Charity Archives - Page 5 of 10

Join Stemettes and Millennium Point online to take part in a STEMazing event with a focus on health & tech.

What is Stemettes Hack Midlands

This years virtual event is funded by the Millennium Point Charitable Trust and is spread across two days (18th-19th September), that will tap into your creativity and equip you with new skillsets. The event we’ll be focusing on health and technology and how we can improve the way we live for a better future for us and the planet.

What activities will you be taking part in?

During the event you will be split into teams to identify a health-related issue and design a product or business solution for it. This will test each individual and help deliver some STEMtastic solutions. Throughout the weekend, you’ll be able to interact with STEM role models and learn about health and technology through their knowledge and expertise. The role models will be there to inspire your approach to the new ideas and solutions you’ll be developing in your team.

At the end of the event each team will get the opportunity to present your new ideas to a panel of judges. There will be some exciting prizes awarded to the winning groups and each participant will receive a goodie bag.

Grab your FREE ticket by clicking below.

Event details

When: Saturday 18th September – Sunday 19th September 2021
Time: 10 am to 5:00 pm
Where: Online via Microsoft Teams

Please note that attendees based in the Midlands will be given priority for this event. Therefore, a limited amount of participants will be able to join.

How Millennium Point supports STEM within the region?

Our charitable trust is passionate about creating new opportunities within STEM for young people. As part of our trust program we run two annual campaigns to help shape young peoples futures.

Our grants scheme supports and contributes more than 5 million back into the West Midlands region through STEM related projects and events. This helps support deprived areas where many young people are missing out on the learning needed to boost their career prospects.

Learn about projects we’ve funded like this

An example of the type of projects we fund is detailed in the below video. You can also read through our grant case studies by clicking here.

Apply for a Millennium Point grant

For more information on how to apply for a Millennium Point grant please click here.

WIN a fully funded degree

We also fully fund an undergraduate degree each year in partnership with Birmingham City University. Our Scholarship program begins with an application process, with the lucky finalists being selected for a chance to win a FREE degree. Each finalist presents a solution using STEM to a current ongoing issue, in front of a panel of STEM experts. Below is a video showing this year’s winner, Asima Adnan’s story. Asima begins her fully funded degree this month.

Apply for the 2022 Scholarship

For more information on how to apply or get involved in the 2022 Scholarship program please click here.

Find more interesting content from Millennium Point over at our news section, or follow us for daily updates on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn with @MillenniumPoint. Millennium Point is a landmark public building and multi-award-winning events venue in the Eastside of Birmingham City centre. Profits from our commercial activity are invested by the Millennium Point Charitable Trust into projects, events and initiatives which support the growth of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and education in the West Midlands.

Every year, the Millennium Point Charitable Trust Small Grants programme gives out grants of up to £20,000 to support science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education projects in the West Midlands. We have funded many different projects across all areas of STEM, supporting learning development for young students.

Here is another great example of the type of work we do, this project was funded in 2020 and shows the power of what the grants funding can achieve for STEM organisations.

Who are Aston Villa Foundation?

The Aston Villa Foundation is a registered charity that delivers the community and social responsibility work of Aston Villa Football Club. With a mission of ‘Working Together to Enrich Lives’, the foundation and its partners work with people from a variety of backgrounds in Birmingham as well as supporting the wider ‘Aston Villa family’ through schools, football in the community, disability, health and wellbeing, education, interventions and community relations.

Why did they apply for a Millennium Point Grant?

The Aston Villa Foundation reached out to the Millennium Point Charitable Trust to help support it’s STEM Stars: Science Through Football project. The project will be developed across six schools, all within a three-mile radius of Villa Park. The funding will be used to purchase a Sphero robot package (which includes robots and a small pitch) that uses football to engage young people in coding. The students will learn and use specific lines of code to operate a moving ball on the pitch, recreating Aston Villa goals from the Premier League season.

The video below showcases this process in action on our Platform event space.

What impact has the project made?

The project has so far been a huge success, impacting a cluster of schools within the Aston area. It gives children the perfect opportunity to fully engage in computer science, in a fun way that keeps them interested to learn new skillsets. The grant provided by Millennium Point has allowed these schools to run these activities, which otherwise wouldn’t of been able to due to a lack of funding and resources.

