Social funds

Social funds

Our social commitment is based on a partnership approach. In terms of our strategy, we focus on challenges within society, where we are most able to contribute with our expertise and make significant changes. In practice, we achieve this by working in partnership with civil society organisations (CSOs), with which we develop and implement various projects.

One of our shareholdings has set up the Good Neighbourhood Fund, which perfectly translates the focal point of our social commitment: to enable people, to support grassroot initiatives in London that enable people to overcome challenges and improve their quality of life in their immediate neighbourhoods.

Similarly, we also strongly believe in supporting young people at those challenging and difficult times of their early careers. We are therefore very proud to be able to report on the progress of the Winners of Tomorrow Fund which was set up to enable the next generation of British athletes to achieve their potential by giving them financial support and recognition when they need it most.

 

THE ‘GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD FUND’ – EMPOWERING NEIGHBOURHOODS

The community thrives and livens up where people get actively involved on a local level and work to shape their environment. The neighbourhoods assume responsibilities and new ideas emerge on how to better live together. This idea is embodied in the ‘Good Neighbourhood Fund’ of Mylotto24, a shareholding of ZEAL, which strives to help on a very local level those women and men who choose to act instead of looking away and whose aim is to bring about changes. So that where there already is a level of personal involvement on a day-to-day basis, we support implementation of projects for a better society. We pursue this aim in our own manner because we believe that all great changes start from small, and in our case, directly in our neighbourhood.

This is precisely why the first ‘Good Neighbourhood Fund’ starts directly on our doorstep, here in London, and is organised in collaboration with very capable partners – the London Community Foundation, which has the much needed insight and access into the community. The London Community Foundation, who assists MyLotto24 in managing and distributing its funds, is dedicated to improving the lives of London’s disadvantaged; tackling issues such as child poverty, access to education, unemployment, isolation, homelessness, domestic violence and gang crime.

The “Good Neighbourhood Fund” supports grassroot initiatives in London that enable people to overcome challenges and improve their quality of life in their immediate neighbourhoods. The London Community Foundation’s expertise in reaching these grassroots initiatives and community organisations, usually below the radar of the general public, ensures the funding reaches those most dedicated and in need. MyLotto24 funds a number of local organisations each year. In addition to the company’s financial support, MyLotto24 employees volunteer their own skills and time to further benefit the community initiatives awarded grants.

 

The organisations being funded in 2014/2015 are:

• Bajuni Women’s Advocacy Group (Newham)
• Burgess Park Food Project (Southwark)
• Centric Learning Tree CiC (Greenwich)
• CoDa Dance Company (Wandsworth & Merton)
• Evergreen Care Bexley (Bexley)
• Friends of One Tower Bridge Road (Westminster)
• Green & Clean Services Ltd. (Ealing)
• Innercity Films (Hackney)
• Stockwell Good Neighbours (Lambeth)
• Sufra NW London (Brent)

 

Good Neighbourhood Fund Networking Breakfast

In order to build a strong relationship with the organisations, MyLotto24 organised a small informal networking breakfast in early 2015. This was a great opportunity for everyone to get to know each other better, share experience, and discuss common problems and challenges.

This is exactly the sort of approach which fits well with ZEAL’s dedication to social responsibility. We strongly believe in getting involved and working through partnerships, which involves a great deal of personal contact and on occasion, as the case was here, some excellent coffee and nibbles.

 

Stockwell Good Neighbours’ Reading Session

‘Stockwell Good Neighbours’ is one of the CSOs in the Good Neighbourhood Fund. This is an organisation for older adults who live in the Lambeth area which provides a wide range of social activities and projects to benefit people’s health and well-being and prevent social isolation. There are currently 60 members, and most are of West Indian origin.

They meet in the bright and busy cafe of the Oval House Theatre, filing it with laughter and noise. For many older residents from the local area the group are a lifeline. They run a range of activities such as bingo, dominoes, quizzes, zumba classes and the opportunity to sing in the choir. MyLotto24 received a warm invitation to visit one of Stockwell Good Neighbour’s Reading Sessions. It is truly inspiring to see how this organisation uses its funds and how much synergy their work delivers to their comunity.

 

The Sufra ‘Clear out’

Another organisation in the Good Neighbourhood Fund is the North-London based food bank, Sufra NW London.

Sufra is a truly comprehensive and innovative CSO. Their service collects donated food supplies and redistributes them to families in need. They also organise cooking classes for young adults in order to teach them new skills and to help them with future employment, and now they plan on growing their own vegetables as well as giving the community a place to meet. In December 2014, Sufra was granted a 5-year lease on a derelict site on St.Rapael’s Estate to develop a food growing project. The new project “St. Raphael’s Edible Garden” will launch next year. ZEAL Group volunteers went over to clear the space for the garden. They spent the entire morning, filling the skip and gathering rubbish from the site.

In recognition of the support provided through the Good neighbourhood Fund, Sufra awarded MyLotto24 the Corporate Sponsor of the Year Award in June 2015.

 

THE ‘WINNERS OF TOMORROW’ – PROMOTING SPORT WITH SPORTSAID

Whilst many young people are enthusiastic about sport, only few are prepared to fully commit and dedicate their time to becoming top in their chosen discipline. In addition, often their skills are neither noticed nor promoted publically. Similarly, their dedication to sport often puts considerable financial constrain on them and their families.

In support of these young athletes, Mylotto24, in partnership with the charity SportsAid, launched the “Winners of Tomorrow Fund” back in 2014. The aim of “Winners of Tomorrow Fund” is to enable the next generation of British athletes to achieve their potential by giving them financial support and recognition during the critical early years of their careers.

