The Switch Charity and Barclays

Since the inception of our partnership in 2012, Barclays has been supporting not only our shared community of young people to reach their best future, but supporting The Switch strategically as a small local charity, so we can flourish and effect long-term change in the borough of Tower Hamlets.

By providing over 600 volunteers per year on our programmes, Barclays and its colleagues are directly upskilling our local young people from the borough with the highest rate of child poverty in London. It is through this long-term partnership that we are able to drip-feed the knowledge and skills that our young people need in order to compete with middle class peers for future jobs. Barclays volunteers step in to replicate the family and friends networks of career support that more affluent children usually benefit from.

As a partnership we are now seeing our young people leave education, after years of our joint support, and embark on their careers. It is this long term positive impact which is building year on year to evidence the success of our work together. We have supported the local young talent on our doorstep to understand their potential and given them the tools to access their best future.