Barclays has picked up a Lord Mayor’s Award for Longstanding Achievement, for seven years of outreach work with Ian Mikardo High School- supporting the school’s notable turnaround.

The Barclays relationship with the school is part of its 5 Million Young Futures campaign in which the company gives not only money, but employee volunteers’ time and expertise to enhance the enterprise, financial and employability skills of five million disadvantaged young people by the end of 2015.

Winners of the Lord Mayor’s Dragon Awards were announced at a Mansion House ceremony. The Awards, now in its 28^th year is among the most established and distinguished Corporate Responsibility Awards in the UK.

The bank’s Canary Wharf head office is just a short distance from the school that was once dubbed the ‘toughest’ in Britain. Barclays’ volunteers mentor the specialist school’s 48 students, who have learning disabilities and a history of emotional and behavioural issues. Barclays also funds a full-time family support worker to address issues faced by pupils’ families that have disrupted their learning and is now helping the school extend its services into the wider community. The holistic approach has helped embed the school within the local community and ensure parents support their children’s education.

The long term support from the bank has resulted in 97 per cent of the students who were at risk of becoming NEET, (not in education, employment or training) completing school and moving into employment.

Speaking about the relationship with the bank, Claire Lillis, head teacher of Ian Mikardo High School, said “Barclays understands that only a long-term programme can transform the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people, and they have underpinned this with sustained support. The school’s intervention is holistic and deep, and Barclays’ partnership over the last seven years has made an invaluable and strategic contribution."

The Lord Mayor Alan Yarrow, who presented the awards, added: “I could not be more proud to champion the participants and winners of the 2015 Lord Mayor’s Dragon Awards. Their innovative contribution to our communities shows the immense value of CSR. In fact, we could not do without it. Today’s Dragon Award winners such as Barclays, are continuing this work with a broad range of initiatives – enabling business employees to use their skills to maximise the impact of the voluntary sector, and help 300,000 Londoners directly. Whether serving as mentors for school children, or accountants for charities – they are a fantastic example of corporate community engagement, and helping to build a fairer and more prosperous society.”

This year, the applicants for the Lord Mayor’s Dragon Awards volunteered around 92,000 hours, helped around 300,000 people in London and created 5,000 training placements as a result of their community engagement.

The other winners

• Alium Partners– Winner of the Heart of the City Award for Best New Community Programme
• London Wildfire Trust for their work with Mace Foundation – Winner of the Community Partners Award
• Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP- Winner of the Enterprise and Employment Award
•  IBM- Winner of the Education and Lifelong-learning Award
• Aimia- Winner of the Future Proofing Charities Award

For more infomation visit http://www.dragonawards.org.uk/