Through its sponsorship of the VINCI UK Foundation, Bachy Soletanche has recently secured £6,000 of funding for two charities that are helping to tackle social inequality across London’s most underprivileged areas.
The sponsored charities, Doorstep Library and Brent City Netball Academy, have each received a £3,000 grant to help support their work. Both charities were nominated by Emma-Louise Sylvester, who is the Community Liaison Officer for the SB3 team — a Bachy Soletanche, Balfour Beatty Ground Engineering joint venture – that is currently delivering the geotechnical work for HS2’s Old Oak Common Station in North West London.
The Doorstep Library
Doorstep Library is a charity that helps improve literacy among children living in disadvantaged areas of London, helping them perform better at school and broaden their opportunities in later life.
This community focused charity recruits and trains reading volunteers who make weekly visits to the homes of children, either in person or online, to bring them books, read with them, and help them to become confident and enthusiastic readers. The reading programmes not only improve children’s literacy but also increase wellbeing and bonding through shared family time.
With the VINCI UK Foundation grant, Doorstep Library will be able to buy books and volunteer equipment, which are vital to enabling them to reach more children. In addition to the recent grant, the SB3 joint venture supported the charity earlier this year with a donation that helped them to buy laptops and iPads, giving their volunteers the flexibility to deliver some of their work online.
Brent City Netball Academy
The second organisation that Bachy Soletanche has helped secure funding for is Brent City Netball Academy, which is a grass roots charity in London that is helping to improve health inequalities among young Black and Asian girls.
The Academy offers a free netball club to girls aged between 7 and 16 who live in some of the most underprivileged pockets of North-West London. The VINCI Foundation grant will pay for netball equipment and uniforms, allowing the charity to continue its important work.
In addition to the financial commitment, Bachy Soletanche employees will be supporting both charities over the next 12 months, including giving project management advice, helping with volunteer recruitment and connecting the charities with further funding opportunities.
Commenting on the news, Emma-Louise said,
“I’m very grateful that we have managed to secure funding for these two important charities. The grants will make a significant difference and help them continue the incredible work they are doing to promote social inclusion in the areas that need it most.”
More on the VINCI UK Foundation
This year, with the support of companies like Bachy Soletanche, the VINCI UK Foundation has awarded over £170,000 in grants to 36 social inclusion projects across the UK and Ireland. This funding will support the most vulnerable members of the community including female asylum seekers, people with disabilities, those living in supported housing and low-income households.
Every year, companies within VINCI Construction UK sponsor the VINCI UK Foundation, giving employees from each company the opportunity to nominate a charity or community project to receive funding. If employees, or ‘sponsors’, are successful in securing a grant for their chosen charity, they will also offer their time and professional skills to the organisation over the course of one year.
The VINCI UK Foundation is specifically focused on supporting local charitable projects that promote social inclusion and make a positive, measurable, and long-lasting impact on the local area.
Since its establishment in 2016, the VINCI UK Foundation has donated a total of £1.4 million to over 200 community projects. The majority of work that the Foundation funds is that which improves access to employment and housing, promotes inclusive mobility, strengthens social links within communities and supports the education of young people.