Aston Villa Foundation using football to unlock new learning potential

The Aston Villa Foundation have been hugely pleased with the results and potential of the project. They caught up with us for a chat and said: “The funding will allow us to be innovative with our provision in schools and make a difference within the local community by equipping the next generations with potential skill sets of the future and looking positively ahead in an ever-evolving technological world.

It will provide us with a further opportunity to have a positive impact on children and schools, by enriching their curriculums through this unique programme to experience, learn and develop through STEM, with the power of football and the club as a key instigator to unlocking learning potential.”

Want to get your school involved?

The Aston Villa Foundation will be targeting schools in it’s local community around Villa Park, these areas include Erdington, Ladywood and Perry Barr. For more information please email Paul Hughes by clicking below.

About educational grant funding from Millennium Point

Educators, Charities and Not-for-Profits within the West Midlands Combined Authority can apply for up to £20,000 from Millennium Point to fund their STEM activity. For more information on how to access this funding please visit www.millenniumpoint.org.uk/grants

Here is another great example of the type of work we do, this project was funded in 2019 and shows the power of what the grants funding can achieve for STEM organisations.

Who are Wolves Play Café?

Wolves Play Café are a not-for-profit organisation, that support young children and their parents and caregivers in Wolverhampton.

Why did they apply for a Millennium Point Grant?

A major challenge facing many families in the Whitmore Reans, St Peter’s Ward in inner-city Wolverhampton area, is having few opportunities to explore local attractions or paid experiences. There is a lack of accessible science activities for 0-5 children in this area of the city outside of school and pre-school for parents and caregivers, to interact with their children without price, time and location barriers.

Wolves Play Café reached out to the Millennium Point Charitable Trust to fund a project called “The World Around Us”, which aims to deliver ten 2 hour science play sessions in term-time from September 2019 to July 2020 for under 5s and their caregivers in Wolverhampton.

What impact has the project made?

With the help of the grant, the project has gone from strength to strength, impacting over 80 children and 50 parents/caregivers in Wolverhampton. The turnout for each session was overwhelmingly positive with each one fully booked. Over 70% of attendees also made a request to return for additional sessions.

Feedback from the project revealed that parents saw an increase in interest from children in STEM related subjects following the sessions. This long term investment has allowed for many young children to kickstart their future, learning key skills that will be pivotal for many years to come.

The Play Café were “thrilled”

Wolves Play Café couldn’t hide their delight at the results of the play sessions and said: “We are thrilled to receive our grant from Millennium Point Charitable Trust. This has enabled Wolves Play Café to access and engage with 100 under 5s across 10 and 75 caregivers across 10 ‘The World Around Us’ play sessions.”

“The project, with the help of this grant, has created opportunities for very young children to develop their STEM learning from an early age, by delivering ten sessions across 10 months but the resources and planning used to deliver them will be a long-term investment in STEM in the region as it provides the organisation with the opportunity to repeat the sessions and their proposed impacts following the initial programme.”

“Under 5s will have opportunities to develop curiosity in the world around us’, to develop basic problem-solving and experiment skills and develop a basic knowledge of natural science. Furthermore, parents and caregivers of under 5s will have an opportunity to reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness, increasing their wellbeing. By parents and caregivers also being part of the sessions, there will be an opportunity to build science capital in both children and adult audiences, again supporting the regional STEM provision in the West Midlands.”

Want to play?

Wolves Play Café believe that children develop and learn best through play and first-hand experiences. If your interested in getting your child involved you can book by clicking the button below. All sessions are planned with Covid-19 guidelines in mind to help keep everyone safe.

About educational grant funding from Millennium Point

Today is International Youth Day, learn about what this awareness day is all about, and what we do to support young people.

What is International Youth Day all about?

Launching in 2000, International Youth Day is an annual awareness day held on the 12^th August. The purpose of the day is to celebrate the qualities of young people and recognise the challenges that young people face in today’s world. Each year the day runs a theme which previously has covered a number of areas including education, employment and the environment. This years theme will be on “Transforming Food Systems”, with the day highlighting how this global effort could not be achieved without the support of young people.

