Dragon Awards applicants have helped over 90,000 people

Anish Shah, Corporate Responsibility Officer at the City of London, posts on the impact this year’s Dragon Awards applicants have made on London communities.

This year we received 80 applications to the Dragon Awards, a 30% increase on 2010. We saw a trend that businesses are now starting to tackle more challenging projects, which corporates have often steered away from, with projects addressing marginalised and hard-to-reach groups, such as the homeless and ex-offenders, seeking permanent employment.

As unemployment continues to be a problem in London and the rest of the UK, compounded by the persistent squeeze on public and third sector services, the social contribution of businesses to local employment is vital. The latest ONS figures reveal that there are 29,000 more people in the capital out of work, compared to this time last year.

This year’s entrants to the Dragon Awards having provided over 5,000 work opportunities to some of the most socially-excluded groups, and they are playing a pivotal role in tacking local London unemployment.

Together, they have also helped over 90,000 people and provided nearly 40,000 hours of volunteering which has a monetary value of over half a million pounds.