Eastside Primetimers Foundation

Eastside Primetimers Foundation (EPF) is a Company Limited by Guarantee with explicit social objectives. As a Company not having any Share Capital, all financial surpluses are distributed in furtherance of our social objectives. Experience tells us it is talented individuals who bring about meaningful social change. Our mission is to provide tailored support, in the form of advice, guidance, mentoring and funding, to social entrepreneurs, activists and changemakers who are either personally facing barriers to learning, employment or volunteering and/or are working to remove these barriers for individuals or groups who are disadvantaged by them. We are firm believers that by combining targeted support for these types of individuals, with funding, we can significantly improve their impact. We are a small but ambitious not-for-profit organisation and here are our current projects: OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO LEARNING - grants for University Fees: Our ambition to provide grants to disadvantaged and underrepresented students who face barriers to completing a course of study focused on the charity sector continued in this financial year. In September 2024, 2 more students were identified. The result is that the Foundation part-funded 4 students in the 2024/25 academic year who are studying for an MSc in Charity Management at the Centre for Charity Effectiveness at Bayes Business School, City St George’s, University of London. The funding for these students will continue in the 2025/26 academic year should they be accepted. The students we are funding experience a number of challenges including: high transport and overnight accommodation costs if they live well outside London; for those who are refugees, trying to forge a career in the charity sector whilst also supporting family living in their countries of origin; students who have health and family support challenges that are potential barriers to learning; students who are employed by small charities that cannot afford to fund the personal development of their employees. We also provided one of the students with a mentor who was an alumnus of the course and who had a career track record in the sector. The impact of this mentoring was rated very highly by the student and we now plan to offer this to all of the students we are funding, at no cost to them. From the evidence of the last three years, it seems that there are more students who would benefit from financial support. We believe that the charity sector will benefit from having a more diverse talent pool and we are delighted that the staff at Bayes and City St George’s have taken an enlightened and enabling approach to selection. The students tell us they are very pleased with the quality of the course they are following and that it is helping them to grow as individuals in the roles they are currently undertaking in the charity sector. As these students graduate, we are exploring if there are other ways in which we can support their development so that other barriers they may face can be tackled. NURTURING YOUNG SOCIAL ACTIVISTS - Social Action Support for Schools: During this financial year our pilot project with young social activists at Seven Kings School continued with the conclusion of a second year of support and the start of a third. The aim has been to refine and embed the methodology we have developed. One key measure of our success in transferring skills has been that we were progressively able to take more of an advisory role. The quality of the outputs from the social action projects can be amply seen in the short, story-telling videos we commissioned, which are available on our website (https://ep-foundation.org/social-action-support-for-schools) and our YouTube channel. For the second year the students chose to focus their social actions on projects that dealt with specific aspects of global conflicts such as those affecting Ukraine and Gaza. The third year subject matter chosen by the students was the role and position of women. Two new secondary schools asked for our support during the 2024/25 financial year. One of these - King John School in Benfleet, Essex - focused on a day of all-school, on-site activities, designed and delivered by their student leaders. This was to replace a rewards program of visits to theme parks with something that was aimed at all students not just those who had been identified as high achievers. We commissioned a film of the day to capture the impact of the project which can also be viewed on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLYZedWJEChNh5DPDo0JbQQ). We are supporting King John with their second year as they want to embed the concept and methodology to achieve a goal of greater inclusivity. TAGRETED SUPPORT TO SMALL CHARITIES - supporting the work of the Lloyds Bank Foundation: We continued our support to the Lloyds Bank Foundation Enhance programme, which dates back to 2015, and worked on a number of new projects in the financial year. We also engaged with the Regional Managers at the Lloyds Bank Foundation to update and refresh the programmes of support we are best placed to offer. The support we provide is delivered by the consultants who work for Eastside People and is one element in the social impact of that specialist consultancy and recruitment company.