Author: Ekaterina Vekova

BE OPEN Supports Entrepreneurial Community Projects by London Schoolchildren

BE OPEN Supports Entrepreneurial Community Projects by London Schoolchildren

Ekaterina Vekova

Youngsters ‘Say NO to Knives’ and ‘NObesity’ as part of City Pitch, a dragon’s den style leadership programme which encourages children to step up and deliver social action ideas in their community. City Pitch is an initiative led by social mobility charity, the Mayor’s Fund for London, in partnership with the BE OPEN Foundation.

Armed with business plans and budgets, the final top six schools were invited to attend City Hall and present their entrepreneurial projects to a panel of judges for a chance to win up to £1,500 of funding.

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BE OPEN Forges New Partnership with the Mayor’s Fund for London within City Pitch Leadership Programme

BE OPEN Forges New Partnership with the Mayor’s Fund for London within City Pitch Leadership Programme

Ekaterina Vekova

BE OPEN, the international think-tank founded by businessperson and philanthropist Elena Baturina to encourage and support creativity and design thinking in various fields of human activities, continues its cooperation with the Mayor’s Fund for London as the new lead partner of the City Pitch Leadership programme.

The City Pitch Leadership Programme involves young Londoners and helps them learn new skills while making a real difference to their communities. The programme offers young people the chance to develop important leadership, teamwork, and presentational skills, with professional mentors on hand to help them prepare their pitches. All the projects must present tangible opportunities to improve the life of their communities, and therefore make the city of London a better place for the younger generations through their own effort. By pitching their ideas to a panel of experts at City Hall, the children can secure funding for their projects.

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The Mayor’s Fund for London Announces New Trustees

The Mayor’s Fund for London Announces New Trustees

Ekaterina Vekova


New Trustees have been appointed to the Board of the Mayor’s Fund for London. We are a social mobility charity that empowers young Londoners from disadvantaged backgrounds to acquire the skills and opportunities they need to secure employment, climb the career ladder and escape the threat of poverty. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is the charity’s Patron. Last year, the Fund supported over 31,000 young Londoners, across all 33 boroughs, working in partnership with 325 schools, 220 employers and 78 charities, social enterprises and local authorities.

Welcoming them to the Board, Chair of Trustees, Tim Roberts said, ‘The Mayor’s Fund has always benefited from the support and leadership of an immensely experienced, diverse and committed Board. Several of our first cohort of Trustees have now completed their maximum 9 year terms, and we are hugely grateful for their contributions. We are delighted to welcome new Trustees to take their place.’

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Hundreds of Children Take Over City Hall to be ‘Mayor for the Day’ with Support from Elena Baturina’s BE OPEN Foundation

Hundreds of Children Take Over City Hall to be ‘Mayor for the Day’ with Support from Elena Baturina’s BE OPEN Foundation

Ekaterina Vekova

Friday 1st December saw hundreds of London school pupils, representing more than one million children from across the capital, come together to share their ‘Mayor for the Day’ ideas as part of the London Children’s Festival, developed by social mobility charity the Mayor’s Fund for London in partnership with BE OPEN, the think-tank founded and run by philanthropist and Mayor’s Fund for London Trustee Elena Baturina.

For several weeks since the beginning of the new school term, schoolchildren from eight London primary and secondary school considered how they would make the world’s greatest city even better for themselves, their fellow pupils, families and communities if they were ‘Mayor for the Day’. Each school created a short film and advertising campaign to promote their recommendations before presenting them at the Festival to an influential panel comprising Deputy Mayor of London, Joanne McCartney, the Children’s Commissioner for England Anne Longfield OBE, teams of Mayor’s Fund for London and BE OPEN.

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Elena Baturina’s BE OPEN Helps Children Take Over City Hall as ‘Mayor for the Day’

Elena Baturina’s BE OPEN Helps Children Take Over City Hall as ‘Mayor for the Day’

Ekaterina Vekova

Over a thousand schoolchildren from across the capital have been considering how they would make their city even better if they were “Mayor for the Day” as part of the London Children’s Festival developed by the Mayor’s Fund for London in cooperation with Elena Baturina’s BE OPEN foundation, the lead supporter of both the London Children’s Festival and the City Pitch programme.

Focusing on Mayoral priorities such as: ‘Jobs, Skills and Education’, ‘Environment, Health and Food’, ‘Crime, Safety and Travel’ and ‘Housing, Play and Public Spaces’, the London Children’s Festival asks children and young people, aged 9 to 14, to consider how they connect to and interpret these themes and explore their ideas and vision relating to the future of London.

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A New Global Open Call Together with the Mayor’s Fund for London

A New Global Open Call Together with the Mayor’s Fund for London

Ekaterina Vekova

BE OPEN, a creative think-tank founded by the international entrepreneur and philanthropist Elena Baturina, is launching its next global open call across social media together with the Mayor’s Fund for London, a social mobility charity. The open call named #BEOPENDesignCity is inspired by the City Pitch Leadership Programme held in 2017 and 2018 by the Mayor’s Fund for London in cooperation with BE OPEN.

The open call invites people globally to share visual pieces depicting what they love about their cities, what they would like to preserve or add, as well as any other ideas of what could be improved in their everyday urban lives.

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The Winner of #BEOPENUrbanPattern Open Call

The Winner of #BEOPENUrbanPattern Open Call

Ekaterina Vekova

The #BEOPENUrbanPattern open call was held by the BE OPEN creative think-tank between the 25th of August and the 10th of October in social media. Over that period of time, more than 200 amazingly creative visuals were posted as entries to BEOPEN’s Instagram page. The participants came from such remote parts of the world as India, United States, the UK, Italy, Belgium, France, Serbia, Russia, etc.

The open call was focused on ways of visualizing everyday urban landscapes as a way to celebrate people’s ability to creatively interpret the reality around them.

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Announcing the New #BEOPENUrbanPattern Open Call

Announcing the New #BEOPENUrbanPattern Open Call

Ekaterina Vekova

The majority of people in the world live in cities, and our numbers are growing fast. In our cities we all have our beloved spots and power places, we see their beauty even if others may not. This time we ask you to share your love and your unique vision of your cities revealed in the form of urban patterns – the patterns that our cities create around us for us to capture.

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‘Creativity Works’ Programme for Young Londoners Supported by BE OPEN

‘Creativity Works’ Programme for Young Londoners Supported by BE OPEN

Ekaterina Vekova

72% of young people taking part in Creativity Works, an arts-based employability programme that aims to improve access to employment for young Londoners from disadvantaged backgrounds, have found a job or returned to education or training.

The international cultural and social think-tank BE OPEN, founded by philanthropist and entrepreneur Elena Baturina, joined forces with the Mayor’s Fund for London in 2015 to support Creativity Works and help young unemployed Londoners play a greater part in the future of the capital.

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