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Supporting the artistic aspirations of young people
THE Helen Foundation was launched in early 2006 as celebration of the life of 24-year- old Helen Kirk, then working as a classically-trained actor in London, who tragically died after a road accident on Boxing Day, 2005. The Foundation achieved charitable status in March 2006. Over the past five years, the
Helen Foundation has developed four strands of work: ● we support schools through special subsidies that allow them to engage artists to work with their children, on a project that the school has developed. The Foundation pledged £20,000 for the year 2011-12 to this scheme to support all Devon County schools in Teignbridge. ● individual bursaries supporting young people who have financial needs are an important part of our work. Current examples include a boy with behaviour challenges learning the piano and a young woman who has gained a place at Italia Conte Academy in London. Young people seeking bursaries can apply through our website. ● most Teignbridge schools, at the schools’ own requests, now present the Helen Foundation Award. This award is given annually by the school to the pupil who has shown ‘most endeavour in the arts’ and has rewarded a very wide range of talents among young people since its inception. ● we help fund special projects such as the current Big Olympic Banners running across Devon Schools. In Teignbridge, 15 schools are being supported by a Helen Foundation grant to take part in this remarkable venture. Artists have worked with young people in the schools
discussing the Olympic ideals – excellence, friendship, respect, determination, inspiration, courage – and what this major global event meant to them. The children were then encouraged by the artists to turn these ideas into designs for a giant banner that will be printed onto vinyl and hung in Exeter Cathedral in May to celebrate the coming of the Olympic Flame to the city. They used a wide variety of media to create their original banners and the results are a joy to witness.
In recent years, the charity has worked with the Bath Philharmonia and The Shaldon Music Festival on an inter-schools music project for children with learning disabilities and a schools project in partnership with the National Trust and The National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies at Compton Castle. We produce a monthly e-
newsletter and supporters are warmly invited to join the distribution list. Our website is at
www.thehelenfoundation.org.uk and is updated regularly with news, features and photographs of our activities as well as providing background information on the foundation. All those working for the charity are volunteers and we work from people’s homes to ensure that the maximum funding we receive reaches those in need. Our overheads are very small. We have no corporate or large individual sponsors but are funded by the generosity of people within and beyond
Teignbridge
who donate through collecting boxes, sponsored events and special fundraising occasions such as concerts. All donations are warmly welcomed. Contact us through the website.
‘The very generous
contribution towards Arts costs means that we are able to offer children opportunities which would otherwise be unaffordable. Through The Helen Foundation we have put on an annual MED theatre performances, had many artists into school and last year took children to a mask-making activity. The Helen Foundation does brilliant work, especially at a time when the Arts might be further squeezed with tight budgets.
Thank you.’ Kate Edwards, Headteacher
Widecombe School
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