Community involvement

In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Macquarie Group Foundation seeks to support community programmes that provide an opportunity for staff involvement. The Foundation’s Community Advisory Committees in major regional offices assess opportunities and work to build partnerships with community organisations with which our staff are actively involved.

Some of these organisations include:

The Prince's Trust

In the UK, the Macquarie Group Foundation has established a partnership with The Prince’s Trust Business Programme to provide support for young business entrepreneurs to overcome barriers and realise their potential. This is achieved through practical support including training, mentoring and financial assistance for 14 to 30-year-olds. Efforts focus on those who’ve struggled at school, been in care, been in trouble with the law or who are long-term unemployed.

East London Business Alliance - Hackney Schools' Mentoring Programme and the Real Apprentice Scheme

The Macquarie Group Foundation is a member of the East London Business Alliance which acts as a channel for business skills and experience to contribute to the social regeneration of East London. As part of this association, Macquarie is actively involved with the Hackney Schools' Mentoring Programme providing Macquarie staff mentors. The programme links 14 and 15-year-old Year 10 school students in Hackney with working adults. The main objectives are to increase the students’ self-confidence, give them experience of the working world, improve their academic performance and raise their aspirations.

The East London Business Alliance also runs the Real Apprentice Scheme, with support from the Macquarie Group Foundation. The scheme provides employability training for young people from East London with participants progressing to an eight-week work placement with a range of employers including Macquarie and its portfolio companies. It is an exciting opportunity for young people from Hackney to kick-start their careers. More than 30 Macquarie staff helped with the 2007/08 programme, sharing their expertise in interactive sessions on various skills from mock interviews to resume workshops.

The London Children’s Film Festival

The Macquarie Group Foundation enjoys a relationship with London’s Barbican Centre as a Festival Partner of the London Children’s Film Festival. Now in its fourth year, the Festival is a key player on the international festival stage and offers cinema from all over the globe and in many languages.

One of the most important features about showcasing the best of world cinema is the opportunity for children in London to glimpse the lives of their peers in other countries. The experience of watching these films is education in itself and learning opportunities inspiring creativity and critical thinking are central to the festival. This is achieved through numerous workshops in schools, in communities and for families and young people.

Streetwise Opera

The Streetwise Opera programme aims to give homeless people a voice. Using music as a tool for building confidence and social networks, Streetwise Opera helps them gain opportunities to further their personal development

In support of Streetwise Opera, the Macquarie Group Foundation became the organisation's first corporate partner. The Foundation has committed funding for Streetwise Opera's Streetwise Live programme of workshops and small performances and its annual production, which gives the participants the opportunity to star alongside industry professionals.

Oper Frankfurt

Macquarie’s Frankfurt office has joined with Oper Frankfurt, one of the world’s foremost opera companies, to support the ‘’Opera on the Move’’ (‘’Oper Unterwegs’’) series which introduces school children to world class opera. For two seasons, Macquarie and Techem, one of Macquarie’s asset companies, will be joint sponsors of Oper Frankfurt. Seven performers from the act will tour primary schools located in the Rhine-Main area. At each performance 300 children enjoy an opera experience. Since its foundation in 2006, the Opera on the Move programme has enabled thousands of children to experience opera.

The first production, ‘’Orpheus in the World of Opera’’ began touring to schools in December 2008. The production is very lively, and includes all the well-known melodies from the opera. Children were also invited to a special children’s performance in the foyer of the Frankfurt Opera House.

Inkwenthezi Primary School and Ethembeni Children’s Home

In South Africa, the Macquarie Group Foundation works in partnership with the Macquarie First South business to support the Inkwenkwezi Primary School in Soweto and the Ethembeni Children’s Home, a safe haven for abused and abandoned children with HIV/AIDS.

As a result of this partnership, the Inkwenkwezi school students now have a kitchen which provides one meal a day, a computer room, a staff room, a soccer and netball court, a paved assembly area and a vegetable garden. Other initiatives such as a supplementary mats programme and a leadership camp have also been funded.

Macquarie’s funding of the Ethembeni home also covers the home’s ongoing running costs for almost a month each year.