Projects supported to date

The Trustees have been approached by a number of organisations requesting funding for various projects, and are in discussions with some of these and expect soon to commit funding to additional projects.

Tom’s Trust has so far committed funding and support to the following projects:

• SHINE (Support and Help in Education)
• Civitas - London Boxing Academy Comunity Project
• The Frank Buttle Trust
• LIVE Futures
• Marlborough College - Tom ap Rhys Pryce Memorial Bursary
• Skilltrain - MC Rapagram
• Midi Music Company (MMC)
• WAVE (Worldwide Alternatives to ViolencE) Trust
• Toynbee Hall
• The OK Club
• IntoUniversity
• Southside Young Leaders Academy
• The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

In partnership with SHINE (Support and Help In Education), Tom’s Trust is funding a refugee project at a primary school in Southall, one of the most deprived areas of the London borough of Ealing. The funding is being used for an after-school learning club that focuses in particular on strengthening literacy and numeracy skills. Around a quarter of the children at the school are from refugee families, including Somalian, Afghan, Iraqi and Sri Lankan families. The support programme aims to provide academic and social support for refugees and newly arrived children, raise pupils’ achievements levels and self-esteem and help parents support their children.

In partnership with Civitas, Tom’s Trust is providing funding for the London Boxing Academy Community Project. This project is based in the London borough of Haringey and provides an alternative education programme, combining academic studies with sport, that aims to re-integrate excluded youths into mainstream society.

LBACP is piloting an alternative school curriculum combining academic studies with sport, with particular focus on the discipline and dedication required in boxing. It specifically targets youths who are experiencing difficulty with or have been excluded from mainstream education. The primary goal is to engage, educate, empower and inspire these youngsters so that they can reverse completely their negative patterns of behaviour and forge successful futures for themselves.

Academic studies are of paramount importance. Civitas, the London-based social policy think-tank, will manage the academic content of the course. Core academic subjects will include GCSE English, maths, information communication technology and physical education.

After graduating from the LBACP, it is anticipated that attendees will have the opportunity to go into full or part-time employment with local businesses that support the LBACP.

Read an article by the Evening Standard about Tom's trust, one year on
(JPG 0.5MB or PDF 1.7MB).

In partnership with The Frank Buttle Trust, Tom’s Trust is funding a number of disadvantaged London children to receive secondary education in an independent day or boarding school for up to 7 years. These are children with acute social, emotional or health needs that have not been, and in practice are unlikely to be, met within the state education system or whose home life is so precarious that such an education is vital if they are to be given the support they need to raise their self esteem and become capable and confident adults.

In partnership with LIVE Futures, Tom’s Trust is funding a year’s wages for a new member of staff within LIVE to deliver accredited training courses to young people engaged in the LIVE Magazine project, aimed at helping them back to college or into employment. This is enabling LIVE Futures to engage more ‘at risk’ young people, and to deliver a rolling programme of accredited workshops in both Lambeth and Lewisham. LIVE Futures runs innovative, media-related youth engagement initiatives targeting disadvantaged south London communities. LIVE Magazine, its main project, is a publication produced entirely by young people under professional mentorship from media professionals.

In partnership with Marlborough College, Tom’s Trust and Marlborough College are jointly establishing and funding the Tom ap Rhys Pryce Memorial Bursary, a means-tested bursary to be awarded once every five years to enable a child to attend Marlborough College.

Tom's Trust is funding a new project at Skilltrain called MC Rapagram, which aims to redress gang damage, and target young people who have become severely social phobic as a result of violence. The project will focus on the behaviour and culture which exists within gangs and use that understanding to turn the negative messages they communicate to each other, and to non-gang members, into positive ones.

Participants in the project will learn how to build their own confidence, to develop positive negotiating skills and self-image, and the potential for achievement in society. These positive messages will then be converted into rap lyrics and provide the means by which participants can examine issues such as verbal messages, body language, voice projection, anger and stress management. Combining this with some pure confidence and self-esteem work will mean that the rap that they produce can then change to being an effective conduit for transmitting constructive messages right into the heart of the gangs, and to other disaffected young people.

Skilltrain believes that although the problem of young people associated with gangs is, by common consent, growing, few public awareness or educational initiatives have been developed or delivered. Few dedicated programmes working with those young people who are most at risk, are part of the gang culture and likely to be carrying weapons have been developed, particularly using knowledge from gang members. One of the features of MC Rapagram is that, in time, Skilltrain intends to repeat it elsewhere in London and across the country.

The Midi Music Company (MMC) was established in January 1995 to create and deliver music, music technology & media programmes to children and young people resident in south east London. The client group is fundamentally children and young people who face economic and social disadvantage. Midi Music provides instrumental tuition to 5 –15 year olds, in keyboard, percussion/drums and guitar as well as singing. Tom’s fund will support the ‘Budding Musicians Club’ and also pay for 6 bursaries in one year for children to attend the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music & Arts for one-to-one instrumental tuition.

WAVE (Worldwide Alternatives to ViolencE) Trust

WAVE’s influential and important report ‘The WAVE Report 2005: Violence and what to do about it’ (found at the above link) argues that violence is preventable and offers some specific solutions designed to develop empathy and attachment for parents and children.

Tom’s Trust is funding the position of an Education Co-ordinator whose role is to communicate WAVE’s message to adolescents and young adults (aged 15 to 23). This target group is identified both because of their role as current or future parents, and also as people entering professions where an understanding of the root causes of violent behaviour, and the most effective ways of addressing these, will help to develop a less violent society.

This educational project is intended to make a significant and long term difference to levels of violence in Britain. It intends to (i) create an understanding of the key principles of preventing propensity to violence in children (e.g. attunement, fostering empathy, parental discipline methods) in current and future parents, (ii) prepare future doctors, teachers, social workers, police, nurses, media employees and policy makers with a grounded understanding of how to create a significantly less violent society and (iii) enrol suitable people in helping to disseminate understanding and create a widespread commitment to a less violent society.

