Helping students with learning disabilities gain life skills
The Axis Foundation donated £200 to Heltwate School to assist them in organising a school trip to for their students: all have severe special educational needs and some are on the Autism spectrum. The children spent a week away on the Norfolk Coastline. They stayed in two youth hostels and visited destinations and attractions around Norfolk. Far more than a sight-seeing exercise, this school trip enabled students with learning disabilities firstly to live a little more independently, and also taught them some basic skills such as meal preparation and tidying, cleaning and bed making. For some it was the first time, or the longest time, that any of them had spent away from home.
Our donation made the trip even more special: it paid for the students to take part in a boat cruise – on which some thoroughly enjoyed steered the boat; and we also contributed to a day trip to the North Norfolk Railway which was a real treat as many of the children love transport.
“We were blown away to receive such a generous donation from the Axis Foundation. I cannot put into words the difference it made to our trip. They enjoyed themselves immensely and the growth in confidence and self esteem during the week away was evident” – Kim Granger, teacher
Axis Foundation wins Demelza’s Special Award: Outstanding Long-Term Supporter 2016
The Axis Foundation has presented a cheque for £32,000 to Demelza Hospice Care for Children to assist them in continuing to care for children with life-limiting and life-threatening illnesses. The money was raised through an annual charity ball, corporate donations and the fundraising efforts of Axis people across our offices who are firmly committed to supporting Demelza.
At the same time, Axis was honoured to receive the Outstanding Long Term Supporter at the recent Demelza Awards, which were set up to reward companies for supporting Demelza.
And indeed it is a long term relationship: over £500,000 has been given to the children’s charity through Axis and the Axis Foundation since Axis was in its infancy.
Ryan Campbell, Demelza CEO, said: “We continue to be so touched by the incredible support Axis has shown Demelza over the years. I have been honoured to meet some of the staff there and thank them personally for their tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of the children and families we care for. Presenting you with the Outstanding Long-Term Supporter award at the Demelza Business Awards was a chance for us to acknowledge this amazing support, both from the company as a whole, and from the many individual staff members who fundraise on our behalf.”
Adventure-based learning activities for disadvantaged children
Wide Horizons delivers a range of adventure-based learning activities for all age groups of school children. These include day centre nature experiences for primary school children and adventurous activities for older children and young people. They call this their ‘Adventure Learning Partnership’ programme.
Wide Horizons used their £5,000 donation from the Axis Foundation to provide a programme of outdoor education and adventure to sixty children from economically disadvantaged areas.
Our donation will fund a week long programme of activities, designed specifically to link with the school curriculum and help with educational and personal development. The children from Marvel Lane and Brent Knoll schools in Lewisham are selected based on a means testing system to identify those most in need.
“Helping Wide Horizons deliver adventure-based activities to children whose families cannot afford thems, supports our belief that every child should have the opportunity to experience adventure as part of their education and throughout their lives” – Axis Foundation trustee, Tim Hayes
The benefits to children attending the adventure-based learning programme are far reaching and include increased confidence and self-esteem, better communication skills, an understanding of how to work as part of a team and achieving personal goals. These benefits combine to improve the chances of success at school and future employment.
“The donation to the Adventure Learning Partnership Programme was matched to two local primary schools in Lewisham which proved to be very successful. Each school had an amazing time, infact everyone had a fantastic time” – Lynn Leadbeater, Fundraising Manager
“The week was a great success and the teachers and children were buzzing when they returned back to school” – Headteacher, Eddie Dove
Charity partner receives a donation to fund more specialist care nurses.
The Axis Foundation has handed over £75,000 to the Demelza Children’s Hospice, a Kent-based children’s charity, after another year (2015) of employee fundraising and corporate donations, bringing the total amount given to the hospice through the Foundation to £250,000.
Fundraising activities have included Skydives, bake sales, participating in Demelza’s ‘Go Dotty’ week, an annual charity ball and other fun things organised by Axis’ people. Demelza Children’s Hospice, which operates in the South East area, provides care for the terminally-ill children to ease discomfort and provide support for children and their families.
Axis and the Axis Foundation adopted the hospice as their charity partner out of appreciation for their essential work with children and teenagers who, in most cases, make it to adulthood. Axis regularly challenges its people to raise money for their ‘Adopt a Nurse’ campaign in which the money raised helps to fund Demelza’s specialist care nurses’ annual salaries.
The Axis Foundation was established in 2008 and started donating in 2009 – Demelza was one of the Foundation’s first recipients. But Axis has been supporting the charity for a number of years prior to that (since 2004) and the total amount given, including money before the formation of the Axis Foundation, stands at over £500,000.
Ryan Campbell, Chief Executive of Demelza Children’s Hospice, gave his thanks to Axis: “Thank you for the incredible amount of £75,000 that Axis has raised for Demelza over the past year. Axis has really taken Demelza to its heart and has been fundraising for the charity over the last 11 years.