For more information on this years event please click here.

How does Millennium Point support young people?

The Millennium Point Charitable Trust is passionate about supporting young people and contributes more than 5 million back into the West Midlands region through STEM related projects and events. One major issue in today’s world is a skills gap across a number of industries, where young people in deprived areas miss out on the learning needed to boost their career prospects.

To support this issue, the Millennium Point Charitable Trust launched a Small Grants programme, which gives out grants of up to £20,000 to support science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education projects in the West Midlands. We’ve seen an incredible transformation in young people’s learning environments, with many schools using the grant funding to further enhance subject areas, resulting in more skill gabs being filled by students. Below shows an example of the type of work we do and how powerful our grant funding is on young peoples education.

Read more about those who have already benefitted from our charitable work here.

About educational grant funding from Millennium Point

Shaping their future with a free degree

We don’t stop there! Each year, the Millennium Point Charitable Trust jointly funds an undergraduate degree in partnership with Birmingham City University at their Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment, which covers over 20 different courses across computing, digital technology, engineering and the built environment. We’re helping people across the region unlock their future in STEM. Now approaching it’s ninth year, the Millennium Point Trust Scholarship has already changed the lives of eight people from the region through their degrees, including 2017 Sagal Qodah, who has since gone on to graduate with a First Class Honours degree in Civil Engineering.

Below shows the story of Asima Adnan, the winner of this years Scholarship program. Asima will begin her fully funded degree this September.

Apply for the 2022 Scholarship

For more information on how to apply or get involved in the 2022 Scholarship program please, visit www.millenniumpoint.org.uk/scholarship.

Here is another great example of the type of work we do, this project was funded in 2019 and shows the power of what the grants funding can achieve for STEM organisations.

Who are Great Bridge Primary?

Great Bridge Primary is a large primary school with over 500 students. The school sits in an area of known deprivation within the region. Like many of its kind, the school suffers from limited funding which means a restricted programme to engage pupils in the opportunities of STEM learning.

What’s the project all about?

In 2019, Great Bridge Primary reached out to the Millennium Point Charitable Trust by applying for one of our grant schemes to fund a project called “LEGO WeDo“. The project was set out to enhance the students learning within computing and coding, which would expand their currently limited curriculum. The grant-funded 17 LEGO WeDo sets, for coding lessons at the school alongside resources to help train staff in how to use the equipment. The students also used Lego WeDo software on an iPad, where they combined the two to build physical LEGO models including tilt and movement sensors and motors, which was controlled by code.

What impact has the project made?

The project has contributed to a significant impact on the students learning development and advancing their skillset within computing and coding. Off the back of the project, Great Bridge Primary have been able to deliver an enhanced curriculum with the resources purchased via the grant becoming a staple of their education. Student engagement has also seen a positive reaction within computer science, with many students picking it as their favourite lesson and showing stronger enthusiasm for STEM subjects.

The project has also benefitted many staff members at Great Bridge, improving their confidence within computing and coding, allowing them to set more engaging and “outside-of-the-box” tasks for the pupils.

Great Bridge Primary were delighted with the impact the project made and said: “Enhancing the computing curriculum for upper Key Stage 2 at Great Bridge has had an immediate impact. The children who have taken part in the initial part of the project have had the opportunity to see how coding can be used to control a range of physical mechanisms and relate this to developing knowledge of coding in real-life scenarios. As a school, we will not look back on our Computing curriculum but instead, this project has made us look to the future and consider how we can inspire children to engage with STEM.”

About educational grant funding from Millennium Point

Here is an example of the type of work we do, this project was funded in 2019 and shows the power of what the grants funding can achieve for STEM organisations.

Who are The Play House?

The Play House is a small theatre and education charity based inside Birmingham, who specialise in engaging schools through educational and interactive performances.

What’s the project all about?

The Play House are passionate about addressing learning gabs and developing children’s education within STEM, so they don’t miss out on career prospects. The Daughters of Invention project is a drama and engineering education project originally created through a Royal Academy of Engineering Ingenious award.

