Four charities will benefit from your generous donation…
…but many more charities will benefit particularly because both The Lord Mayor’s Appeal and the WCIT Charity provide financial and volunteering support to charities throughout the UK. Furthermore the VOCES8 Foundation last year worked with 40,000 students, including many schools in and around the City of London as well as elsewhere in the UK and abroad, while the Friends of the City Churches supports the many churches in the City of London. So many will benefit from your generosity.
Note: the proportion of your donation that each charity will receive appears below after the name of each charity. All the charities are registered in England and Wales; their Registered Charity Numbers are in the footer of this website.
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The Lord Mayor’s Appeal’s ambition and commitment is to create A Better City for All through four key pillars to create a City that is Inclusive, Healthy, Skilled and Fair with the overall aim of making the capital a better place to work and live. We have partnered with four inspirational charities – Place2Be, OnSide Youth Zones, Samaritans and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award – to deliver ground breaking programmes which will not only change people’s lives, but save them.
We are working with Place2Be to help train mental health champions in more than 180 schools in London, and with OnSide Youth Zones we have supported the launch of three new centres in London, giving young Londoners ‘Somewhere to go, Something to do, and Someone to talk to.’
With Samaritans we have supported the roll-out of their ground-breaking ‘Wellbeing in the Workplace’ programme, helping people to look after themselves and those around them. And finally we are working with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award to help a further 10,000 young people in London, particularly in areas of deprivation, to have the chance to achieve an Award. They have all successfully adapted their ways of working during this current pandemic and are continuing to support their beneficiaries.
VOCES8 Foundation is a vocal music education charity that brings the power of singing to communities around the world and is passionate about engaging young people through singing. The Foundation’s artists VOCES8, Apollo5 and Paul Smith share their music with children having their first musical experience. Its’ published “VOCES8 Method” provides a daily routine to help teachers get students singing. It is available in four languages and adapts music to enhance development in numeracy, literacy and linguistics.
In 2019 the Foundation worked with over 40,000 students, including many schools in and around the City of London. In 2020 teaching has been more challenging than at any point in our lifetime. The Foundation’s innovative solution has been to build a Digital Academy which provides a wide variety of different learning tools online to help choral musicians to keep studying.
The Foundation’s home, the VOCES8 Centre, is located in the Wren church of St Anne and St Agnes on Gresham Street in the heart of the City of London. From there this international centre of excellence it hosts numerous choirs, orchestras and community projects every week, it is a venue for numerous education programmes, teacher training events, rehearsal days, recordings and concerts, including the carol service tonight.
The WCIT Charity is responsible for the charitable activities of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists. The Charity’s mission is to use IT skills to make a difference and change lives. In its brief history it has achieved a huge amount including helping to set up two independent charities: the Charity IT Association and Lifelites plus establishing, in partnership with the Mercers’ company, a brand new school in Hammersmith. It has supported hundreds of individual causes through grants totalling almost £4.5 million. Its model of grant funding in conjunction with pro bono expertise and cross-charity collaboration adds exceptional value to the causes that it supports.
In 2018 the WCIT Charity awarded two charities, CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) and Missing People grants of £300,000 each for ground breaking projects that use Artificial Intelligence to transform how the two charities support their beneficiaries. On the back of this, the WCIT Charity has formed AI4C (Artificial Intelligence for Charities), a project aiming to provide free practical support and thought leadership for charities looking to use AI in their operations. Members of this group range from national to small specialised charities.
The City of London boasts the finest concentration of glorious historic churches in the country. Today there are 42 places of worship within the Square Mile, as well as nine towers and standing remains of lost churches. All 51 buildings appear in the National Heritage List for England, fully 38 recognised as Grade I for ‘exceptional interest’.
The Friends of the City Churches are an architectural heritage charity dedicated to preserving these beautiful and unique churches found within the square mile of the City of London. As part of its work it:
● brings together the many interesting people who love and value the City churches;
● assists in the conservation and repair of these historic buildings through small grants and services;
● helps to keep churches open and welcomes weekday visitors and worshippers through the work of its volunteer Church Watchers;
● enriches its members’ knowledge through events including walks, talks, visits and tours;
● explores the heritage and the modern life of the churches and advertises forthcoming services, concerts and events in its publications.