Last night Tower Hamlets charity City Gateway marked 10 years of working to bring hope to Tower Hamlets by partnering with City Firms through an event hosted by the Canary Wharf Group, please find attached the original event's press release.

The event was an incredible success, we had 650 people sign up to the guest list in the end and the East Wintergarden was absolutely packed out, even with a few hiccups on the DLR on the night! The venue was transformed with four 'zones' (connect, engage, train, work) showing our work and a big bar fronting up the launch of our new catering social enterprise.

In terms of highlights for the evening we had some young people performing some work from our recent hip-hop shakespeare event (Akala came along to watch), certificate presentations to 50 women.young people, speeches from Howard Dawber (Canary Wharf Group), Andy Burnham (Secretary of State for Media, Culture and Sport) and Stephen Timms (Financial Secretary to the Treasury) and as I mentioned the succesful launch of our catering social enterprise.

The event was really a celebration of how over 10 years we've been able to impact Tower Hamlets thanks to the partnerships we've formed (we had representatives from over 30 companies and banner stands from 15 community partners in the lobby). On the night we had 20 volunteers from HSS Hire and Thomson Reuters help with our catering and cloak room (HSS now teach our customer service course so relished the chance for some hands on customer service!)

'When I came to City Gateway it gave me a purpose, it gave me a belief - something to look forward to'
Shaal Karim, Apprentice

'10 years ago we would never have imagined filling a venue as prestigious as this and even tonight it's only possible by the kind support of some of the organisation - the Canary Wharf Group for giving us the venue, HSS Hire for helping us man the evening and the dozens of community partners we have who help us bring hope to Tower Hamlets on a daily basis!'
Eddie Stride, City Gateway CEO
 
"Can i also congratulate city gateway on achieveing this 10th anniversary, I know it was quite a hand to mouth existence when City Gateway started 10 years ago.

Today City Gateway is a very highly regarded, well known and effective institution. I think that reflects great credit on the many people that have been involved with City Gateway over the past 10 years and those who are working for it now'

We're recognising the passion and commitment which charecterises organisations like this one and we recognise we need more of that passion and commitment in our communities at times like this one when we've got the economic problems around the world.

Stephen Timms (Financial Secretary to the Treasury)

"These guys work tirelessly on your behalf. I'm very glad we agreed to give City Gateway this venue tonight - we've had lots of things here before, the Prime Minister a couple of weeks ago, Boris not long before that, but we've never had Hip-Hop Shakespeare before."

Howard Dawber (Strategic Advisor, Canary Wharf Group)

"I'm glad to be here because this is a inspirational organisation with a fantastic vision. There are so many young people in this country that have real talent - creative talent, musical talent, sporting talent - that go through life without ever having the opportunity to discover those talents and fulfill themselves as individuals just because they don't have a mum or dad who works in a building like Canary Wharf, or the money to work for free to get the experience they need to get a job.

For whatever reason it can be hard to break into the world of work. I've always had a belief in my heart that we don't open up the doors to these people from different communities, the talent is out there just not the life chances.

When I read about City Gateway, what they stand for, I just think it's a fantastic vision that's there at the very heart of this organisation. people working in the glamourous imposing buildings that we're now in understand that people not very far away maybe didn't have the same opportunities that they have had to get there.

And what a fantastic thing to setup an organisation which is, as we've heard this evening, changing the course of so many lives. So I want to be here tonight to offer my full support, Eddie, to you and your team in everything you're doing. We want to see voluntary organisations like this taking ownership of their local communities and really changing people's opportunities and lives.

In this period it is difficult, it is a challenge, but in this area there is a once in a lifetime opportunity with the Olympic games.

I think there are exciting times ahead, there are hopes and dreams people can look for and I want to thank all of you for taking the time this evening to support an organisation like this. I'd ask all of you to ho away from here this evening and think if you can do more to support City Gateway and what they hope to achieve. In my point of view this is a great time for this part of London to really open up opportunities and really ensure that we change as many young lives as possible.

Andy Burnham (Secretary of State for Media, Culture & Sport)