The project is aimed towards girls and children from marginalised backgrounds, using interactive tasks, acting and storytelling, to develop the children’s interest and understanding of problem solving, creative thinking and team work within engineering.

What did the Millennium Point Trust fund?

After a successful first run in 2019, The Play House were eager to bring the project to new schools in areas of deprivation across Birmingham. The Millennium Point Charitable Trust offered a fantastic opportunity for the project to expand with it’s Small Grants offering. After receiving the application, our Trust team were immediately taken to this project by it’s unique creative dimension to teaching engineering, and made no hesitation in getting involved. Our funding helped the following areas of the project:

Overheads for the production and delivery of the project (content creation, travel to schools etc.)
Resources to produce and deliver the performances in schools
Equipment to produce and deliver the performance in schools

What impact has the project made?

This project once again showcased the impact the Millennium Point Trust can have on young peoples lives. Over 240 children in 8 key stage 2 classes across 5 schools benefitted from the project, increasing their knowledge and understanding of engineering, while building confidence and awareness of careers within the subject.

The project also worked with the University of Birmingham, encouraging UOB students to get involved with STEM public engagement, while learning what impact it has on education in the local area.

The Play House were over the moon with the results and said: “Because of the grant from Millennium Point, The Play House is going to be inventing and creating with real-life engineers and KS2 children in Birmingham primary schools in 2020. Our STEM and drama project, Daughters of Invention, is coming back! Thanks to the Millennium Point Charitable Trust we are able to inspire a new cohort of children and their teachers.

“We will be working a with our partners from the School of Mechanical Engineering, the University of Birmingham and a cohort of young engineers to develop children’s interest (particularly girls and children from BAME backgrounds) in engineering/STEM and increase their understanding of the part problem-solving, creative thinking and team-work play in engineering.”

Help save The Play House

The Play House have an exciting program ahead for 2021-22, bringing creative activities into children’s education. The COVID-19 crises has however hit the organisation hard. The Play House need your support in order to continue helping thousands of children in economically challenging areas of the West Midlands. You can support them by clicking below to donate on their website.

About educational grant funding from Millennium Point

Millennium Point is delighted to light up green, doing our bit to support #StJohnsDay2021.

What is St John Ambulance Day?

St John Ambulance Day is all about celebrating the great work they do, while raising awareness that your support is needed to help train more volunteers and save lives. On average it costs around £100 to fully train one St John Ambulance volunteer. For every volunteer trained, they could go on to support up to 12 people, meaning more lives will be saved by this great organisation.

Our Auditorium goes green

On Thursday 24th June, we lit up our newly refurbished Auditorium in St John Ambulance’s iconic green, to show our support to all the great volunteers who work tirelessly in our community. As a mass vaccination centre, we have first hand experienced the instrumental work that St John Ambulance volunteers have done, to help protect lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is our way of saying thank you for everything they do.

How to get involved

Every contribution helps towards training more volunteers to support this fantastic organisation. There’s so many fun and creative ways you can get involved, from singing karaoke with songs that use the word “green”, to taking part in a green jelly tower competition. If you’d like to get involved or find out more, then please visit www.sja.org.uk/green.

Here is an example of the type of work we do, this project was funded in 2019 and shows the power of what the grants funding can achieve for STEM organisations.

Who are Ahead Partnership?

Ahead Partnership is a leading social enterprise which works across the country to connect schools and children with employers to promote education and employability and raise awareness of STEM careers.

What’s the project all about?

Ahead Partnership wanted to address an issue in the West Midlands, where many students are only taught very basic STEM practices due to lack of resource. They launched a new project which features a week long STEM festival that aims to enthuse young people about STEM careers whilst they are still in education and build a stronger talent pipeline for the sector. The festival showcases the career opportunities that exist and encourages young people to make subject and study choices that open up these opportunities.

What did the Millennium Point Trust fund?

The Millennium Point Trust team were excited to get involved with this project and understood the importance of improving STEM learning for young people, while opening more doors for future careers within the industry. Our involvement helped fund the following areas of the project:

The operation and delivery of key events within the festival.
Resources and materials for the events.
Travel subsidies for schools travelling to the events.
Hire of additional equipment and resources for the events (i.e. AV equipment).

What impact has the project made?

