney.

Hackney Schools’ Mentoring Programme (HSMP)
HSMP is an ELBA initiative linking Hackney school pupils in Year 10 (age 14 and 15) with working adults from ELBA’s member companies, in order to help those students to broaden their horizons, raise their aspirations and increase their self-confidence. In its first year (1996/97), 46 mentors were linked with just 68 pupils. Since then over 4,000 students have been matched to business mentors This year around 200 mentors have been matched to 300 students in both ‘one to one’ and group relationships. Visit: www.hsmp.org.uk

Project Shoreditch
Our award winning project, Project Shoreditch, is a unique partnership between Deutsche Bank, Linklaters, UBS and the Shoreditch Trust with the aim of involving business to enable change in the local community. Both a BITC Big Tick and Dragon Award-winning programme, its success is due to the strength of this collaborative approach facilitated by our project manager who works closely to develop innovative employee volunteering projects that directly respond to the needs in the community and the companies. Over 5,000 employee volunteers have been involved to date and this figure continues to rise. Project Shoreditch is entering its third phase with British Land replacing Deutsche Bank from April 2010 and with a renewed focus on supporting employability.

Macquarie Employment Programme
Macquarie Group Foundation is funding an employment programme based on ELBA’s award-winning Real Apprentice training into work model. The programme supports 18 – 24 year old unemployed Hackney residents with employability training, work placements and access to jobs and helps to break down barriers that exist for young people between Hackney and the City. To date over 60 young people have got placements in a range of opportunities through Macquarie and their suppliers and the companies they own including Red Bee Media. Macquarie employees are involved in a range of volunteering opportunities on the programme from supporting in CV and interview workshops to being mentors. The impact of the programme has been huge for the young people involved as one participant stated, “My life has changed since working with ELBA and now securing the job at ISS”.