Case study: BAA Communities Trust

The BAA Communities Trust has donated more than £3m in its first 10 years. Here is a selection of projects the Trust has supported in 2005/06.

Schools
The Trust supports local schools’ bids for specialist status, with grants ranging from £3,000 to £15,000. A number of schools around BAA airports have been awarded specialist school status after demonstrating excellence in specific subject areas such as IT, engineering and languages.

It also sponsors Young Engineers, which helps young people across the UK to develop vital skills.

In partnership with the South East England Development Agency, the Trust has also donated funds towards the development of an interactive CD-Rom which can bring the world of airport work to life in classrooms around Britain.

Young people
Grants benefiting young people range from equipment for a youth club to a £50,000 grant towards the creation of a new vocational skills centre for Hayes and Southall.  At Stansted, the Trust has supported the establishment of skills development programmes over several years. In Glasgow we work with a youth forum to help young people develop a greater understanding of the business world.

In 2005, for the first time, the Trust sponsored a team of 30 young people from schools around Heathrow to take part in the Fulcrum Challenge, which delivers a programme of personal and leadership development for 16-18 year old students. In 2006 it will double the level of support to enable more young people to benefit.

Local community and environment
The Trust has made grants to improve facilities that benefit the local community, particularly in areas that are affected by the impact of airport operations.  These include minibuses to help village communities around Stansted, the development of a picnic area in Itchen Valley Country Park near Southampton, an adventure trail for children in the village of Charlwood near Gatwick, and a scheme enabling community groups to plant thousands of bulbs in the Thames Valley near Heathrow.

The Trust is also helping fund the development of an environment education centre in the countryside around Gatwick.

Widening opportunities
At Southampton, the Trust has developed a partnership with the Jubilee Sailing Trust, creating opportunities for local people with physical disabilities to be part of the crew to sail a tall ship, working alongside staff from the airport.

In Edinburgh, the Trust gave a grant to Dunedin special needs school to help it convert buildings for school use, and a grant to The Deaf Society to help them convert an old church building into a Learning Centre for Deaf People.

The Trust has also awarded a grant to Dyslexia Scotwest to help them publish a leaflet in different languages about the causes of Dyslexia and sources of help and advice in the area.

Staff projects
In its second year, the I-Volunteer awards scheme attracted 190 entries from employees all over the UK, with grants awarded in six categories: best volunteer (team and individual), best fundraiser (team and individual), outstanding contribution to the community and most supportive manager.

The Trust awarded £5,000 to each winning project and £2,000 to the runners up – with every entry awarded £250 towards a nominated charity or project.

Winners included a Stansted employee who raised funds for communities in Sri Lanka recovering from the tsunami; a Heathrow telecoms manager who has established a charity to develop school and community facilities in the Gambia; and a Heathrow employee who works to help Polish families settle and integrate into the community.

Individual staff awards approved by the Trust include match funding for sponsored runs and marathons, and grants to support school fundraising by parent teacher associations.

Global support
This year, the BAA Communities Trust worked with VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) to support two Global Xchange programmes. They operated in communities around Hounslow, near to Heathrow Airport, and in Govan, near Glasgow airport.  Each six-month programme involved nine British volunteers and nine from Sri Lanka and India, all aged 18 – 25. They worked on a number of community projects in the UK, Sri Lanka and India. By partnering the UK volunteers with an overseas volunteer, everyone involved was given the opportunity to learn about different cultures.

The Trust donated more than £150,000 to sponsor the UK aspect of the programmes.

To find out more about this programme, visit www.vso.org.uk

For more information about v - a new charity created to revolutionise youth volunteering, in support of the government’s Russell Commisions findings visit www.wearev.com

  This page was last updated 14 July 2006, and was reviewed by ERM on 14 July 2006.