ELBA and BIG Alliance’s Mentoring Works programme is celebrating the achievements of the 2020-21 Year 10 cohort with a series of 10 Celebration events with our company and school partners, across June and July.

The count is in: ELBA’s 2020 Toy Appeal was the biggest ever, with over 22,000 toys donated – that’s more than double the previous record. From that amazing total, over 2,200 toys went to Islington organisations who work with local families.

In the run up to Christmas, volunteers wrote cards and letters to vulnerable people feeling lonely and/or isolated.

During a “normal” year, Christmas can be an especially lonely time for many people. Amid a pandemic involving lockdowns and limited social contact, their experiences of loneliness and isolation are understandably more profound.

The onset of the pandemic has exacerbated financial inequalities. For young people, it has led to months without schooling, with most studying from home with varied resources and varied access to the internet and electronic devices.

To tackle this, ELBA and the BIG Alliance are proud to have recently launched and adapted our 2020/21 Mentoring Works programme to ensure we continue to support students that need it most.

In September, we worked with Expedia Group to overcome 2020’s challenges and facilitate a mixture of in-person and virtual volunteering opportunities for staff during their ‘Month of Caring’ initiative.