UK leading family owned-and-run multi-channel shoe retailer Pavers’ charitable trust, Pavers Foundation, has donated £5,000 to The Brilliant Club. Jason Paver, MD of Pavers nominated the charity to receive the funding. The Pavers Foundation was established to share Pavers success through charitable giving to causes close to the hearts of its 1,500 strong staff.
Speaking about the donation, Jason Paver said; “Providing gifted students from underrepresented backgrounds with the opportunity to excel at competitive universities is something I feel strongly about. So many gifted students from state schools are at a major disadvantage when applying to competitive UK universities due to a lack of experienced guidance and focused resource available to them. The Brilliant Club aims to address this and is therefore a charity I am delighted to support.”
The Brilliant Club was co-founded in 2011 by two teachers who became involved in university access through their work in inner-city schools. As classroom teachers, they recognised the barriers that pupils from underrepresented backgrounds face in accessing highly-selective universities.
They started a project aiming at supporting these pupils to progress, by utilising the expertise and passion of PhD researchers, to deliver university-style tutorials to small groups of pupils. From an initial placement of 12 pupils in London, The Brilliant Club now works with over 15,000 pupils a year in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The charity continues to grow and improve The Scholars Programme, The Brilliant Tutoring Programme and Researchers in Schools, underpinned by a commitment to monitoring and evaluation.
Anne-Marie Canning MBE, CEO of The Brilliant Club, explained the impact of the donation; “We are so delighted to receive the support of Pavers Foundation which will help us to support even more young people to access university. We know our programmes make a meaningful difference to educational success of participants and this gift will further consolidate that at a time of great need following the Coronavirus lockdown.”
The Pavers Foundation is dedicated to making a meaningful impact on the communities around them. Each year the family business gives 2% of net profit, alongside the total profits from the sale of carrier bags in stores, plus returns from the endowment to ensure the Pavers Foundation can continue to make effective and positive changes in local communities and beyond. To date the Foundation has donated over £913,000 to good causes and is looking forward to reaching its million-pound milestone. These causes tend to be associated with the core three pillars of their philanthropic strategy relating to health, education and the community.