“The outstanding amount you have raised to date has meant that Demelza has been able to pay 13 specialist care nurses’ salaries, allowing us to provide the highest quality care possible to all of the children, young people and their families that need support across the South East. Demelza is only able to achieve this thanks to the support of our wonderful staff and volunteers and the amazing donations from organisations like Axis.”
The whole family can enjoy “a day in the life of a Victorian” thanks to our support of the The Ragged School Museum‘s family learning programme.
Our donation of £3,000 will go towards free, drop-in Family Learning Holiday Activities in the school holidays.These activities are designed to engage the whole family, highlighting how learning together can be fun. It is estimated over 4,000 people will benefit from the Family Learning Programme over the year, here in what today remains a deprived area of London.
“Everyone at the Ragged School Museum feels proud and privileged to receive another donation from the Axis Foundation. Your generosity is vital support for our lively family learning programme. We couldn’t be more grateful. Victorian philanthropy created the ragged school movement, today the Axis Foundation mirrors that generosity for new generations of children for which we are truly grateful” – Erica Davies, Museum Director
More About The Ragged School Museum
The Ragged School Museum offers a unique experience, a living snapshot of Victorian childhood. Here, in a reconstructed Victorian classroom, pupils on school visits can directly experience how their destitute Victorian counterparts were taught. There is also a contemporaneous East End kitchen, so they can discover how hard domestic work was before electricity powered washing machines! The Museum is housed at Dr Barnardo’s Copperfield Road Ragged School in Mile End which, from 1877, provided education, food and clothing to Victorian London’s destitute. It was the largest ragged school in London.
See our video celebrating our 10th birthday in 2019 – and find out how the Ragged School used our donation
New sports equipment for children in deprived area
Confidence Through Sport is a community organisation that runs sporting activities for 5-11 year olds. They are located in a park and a school club in North Thamesmead.
£2,500 from the Axis Foundation will fund new sports equipment for the sports-based community initiative, which operates in one of the most deprived areas in the country. We’re covering the cost of footballs, goals and some brand-new training apparatus.
The project remains affordable so that underprivileged children and those with additional needs or disabilities can also partake in healthy outdoor activities. They focus on football but other sports, such as badminton and basketball, are also encouraged.
There are currently 80 children registered and the club is overseen by five volunteers, including three official coaches with one being FA registered. The volunteer coaches strive to be a positive influence on the youngsters, who are often from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Confidence Through Sports seeks to build the self-esteem and motivation of children and young people, as this will assist them in other areas of their lives.
“Before we were running on limited resources but now we have new footballs, built some goals and bought different equipment used to test agility. All of this allows our members to gain valuable sport experience and can help us provide for more young people” – Robert Parrara, Chairman
Demelza’s Adopt a Nurse programme benefits from our devotion and donations!
We Axis people put in a lot of effort to raise funds for our charity partner Demelza. In 2014 alone we have raised a grand total of £50,000 for the hospice.
“I’m proud to work with such generous and committed people, who share Axis’ giving culture and feel personally motivated to organise, take part in and give generously to fund raising activities,” said John Hayes Axis CEO.
All the money we donate to Demelza goes into their Adopt a Nurse programme. Adopt a Nurse brings one full-time nurse for one year to take care of the children in Demelza’s care and visit families at home to help with medication and physiotherapy and provide some respite in dark times.
Natalie Tegg, Head of Partnerships at Demelza said: “Axis has been outstanding in their support for Demelza over the years. All the staff have really got behind the charity and done all sorts of amazing things to raise money from running, to cutting their hair off, baking cakes, playing golf even dressing as a clown! They have raised an incredible £400K and we just want to say a huge thank you from everyone at Demelza.”
Purley Youth Project is a community kids club for children aged 7-12, many of whom are underprivileged or disabled. The club supports over 100 children on a weekly basis, helping them to develop their social and personal skills through programmes that are fun and challenging.
The youth project regularly organises exciting residential trips, treating disadvantaged children to activities such as rock climbing, assault courses, nature trails and more. For some children, these trips are their only opportunity to experience somewhere outside of the area in which they live. Therefore, the excursions broaden their horizons and help them to become more balanced individuals. More importantly, they provide lots of fun!
The Axis Foundation’s donation of £2,000 paid for 40 children to be taken on a three-day residential trip to Kingswood Activity Centre in Ashford. Children benefitted from a rewarding educational programme and took part in thrilling outdoor activities such as zip-wiring and archery.
