Whilst many of our staff live near to their office they all certainly work within their local community and therefore supporting local charities, schools and special events is, we believe, a vital part of our role as a local business. Our staff are the type who have a `can do’ attitude and want to feel like they are making a difference and not just doing their day jobs.
Whether it be as main sponsors of the highly successful Clapham Opera Festival, providing music scholarship awards to schools, arranging art competitions or even closing the offices for a day to assist the Katherine Low Settlement redecorate some rooms and do a spot of gardening, all our offices get fully involved! We have an ongoing programme of support for local organisations, schools and charities. We are proud of our this involvement which will remain a core part of what we do in the future.
Below is just a taster of who we have supported recently and how. If you know of a deserving cause local to one of our offices then please do get in touch.
London Youth Conservatoire (formerly Music’all) was founded in 2008 and is one of the largest and most successful music schools in London with over 250 pupils. Based in Fulham, we offer a comprehensive music education from beginner to Grade 8 and beyond. The school welcomes students from age 4 to 18 and adults.
The school provides individual instrumental lessons; musicianship and theory classes; and several orchestras, ensembles, jazz groups and choirs. It teaches a proven curriculum and prepares students for ABRSM and Trinity exams.
Its overall aim is to be able to provide a musical experience to as many children as it can in the local community and in particular attract students from more disadvantaged backgrounds who would not otherwise be able to access or afford music tuition. Aspire has been a part of its ongoing programme of support to London Youth Conservatoire. Aspire is now offering a scholarship to a pupil who requires financial assistance and for whom the money will help towards instrumental rental and ensemble participations as well as lessons.
Katherine Low Settlement has been a multi-purpose community and social action centre since 1924 providing services for older people, newly arrived communities and unemployed people. Active citizenship and community spirit is at the heart of all they do, striving to provide an opportunity for people to realise their own potential and the contribution they can make to their community, whether with their peers or in the many aspects of their intergenerational work.
Their rooms offer space for people to come together to build relationships, to develop themselves and have a good time and local organisations are also able to operate from their premises. This year Aspire is closing its Fulham and Battersea offices to help Katherine Low Settlement with much needed improvements to their historic building based in the heart of Battersea. Staff and helpers from aspire are clearing the garden as well as painting a room and improving the nursery.
Ray’s Playhouse is a not-for-profit children’s centre providing daily inclusive stay and play sessions for under 5's with parents and carers based in the heart of Sands End in Fulham. They are open daily throughout the year from Monday to Friday and provide an extensive range of stimulating and fun indoor and outdoor activities to suit all ages.
For many years now aspire’s two Fulham offices have supported various events from Quiz nights and Christmas Fairs through to the, now famous, Sands End Street Party in an effort to help raise the much needed funds to keep such a valuable local service open.
Having been going for over a decade, Aspire have supported this special event almost since its inception. The whole purpose of Paggs Cup is to bring together all the children of our community and give them the chance to meet one another in a fun environment. We want to help reduce antisocial behaviour while at the same time raising the profile of South Park, which is due for regeneration. We believe that this event represents an excellent opportunity for the children in our community to channel their energies into something more purposeful and positive. Through this they will develop life skills such as boundary settings, self-discipline , self-respect and respect for others.
Sir Oswald Stoll’s legacy spans both the worlds of Theatre and Philanthropy. A shrewd businessman, Sir Oswald had shown a keen interest in economics at school. After some tough early years, Stoll joined with Moss and Thornton to create Moss Empires in 1900, eventually opening 28 “Empires” up and down the country. These included the iconic London Hippodrome and Coliseum, which staged the first Royal Variety Shows in 1912.
When British troops were returning home from WWI with physical and mental injury, Sir Oswald was at the forefront of the debate of how best to support returning wounded Veterans. Using his standing and contacts, Sir Oswald set about establishing the War Seal Foundation, which provided a place to call home and vital support for injured Veterans and their families.
He was Knighted for his philanthropic efforts in the same year and the War Seal Foundation was renamed the Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation in his honour.
Stoll continues to be at the forefront of housing and support for vulnerable ex-Servicemen and women. The Veterans we support need a place to call home, but we are more than bricks and mortar; our support network provides the building blocks towards true independence..
Trinity provides skilled, compassionate end of life care to individuals and support for families in our central and south west London community. aspire’s Clapham branches previously donated money from each transaction towards such a very special cause. Many of their patients will have cancer but others will have long term conditions such as heart failure, lung or neurological conditions including motor neurone disease or multiple sclerosis. It’s the needs of the patient and their family that matter to them, not the diagnosis. Their patient and family services are free but they receive less than a third of their income from the NHS. This means they rely on the support of the local community to raise more than £6.6 million each year!
Now into its second year, Clapham Opera Festival provides an entertaining and varied programme of opera style concerts together with an Opera – with an overall aim of bring opera to as many people as possible. Visitors have the opportunity to experience some great talent from Guildhall, Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, as well as artists who have performed at Glynebourne, the Royal Opera House and Wigmore Hall. Artistic Director, Marie Soulier’s dream was to bring opera to her neighbourhood in Clapham and make it a place for the wider community to experience the passion, joy, pain and tragedy of this art form.
Aspire are once again the Festival’s main sponsor and will be helping with the set up an promotion of the event from producing flyers and posters to the Festival programme.
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