SportsAid ensures the right people get the right help at the right time by working with the governing bodies of 66 sporting disciplines – including winter, summer, Olympic, Paralympic and other sports. The athletes supported by the Winners of Tomorrow Fund are typically aged 15 to 18 and are among our brightest hopes for future Olympic and Paralympic success and they use the financial awards to practice their chosen sport at a high level in those critical early years of their careers.

The awards help aspiring athletes to train harder and compete more effectively so they can progress up to the senior and/or international level of their sport. At this point many go on to become Olympians and Paralympians. It is at this critical, early stage in their sporting careers that funding is often hardest to come by, with most relying on their parents and families alone, and the Winners of Tomorrow Fund aims to alleviate this pressure.

 

Wattbike Challenge

To celebrate the launch of “Winners of Tomorrow Fund”, MyLotto24 embarked on a team challenge during the months of August and September back in 2014, by virtually cycling on Wattbikes around Europe. The idea was to visit various subsidiary offices of the ZEAL Group; traveling first via Germany, where the ZEAL Group began 15 years ago, then on to Italy, Spain and back to our London office. We set ourselves an ambitious target of just over 2,500 miles.

After over 3 weeks of intense cycling, we collectively cycled 2,532 miles in 19.5 days and raised a total of £3,560 for SportsAid! This was an amazing cross-Group challenge, where everyone joined in support of this good cause.

 

Winners of Tomorrow’s Reception at the House of Commons

MPs showed their support for SportsAid athletes at House of Commons, at an event sponsored by MyLotto24 in January 2015.

The event was attended by around 20 Peers and Members of Parliament and drew further support from former Olympic champion swimmer Duncan Goodhew, former world champion rower Annie Vernon and former Paralympic athletics champions Tanni Grey-Thompson and Danny Crates.

Some of Britain’s most promising young athletes got to meet their MPs at the House of Commons at this special reception, including Rt Hon John Whittingdale, Member of Parliament for Maldon and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport who was introduced to Danica Brazier. Danica is a swimmer from his constituency who received an award of £1000 from the Winners of Tomorrow fund.

Rt Hon John Whittingdale said: “I am very much aware of the significant costs faced by young elite athletes and am very pleased that SportsAid is supporting them in this way. I warmly congratulate Danica on the success that she has already achieved and wish her every success in her future sporting career.”

 

Winners of Tomorrow – supporting 50 young athletes in 2015

In spirit of the Winners of Tomorrow project, the 2015 launch saw MyLotto24 expanding its Winners of Tomorrow fund to support 50 athletes including 16 who were renominated by their sporting bodies to receive the SportsAid Award for a second year running. Among them is Lottie Harbottle, a Wakeboarder, who is currently ranked at number 2 in the world in her category (pictured with her Buddy, read more about Buddies below).

“I really appreciate all your continued support and could not compete/train as much and to as high standard than I would like to without it. It’s really quite hard to explain how the SportsAid and MyLotto24 support helps me in just one quote but I have to reiterate how without it I would not have been able to have achieved what I have. It really is greatly appreciated!”

 

Winners of Tomorrow launches a ‘Buddy’ Scheme

Further, MyLotto24 set up a ‘Buddy’ scheme where all employees of the ZEAL Group had the opportunity to offer extra support to the athletes. The new scheme follows a successful model developed by SportsAid and its partners over the years to help the company follow the athletes’ progress, find out more about the challenges they face and even go along to see them train and compete. At the launch event at MyLotto24’s London office around 30 of the athletes had a chance to meet their new buddies in person.

Paralympic goalball player Adam Knott (pictured with his buddy) said, “I really like the buddy system that MyLotto24 have set up this year. I think it’s a really good idea to give you that personal one-to-one relationship with someone you can have contact with to tell them what’s going well, what’s not going well, and someone who can be there to support you, because support from others is really important for a successful sportsperson.”

 

Fundraising for SportsAid

In April 2015, MyLotto24’s partner, SportsAid was chosen as 2015 BNY Mellon Boat Races charity partner. The Boat Races between Oxford and Cambridge have been held annually since 1856 and some 250,000 people gather to watch them from the banks of the river Thames. Given the popularity of the event, it was great news that SportsAid was the official charity partner, as this could further promote its amazing work.

Some of our colleagues dedicated their time to volunteer outside of their working hours and put in a full day of fundraising for SportsAid. All the volunteers raised a total of £3970.61 and our colleagues really enjoyed spending their Saturday this way.

Former Olympic champion rower Mark Hunter MBE said: “It’s a very special year for the boat race being the first time the women have raced on the tideway.” (Typically, the women’s race is held separately).

One of our colleagues, who was there on the day raising money for SportsAid commented: “This was really a historic event. I’m so glad I could be there and help a little on behalf of ZEAL to ensure that more of Britain’s best young athletes get the support they need.”

 

ZEAL Group attends wheelchair basketball tournament

In June 2015, British Wheelchair Basketball and Paralympians Ann Wild and Ade Adepitan hosted a wheelchair basketball tournament, and ZEAL Group attended to compete against another 5 teams formed of SportsAid supporters - BNY Mellon, CGI, GLL, Hogarth, and Sport England. Rather than being a solemn and serious affair, the aim of the event was to have a good time and experience a sport which we wouldn’t necessarily have had exposure to in the past. We were really lucky to have one of the Winners of Tomorrow athletes join our team, Charles Fryer-Stevens, who is one of the country’s best up-and-coming wheelchair basketball players. Unfortunately, he was not allowed to play with us in the final rankings. Thus, the MyLotto24 and ZEAL team only placed second to last. However, we did beat Sport England!