City Gateway is a charity that provides training for disadvantaged young people in the

London Borough of Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London boroughs, London borough covering much of the traditional East End of London, East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, metropol ...

and other boroughs of Greater London.

Services

City Gateway works with disadvantaged individuals through community events, drop-in youth clubs and apprenticeship schemes, and gives them the chance to develop their own business ideas. It runs women’s projects, youth training, a youth centre and a social enterprise hub. It is one of the most popular youth projects in the area, and has successfully trained many young people who were formerly not in employment, education or training (" NEETs"). City Gateway's support for young people was described as "incredible" following several awards at the ERDF and ESF London Awards 2011. it employs 120 people, and has about 60 corporate partners who provide apprenticeships, work experience or mentors.

History

City Gateway was established by a group of people who worked in the City of London and wanted to support the local community. In 2003 it was a small organisation on the point of being wound up when Eddie Stride, a local man who had recently graduated from Cambridge University, joined as a youth outreach worker. Having secured approval from the trustees to keep it going for a year, he raised £40,000 from two corporate sponsors, and began training 15 " NEETs" in job-seeking skills. He was shortly promoted to

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

; by 2008 he had developed the organisation into one with an annual turnover of £1 million, reaching £4.5 million by 2012. In July 2012 City Gateway won the Prime Minister's

Big Society Award The Big Society Award is a British award set up by prime minister David Cameron in November 2010 as part of the Big Society initiative. The awards recognise community work done in the UK that demonstrates the Big Society. Over fifty awards had b ...

. The '' Evening Standard'' selected City Gateway as the partner in its "Ladder for London" campaign, launched in September 2012, asking commercial companies to take on more apprentices.

References

External links

* {{authority control Further education colleges in London Charities based in London Youth charities based in the United Kingdom Education in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Alternative schools in England