The project had a positive outcome on over 250 students, 16 secondary schools and 2 education colleges. The students gained improvements in confidence, developed STEM learning across business and sectors, and workplace specific skills that will be valuable for their career choices.

Ahead Partnership were delighted with how the project unfolded and said: “Working with Millennium Point Charitable Trust will help us increase the pool of younger entrants to STEM occupations and to support the growth potential of businesses by promoting and furthering understanding of STEM.

“Currently, too few young people have a concrete understanding of the opportunities that exist within the West Midlands region. Employers have a very valuable role to play in developing this understanding and bringing careers alive through direct interventions with young people.

“This project will bring together education and employers, to contribute to regeneration in Birmingham, resulting in a future workforce that has STEM, entrepreneurial and creative skills to build on the City’s heritage and legacy and benefit the public through new products, services, businesses, jobs and economic growth.”

#GirlTechWM is back in 2021!

Following the success of two previous #GirlTechWM events, we’re delighted to say we are supporting once more. This year Ahead Partnership are taking the experience for Year 8 girls across the West Midlands ONLINE. This week-long festival will see young people from across the West Midlands take part in interactive workshops, guest speeches and panels to meet and ask female role models in the tech industry their questions, as well as give them a hands-on experience of what working in this sector is all about. Online means it’s safe and more accessible than ever.

About educational grant funding from Millennium Point

We are delighted to announce that Asima Adnan from Dudley has been named the winner of this year’s life-changing Millennium Point Charitable Trust Scholarship, earning a fully-funded degree at Birmingham City University (BCU). This degree is joint funded by Millennium Point Charitable Trust in Partnership with Birmingham City University.

Asima’s journey to Scholarship victory

The 37-year-old mum of five is currently studying Social Science and Humanities at Dudley College, with future plans to study a degree in planning.

All the finalists attended an assessment day at Millennium Point, where they each presented to a panel of five judges, Asima impressed the panel and was selected as the lucky winner of the Scholarship, which has already helped launch the careers of six outstanding STEM students.

Pictured left to right: Abbie Vlahakis, CEO of Millennium Point and Scholarship winner Asima Adnan.

The Scholarship winner said “Being told I had won felt amazing – I was shocked and got quite emotional; I couldn’t believe that someone would do something like this for me.

“I feel very lucky, knowing how hard everyone has worked to raise this money and then helped me with it, makes me want to work even harder and do well. I know I have the potential to do well, I just needed the opportunity and support.

“I am so excited and looking forward to the next chapter of my life. I hope I can be an inspiration to everyone who thinks that they can’t do it, because if I can do it, you can too.”

A few words from the CEO

Abbie Vlahakis, CEO of Millennium Point added: “We were really impressed by the quality of all the finalists; their passion, drive and knowledge of not only their own chosen subject but STEM in general.

“Asima embodies everything about the Millennium Point Trust Scholarship, which is here to support individuals with true grit and determination to succeed, and through their studies aim to have a positive influence on society in the West Midlands. Asima will be an excellent ambassador for Millennium Point Trust, proving that we can all achieve our dreams, no matter what life throws in our way. Asima will also be an excellent role model for women in STEM.”

“The scholarship is the flagship initiative from the Millennium Point Charitable Trust and exemplifies our commitment to supporting STEM; in 2020 alone, the Trust invested more than £560,000 in STEM-related organisations, projects and initiatives, based in the West Midlands.”

Identifying STEM talent

Now approaching it’s ninth year, the Millennium Point Trust Scholarship has already changed the lives of eight people from the region through their degrees, including 2017 Sagal Qodah, who has since gone on to graduate with a First Class Honours degree in Civil Engineering.

Apply for the 2022 Scholarship

Each year, the Millennium Point Charitable Trust jointly funds an undergraduate degree in partnership with Birmingham City University at their Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment, which covers over 20 different courses across computing, digital technology, engineering and the built environment. We’re helping people across the region unlock their future in STEM. For more information on how to apply or get involved in the 2022 Scholarship program please, visit www.millenniumpoint.org.uk/scholarship.

