Newham

Situated just three miles from the City, Newham takes in much of London’s revitalised Docklands including City Airport and the ExCel International Exhibition Centre.  The borough is at the heart of London’s plans for the 2012 Olympic Games and a prestigious new development, Stratford City.  The Games will see an 80,000-seater stadium built in Stratford and work is well underway on 4,500 new homes, nearly half a million square metres of office space, hotels, schools and a shopping centre that will be the largest in the country. Newham has the youngest and most diverse population in the UK.  More than 40% of the 254,000 people in Newham are under 25 years old and more than 100 languages are spoken locally. 

ELBA’s focus in Newham is around the key strategic regeneration areas – Canning Town & Custom House and Stratford – supporting employment, education, and capacity building initiatives.  Our involvement in Newham is championed by Mike Byrne a Senior Executive at Accenture and the Chair of the Newham Forum, and managed by Alison White, ELBA’s Programme Director for Newham.

Below are some more examples of the work we do, but for more information please contact Alison on 020 7068 6960.

Future Focus
Future Focus is a raft of programmes aimed at raising the aspirations and improving the employability skills of young people aged 6-25.  Initially championed by Morgan Stanley the initiative has three components:  Future Focus aimed at job seekers; Future Directions aimed at youth groups; Future First for primary and secondary schools.  The programme has been adopted by a number of ELBA member companies and we have adapted it to their needs so that it is easy for volunteers to take part.  Future First days have proved particularly popular with schools and business volunteers as they offer a chance for both teachers and students to visit a corporate environment and inform them about the world of work, increase awareness of the range of jobs, and what is needed to work in today’s business environment.

Canning Town & Custom House
Funded by the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation, the Accenture Foundation, and the Morgan Stanley International Foundation, we focus our business support on raising the educational standards, aspirations and achievements of the young people in this key regeneration area.  Anna France, who is based with the regeneration team in Canning Town, works closely with local schools and youth groups to ensure we are delivering the right support and meeting the needs of all involved.  We have set up successful business support groups around Rokeby and Eastlea Secondary Schools.  The groups, made up of senior business volunteers from a wide variety of ELBA member companies, work together to support the schools through a variety of different projects impacting on students across the year groups, their peers, and teaching and admin staff.  Working together with Anna they have developed a wide range of projects that meet the needs of the schools’ development plans.

One East London
The Newham team also manages ELBA’s flagship One East London project – for further information read here