charity Archives - Capital City College Group

COLLEGES WEEK: Career Ready internship with Global Generation was ‘eye-opener’ to working in the charity sector

Posted on October 18, 2022January 23, 2023 by Hannah Fenton

Colleges Week is a celebration of students, staff and skills from 17-21 October #LoveOurColleges

City and Islington College (CANDI) works with Career Ready to give students fantastic work placements, mentoring and support for their future careers. A Level student Nayyan Iftikhar shares what she learnt during a four-week paid internship with youth education charity Global Generation and how it opened her eyes to the sector. Nayyan’s placement was supported by Bupa Foundation.

Determined to make the most of the opportunity

I was very nervous before my internship with Global Generation as I had no prior work experience, but I was determined to make the most of the opportunity. I enjoyed working with a range of different teams including the gardening team, accounting and finance, and the youth programme.

Learning about the charity sector

This internship was an eyeopener. Until I worked at a charity, I didn’t realise that you could make such a difference to others through your job. The best part of my internship was connecting with young people and seeing the impact the work I was doing had on them. I want to go into media production in the future and now I know that I could also work on projects that are important to me, like climate change and helping young people, by working alongside organisations in the charity sector.

A great opportunity

Internship opportunities are important because they give young people an opportunity to understand the working world and allow us think about what we might like to do in the future. To anyone thinking about joining the Career Ready programme – do it! It’s a great opportunity to network, meet and get advice from professionals, learn about the workplace and what career pathways are out there.

Each year CANDI offers a wide range of career and enrichment opportunities through organisations like Career Ready and the college’s own network of employers and connections across London.

Find out more about Student Life at CANDI here.

How we Helped Crisis at Christmas

Posted on January 21, 2020February 21, 2023 by Hannah Fenton

In December – just as we’ve done for the past few years – we opened our King’s Cross Centre to homeless people in London. In collaboration with the national charity Crisis, we turned our building into a place of refuge, safety and warmth for them, as one of the Crisis at Christmas London centres.

Crisis have been in touch to thank us for our support and we thought it would be nice to share their letter – it includes information about how many homeless people the centres supported and some of the things that Crisis do to help their guests over the Christmas holiday.

Together with your support and that of 12,696 volunteers, we welcomed more than 5,254 people to our centres across Britain. Crisis at Christmas in London welcomed 4,030 guests this year, this is a 12% increase from last year, with 11,672 volunteers attending shifts during the event.

You helped us to provide much needed health checks, food, shelter and specialist advice and to bring the centres to life with dance competitions, bingo and piano sing-a-longs that boosted confidence, giving people the breathing space and hope to rebuild their lives.

In London on Christmas day 1,634 of our guests were served 5,625 meals (1,760 breakfasts, 1,972 lunches and 1,893 dinners. As of the 28^th December we had served 37,201 meals.

From 23 – 28 December, guests had had access to doctors, nurses and pharmacists via the Healthcare clinics – the numbers are:
– Healthcare: 558
– Podiatry: 320
– Physio: 160
– Massage: 367

Here are the stats for the eye care team:
– Number of eye tests carried out: 302
– Number of specs ordered: 232
– Ready readers given: 102
– Number of referrals made: 32

The new year is now underway and it’s great to have personally seen guests visiting our year-round centres (Skylights). At our Skylight centres across the country we will offer a full package of housing and employment support, as well as education and training. Your support will continue to give hope to people who are homeless – and provide access to a route out of homelessness for good.

We couldn’t do any of this without you – again thank you so much for your support this Christmas.

Hope starts with all of us and together we will end homelessness.

Crisis also sent a small thank you video, showcasing their work over the Christmas period:

Group to collect clothing for charity over Christmas

Posted on December 10, 2019February 21, 2023 by admin

Capital City College Group is pleased to announce its collaboration with charity Crisis UK to collect warm clothing for the homeless over Christmas.

The initiative, dubbed ‘Winter Wear Drive’, is a Group-wide project arranged by the professional staff at our Regent’s Park Centre in aid of homelessness charity Crisis. Capital City College Group encompasses City and Islington College, Westminster Kingsway College and the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London.

Students at City and Islington’s Centre for Business, Arts and Technology can donate in room G.01, and Sixth Form College students can find their box in the main foyer.

Westminster Kingsway College students can find bins near reception at all sites.

CONEL students at the Tottenham site can contribute in reception.

Organiser Thomas Blundell said: “We are excited to be able to make the most of the great opportunity we have working for London’s largest college group.

“Having 37,000 students across 11 sites puts us in a unique position to make a real difference to London’s homeless population this Christmas.

“The idea came from Mike Magras, Programme Manager for Additional Learning Support at our Kings Cross Centre. We spoke about doing something at the Westminster Kingsway College site and soon realised we could replicate the initiative across the Capital City College Group.

“Last year, deaths among homeless people rose by 22%. This is a really important, pressing issue, and we’re very grateful for the enthusiastic response we’ve had from staff so far.”

Crisis is a UK based charity aimed at helping to rebuild the lives of people affected by homelessness. Offering support, advice and courses across 12 areas in England, Scotland and Wales, the organisation’s Crisis this Christmas campaign asks the public to find ways to support their mission during the coldest months of the year.

If you have any spare clothing to donate this Christmas, please visit your centre’s collection point before 13 December with any: