Community Programmes
Coca-Cola Youth Foundation
The ‘Coca-Cola’ Youth Foundation (CCYF) was established in 1995 to make a positive contribution to the development of young people in Great Britain. Under the terms of its constitution, it is empowered to make donations to such charitable institutions as chosen by the trustees, but particularly to those that help young people fulfill their potential through education or sports. Since its inception, the Foundation has donated in excess of £1 million to numerous good causes in Great Britain, from small, local charities to nationwide appeals.
In 2007 the ‘Coca-Cola’ Youth Foundation chose to support three projects:
Groundwork
A nationwide organisation which supports communities in need, working with partners from the public, private and voluntary sectors to help improve the quality of people’s lives, their prospects and potential and the places where they live, work and play. Groundwork's aim is to build sustainable communities through joint environmental action, undertaking a wide range of projects from improving parks and open spaces, to community consultation and capacity building; from working with businesses to improve their environmental performance to supporting long term unemployed into work. As part of the ‘Coca-Cola’ commitment to making a positive difference to the environment and to local communities, Groundwork offered ‘Coca-Cola’ staff the opportunity to work on local projects to help re-generate garden areas in Sidcup and Hammersmith.
Special Olympics
Coca-Coca Great Britain has supported Special Olympics since the charity was established in 1978. Special Olympics GB currently has over 5,000 participants with a learning disability, and with support from the Coca-Cola Youth Foundation, is striving to double this number by the end of 2008. The 2007 World Games took place on 2-11 October in Shanghai - and funding from Coca-Cola Great Britain made significant contribution to Team GB’s traveling costs. In addition a number of our employees - the Special Olympics 'Champions' - co-ordinate staff fund-raising and volunteering for a local Special Olympics branch in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. All the monies raised are invested in delivering four sports clubs - football, athletics, boccia and swimming - for local people with learning difficulties. The Special Olympics Champions work in partnership with the local Council sports department, Special Olympics London Region and two local 'special needs' schools, Cambridge School and Jack Tizzard school.
Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA)
During 2007 the Youth Foundation again supported the work of Action for Southern Africa, enabling them to take a delegation of UK Youth and Student leaders on a fact finding trip to southern Africa. This enabled the leaders to better understand the challenges facing their counterparts in southern Africa, particularly in the area of HIV/AIDS. They visited many projects and met with southern African youth and student groups, enabling them to develop ongoing links.
2008
In 2008 we have chosen to continue to support Special Olympics GB, as they celebrate the 30th anniversary of their inception in Great Britain. We are proud to say that Coca-Cola Great Britain has been supporting them for all these 30 years. It is their aim to raise £1 million in this anniversary year and we are working in a number of ways to help them towards raising this target.