“The scholarship process built my confidence greatly. The scholarship has lessened the financial pressure of studying for a degree, and has meant that I can invest more in learning equipment.” – Laura Avis, 2019 scholarship winner

Each year Millennium Point pay for the tuition fees of one young person to pursue a STEM related degree at Birmingham City University (BCU). This is part of the ongoing work of the Millennium Point Charitable Trust to support the growth of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and education in greater Birmingham and the West Midlands.

MEET LAURA

After receiving an email from UCAS highlighting the opportunity to win a scholarship to fund course tuition fees for the Film Production Technology (BSc) course at BCU, Laura, from Redditch, registered for the Millennium Point Scholarship back in 2019 – and became the lucky recipient that year. Now in her second year, Laura is a star student and active member of the Birmingham City University student body. Upon her graduation in 2022, Laura has aspirations to pursue her career in film production.

On why she chose this particular university: “I chose BCU because of its locality to me and the amazing film facilities it has to offer. I had visited the studios once before and saw how much dedicated and professional space and equipment had been given to the film and VFX courses. Much of the equipment is very specialist and high-end also, such as the MILO rig, green screen studio and foley recording studios. BCU is only one of a limited number of universities in the country that offer a Bachelor of Science degree in Film, which makes the course content extremely unique and specialist.”

LAURA’S STORY

“The chance to have such an incredible opportunity directly related to the course I wanted to study was something that I just couldn’t let pass by,” says Laura, who studied for her A-Levels at Bournville College, Birmingham. I knew that it would be a competitive process, so I didn’t think that I would get to the final stage, but I knew that I had to try because of how rare an opportunity it was to get all three years of your degree course fully funded.”

“The application process was really straightforward – it was just written answers to three questions about what the scholarship would mean for you, and your passion for your chosen subject.”

Laura presenting at the Live Final in 2019.

“The final was daunting because I had no idea what the other finalists had prepared for their presentations. It was nice sitting with them leading up to the presentations because we were all equally as nervous. For some reason, my actual presentation felt like it wasn’t actually me presenting – I think because I had practised it so much at home it just felt natural and I was able to get through it as if it were just me speaking to myself. Just before I climbed the steps to the stage, a member of the Millennium Point events team wished me good luck and I’ve never forgotten that – I am so grateful for them saying what they said right at that moment!”

“The sense of relief when I finished the presentation was immense as it was months of hard work and fear paid off. I was not expecting to win the scholarship, so for me just getting through the presentation and having that chance to say what I wanted to say about the subject that I am passionate about was the best feeling.”

Laura, who is due to graduate in 2022, adds: “The scholarship process built my confidence greatly, and it has lessened the financial pressure of studying for a degree, and meant that I can invest more in learning equipment. The support that Millennium Point has given me, both throughout the scholarship process and since the final, has been so encouraging for my studies.

“It’s also helped me feel included and important – knowing that someone believes in you is a great encouragement to have. During my studies they have also made me aware of film-related events happening at Millennium Point. I also attended last year’s final, which provided me with a great insight into upcoming West Midlands talent and also the range of STEM courses that the Millennium Point Scholarship supports.”

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Thinking ahead to the future, Laura says: “I am very passionate about pursuing a career in the film and television industries. During my course, I have been able to explore many of the different roles involved in film production, and I have become enthusiastic about sound design, graphic design and screenwriting. Once I complete my studies, I will be looking for job opportunities within these fields and I am so excited to take those first steps towards a creative career. I am always looking for projects and productions to be involved with during my time at university to further my love of and experience in the industry.

Laura alongside Millennium Point’s Executive team Rebecca Delmore (Left), Abbie Vlahakis (Middle) and Linda Degg (Right)

ADVICE FOR APPLICANTS

“My advice for anyone thinking of applying for the scholarship would be to definitely apply now. It is a life-changing opportunity that you cannot miss if your course is eligible to receive the scholarship. Ignore any self-doubt about applying, and don’t be afraid of what the final may consist of. Show your passion towards the work that you have created related to your subject in your application, even if it’s small – any passion is still passion.”

UNLOCK THEIR FUTURE

Millennium Point is helping young people across the region unlock their future. For more information on how to apply or get involved please, visit www.millenniumpoint.org.uk/scholarship