“I’d like to thank the Axis Foundation, who enabled this residential trip to take place. As well as a great experience for the children, they learnt important lessons in team work and made new friends. They literally haven’t stopped talking about their trip” – David Garfield, Junior Team Leader
Previous Donations
Over the years, the Axis Foundation has donated a total of £3,863 towards three residential trips for Purley Youth Project. This has benefitted over 100 disadvantaged children. On top of the trip to Kingswood Centre, we contributed towards two group excursions to Downe Activity Centre in Kent.
Nine-year-old Matthew sent a letter of thanks to the Foundation: “I was so lucky to go to Downe Activity Centre; I had the best time I’ve ever had. Thank you, Axis.”
Home visits to families caring for a life-limited child
Shooting Star Chase‘s ‘Hospice at Home’ scheme brings care to children approaching the end of their life in their own homes. The sick children are in familiar surroundings, with their family and their own home comforts. The service brings the same medical, nursing and therapeutic care as the hospices offer. The scheme gives families the chance to relax a little and do chores around the house or even go out, knowing that their child is in the best care.
To support this vital service, the Axis Foundation donated a total of £2,508 (£1,140 in 2013, £1,368 in 2014) which funded over 20 home visits to families caring for a life-limited child.
“We now have one of the largest Hospice at Home teams in the country. We recorded an average of 250 home visits to families caring for a life-limited child per month. Yet, this is only made possible through the wonderful support from organisations like the Axis Foundation. Thank you.” – Brian Gallagher, Shooting Star Chase
“Care is constantly changing and we need to be flexible and adaptable to meet the needs of the families we support. The Hospice at Home team plays a vital role allowing parents to be Mum and Dad, not just care givers. We’ll continue to develop the service so that the children and families we support can have the care they so desperately need in the location of their choice. We are very grateful for the donation from The Axis Foundation” – Elaine Conisbee, Interim Director of Care
What the families say
“When things become too much, and you really can’t see a way out of the dark hole you are in, the hospice proves that someone else really does care.”
“The Hospice at Home service is amazing. I feel like I’ve been on a mini-holiday, recharging my batteries and putting me in very good spirits.”
More About Shooting Star Chase
Shooting Star Children’s Hospice and CHASE Hospice for Children merged together to form Shooting Star Chase and to care for over 600 families living all across western London, Surrey and West Sussex who have a child or teenager not expected to reach their nineteenth birthday.
Powerful partnerships helps children in deprived areas
The Axis Foundation has donated £85,000 towards Charlton Athletic Community Trust over four years, helping to provide opportunities for young people in deprived communities. The Axis Foundation and Charlton Athletic Community Trust’s (CACT) partnership began in 2010 and collaborated to support thousands of young people over four years.
More About CACT
CACT is a community programme led by Charlton Athletic Football Club that engages with thousands of people across London and Kent. The trust delivers a football development programme for young people from toddlers to aspiring professionals. On top of this, they support those who are disadvantaged with health improvement, employment, crime prevention and educational programmes.
“The achievements of the Trust and their staff are outstanding, they’ve chosen a sport that breaks down barriers and applied their skills and experience to the maximum benefit of the deprived and those in need of help.” John Hayes, Founder of the Axis Foundation.
Close Connections
The Axis Foundation has always had a close connection with Charlton Athletic. The foundation’s founder, John Hayes, is a Charlton fan, and Alan Curbishley, a Charlton legend, is the foundation’s patron. In 2011, the Axis Foundation became a patron of the Charlton Challenge Award Scheme and CACT’s estate-based coaching sessions. Over four years, we donated a total of £85,000 to the trust, helping them to support some of the most deprived communities in South East London and Kent.
“John and the Axis Foundation has been a long-standing supporter of the Trust. He has been involved with the estate-based sessions and the Charlton Challenge for the past five years; becoming a Patron of these strands cements his support and belief in the Trust’s work.” Jason Morgan,Chief Executive of the Charlton Trust.
The Charlton Challenge
The Charlton Challenge is a scheme, led by FA qualified coaches, that aims to develop children’s core football skills. The course is delivered in sports centres across five London boroughs and is attended by over 1,000 boys and girls every week, many of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Estate Based Coaching
The Axis Foundation was the sole sponsor and patron of CACT’s Estate Based Coaching. The social inclusion programme runs a variety of sporting activities in deprived communities to 2,000 children every week. This includes leagues and coaching sessions in: football, basketball, dance, self-defence, boxing and fishing. The scheme provides a pathway for youngsters, such as 21-year-old Jonathan, to pursue their ambitions. CACT’s mentorship helped him to gain his first FA Football Coaching qualification:
“The FA Level 1 has helped me with my confidence to teach others what I have learnt. It was a very good experience and a challenge to teach people with different abilities. I just want to thank the Charlton Athletic Community Trust and the Axis Foundation for giving me such a great opportunity to pursue coaching.” Jonathan Peters, Beneficiary of Charlton Athletic Community Trust
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