Toynbee Hall’s experience is that preventative work around thinking and behaviour, increasing self-worth, motivation and achievement, can empower young people to pursue new opportunities and move away from anti-social behaviour and criminal activities.

‘Aspire’ is a new Toynbee Hall initiative which provides a structured out-of-schools programme of accredited activities to raise aspirations and confidence, and divert 150 young people (aged 14 to 15) in Tower Hamlets from crime over three years. The programme is built around the following three modules: ‘Think!’ - engaging in citizenship learning, ‘Express!’ - creative music and arts with a financial education bias (with Arts Award accreditation), and ‘Achieve!’ - experiencing new outdoor activity challenges (with Duke of Edinburgh accreditation). Tom’s Trust is funding the ‘Achieve!’ module for the first year.

Aspire intends to meet the needs of a frequently overlooked group of young people: those “excluded within school rather than from school.” These pupils may be prevented from accessing the curriculum because of behavioural issues, emotional and/or family problems, low self-esteem, and/or English as a second language. Aspire has been developed to give these young people new opportunities and the support they need with a view to encouraging them to remain in education and reach their full potential in life.

Tom’s Trust is funding a new project designed by the OK Club, a youth club based in South Kilburn, called ‘Triggers’. This experimental learning programme will focus on some perceived root causes and ‘triggers’ of gang culture and violent street crime - i.e. the lack of, and need for:

• status, role, income, respect, growing self-esteem, independence and mobility
• an understanding of how to resolve conflict peacefully
• satisfying co-operative relationships with family, friends, adults and partners
• gains in emotional literacy and motivation, helped by positive male role models
• appropriate physical and mental stimulation and creativity - e.g. arts and sport.

The OK Club intends to recruit disadvantaged young people known to be at high risk of group involvement in violent street crime, and engage them in enjoyably challenging learning experiences in the hope that these will act as ‘triggers’ towards improved social attitudes, relationships and vocational skills.

IntoUniversity is an educational programme aimed at children and young people who are most at risk of failing to meet their potential to go to university because of economic, social, cultural or linguistic disadvantage. Young people from disadvantaged postcode districts are 4 times less likely to get good GCSEs than students from well-off areas, and 6 times less likely to go to university. IntoUniversity centres provide sustained academic support, motivation and encouragement to give all young people a fair chance of realising their potential.

The vision of IntoUniversity is to provide a national network of high quality, local learning centres where young people are inspired to achieve. At each local centre IntoUniversity will offer an innovative programme that supports young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to attain either a place at university or another chosen aspiration. It also explains the university application process to those parents who are unfamiliar with the UK system.

One of the distinctive aspects of the IntoUniversity programme is that it consists of three strands – FOCUS, Academic Support and Mentoring – that span the age range 8 to 18. Elements in these three strands include: primary and secondary academic support, half-term FOCUS weeks, primary FOCUS weeks and days, Extending Horizons weekends, school liaison work, school scholarships, mentoring, aspire and achieve days and a buddy scheme.

Tom’s Trust is helping to set up a new centre in Kensal Green, close to where Tom used to live.

Southside Young Leaders Academy is a registered charity based in Camberwell. It works with boys of African and Afro-Caribbean origin who have the ability and aptitude to be leaders, but who are currently at risk of exclusion from school. In many cases, children who have the power and energy to disrupt classes and pose a danger to themselves and others possess leadership potential. If channelled in the right way, this can work to their benefit rather than against it. As a society, we can ill afford to lose these skills and talents.

The objectives of SYLA are as follows:
• To nurture each boy to achieve his own leadership potential;
• To broaden each boy’s horizons, so he understands the opportunities available to him;
• To support each boy in achieving, and exceeding, his projected attainment at school;
• To build each boy’s life skills, particularly his communication and teamworking skills; and
• To enable each boy to make a positive contribution to society.

The Saturday Academy combines games and drill with activities to foster leadership skills and will soon be open three evenings a week offering tuition to students in basic academic skills, tailored to suit their individual needs. The programme is not a short term measure. Children are enrolled at the age of 8 and will remain with the Academy until they are 18. Students have to attend regularly, do everything possible to avoid being excluded from school, work to improve their academic skills and follow the Leadership principles of the Academy. Southside YLA is closely based of the first such Academy established in the UK, Eastside in the borough of Newham.

Tom’s Trust is helping to pay for the tutors and mentors needed to run the Academy.

For the last seven years the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) has worked with the Aston Performing Arts Academy (APAA) in delivering creative projects for students aged 5 to 19 as well as assisting in the formation of the Aston Youth Orchestra. The APAA services parts of Birmingham with severe social and economic deprivation – unemployment and crime rates are high, and there is a great need for the provision of positive activities for young people.

The CBSO collaborates with the APAA to provide an accessible music event of the highest quality for students and the wider local community. In the process the CBSO enables participants (both children and adults) to work alongside professional musicians and to develop their skills and confidence. This year’s project started before Easter with “Inner City Jam” - an open event where young people are able to come and play musical instruments. Led by CBSO musicians and experienced music leaders from APAA the event provided workshops for different types of instruments. The event was a great success with a very large turnout and a final group performance for 100 participants. From this activity several community ensembles have been created, which will be coached regularly throughout the year, in preparation for further major musical events.

It is an established fact that performing music has enriched the lives of many members of the community and provided a much needed focus and outlet for young people at risk from high levels of crime and social deprivation. The Tom ap Rhys Pryce Trust is proud to add its support to this exciting and beneficial project.

Tom’s Trust does not make awards to individuals.