Representatives from more than 10 major firms (including The Economist, Allen & Overy, Denton Wilde Sapte and Societe Generale) came down to the City Gateway Women’s Project today to mark the launch of a new ‘100 Women’ partnership initiative. The scheme encourages to get involved in the community in Tower Hamlets, whilst capturing the stories of 100 women whose lives are changed by it in time for the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day next March.

 

We asked 100 disadvantaged women whether they thought companies were already doing enough to support their local community – only 4 felt they were. We went on to ask them what they actually thought companies could be doing to make a difference and have developed this initiative based around their feedback & suggestions. It is a unique new project designed to engage professionally with companies and individuals whilst supporting local women, empowering them and giving them a chance to have their voices heard.

The launch event itself was a ‘Numeracy Lunch’ where over 100 local, disadvantaged women came to practice their basic literacy and numeracy through simple exercises and games such as Monopoly. Volunteers from the firms joined in on tables and provided one on one support for the women throughout the afternoon, much like many of them do through City Gateway’s weekly ‘Literacy Lunch’ scheme.

Despite Tower Hamlets’ recent economic reinvention it remains one of the most deprived local authority areas in England. 1 in 4 people are deemed to have skills too low for business use, demonstrating how the area has continued to struggle despite an influx of new jobs which now outnumber residents more than 2 to 1. For Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic women economic inactivity is as high as 70%.

City Gateway was setup 11 years ago by City Workers who wanted to use their skills to empower the local community around it, its successful youth work has already seen local NEET (not in education, employment and training) figures fall from 15% down to less than 7%. Although the City Gateway Women’s Project has been running for 3 years this is the first time it is actively seeking to build partnerships with big corporations.

Chief Executive Eddie Stride commented: “There are huge barriers to work for many of the women we engage and some will need years of support & encouragement to overcome them – volunteer help and corporate involvement is crucial to giving us both the resources we need to fully support them and vital opportunities for them to get insights into the working environment. The event today marks the start of partnerships which will make a real difference to people’s lives!”

Prior to becoming Prime Minister, David Cameron had described City Gateway’s work as having “the local knowledge, the human touch, and sensitive understanding of the complex and interconnected problems of educational failure and worklessness” adding that he wanted “to see more City Gateways come in, take this recession by the scruff of the neck and help get people into work”.

You'll soon be able to find out more at 100women.citygateway.org.uk