According to the Stationers’ Company: The Foundation provides a wide range of educational support which obviously benefits the individuals involved but also has a positive impact on the content and communications industries such as printing, publishing, packaging, journalism, broadcasting, and other areas of new media. It funds two Supplementary Saturday Schools for disadvantaged primary level pupils where they can reach the required level of reading and writing and obtain a good grounding in basic maths. Enabling youngsters to achieve the necessary levels literacy and numeracy ensures that they are best set-up subsequently to fulfil their potential in life. The Foundation also supports the Shine School Media Awards, an annual competition to encourage secondary school pupils in England and Wales to produce newspapers, magazines or online publications. This competition recognises young creative talent and encourages students to consider the content and communications industries as a career choice. In addition the Foundation offers a number of scholarships, awards and bursaries which enable students to pursue Masters degrees.
More generally, the Foundation gives to The Lord Mayor’s Appeal and City Charities, the Royal Marines and other armed forces charities (it supports the Wiltshire Barn project which provides craft-based training in bookbinding) and recently became a significant donor to the St Brides appeal.
Obviously, the assistance the Foundation currently offers is eclipsed by the amount of help required! Not only are there always more students who need help and more children to set off on the right track there are new projects and the Foundation is currently exploring the possibility of supporting the development of a Free School. The location has been identified and the Foundation is represented on the Steering Committee.
With all this in mind the Stationers’ Company has launched a drive to increase the Foundation’s income. A promotional DVD and a new brochure have been developed thanks to the generosity of the Premier Paper Group and Nick Steidl, Chairman of the Foundation said “We are going through an exciting phase in the Foundation’s history and will need to step up the resources we have to help young people in a particularly challenging world. We are delighted with the attendance we had last night and the generous contribution they have made to our cause.”
To register your interest in making a donation or for more information please contact: Ian Larkham on 01293 542820.
Donations can be made at: bmycharity.com/thestationersfoundation or by making a cheque payable to The Stationers’ Foundation, Ian Larkham, Secretary, First Floor, Underwood House, 235 Three Bridges Road, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 1LS
About The Stationers’ Company
The Stationers’ Company says: “The Stationers' Company is the City of London Livery Company for the Communications and Content industries. The Company’s mission is to be recognised as the most effective independent forum in the UK Communications and Content industries, actively contributing to the strategic development, success and education of these industries. The majority of our members work in or supply the paper, print, publishing, packaging, office products, newspaper, broadcasting and online media industries.”
