With 10 years of business under our belt at Sprint Education we are already planning for the next 10 years, and a big part of our future is not just about introducing new services and helping our clients sell even more to schools, but to also start giving back to the education sector that has helped make us. This is what we’ve called our educational and social responsibility.

Here is the plan Over the coming months and years we will be launching several initiatives that will either benefit teachers, schools, pupils, or you guys, our own clients. We owe each of these stakeholders from our past and future a thank you, as without each of these Sprint would simply cease to be.

We feel that what we do here at Sprint Education is a vital cog within the education system, we give teachers an opportunity to pick from some of the world’s most innovative educational products and services. This helps them strive towards pushing their school to the forefront of the education system, access the most competitive prices (to stretch their budget further), enhance their ratings and test results, and ultimately give the children they teach an opportunity to learn and grow within the world’s finest education system.

It’s this last bit where the first part of our educational and social responsibility begins - giving back to the children. We wanted to do something that would have a direct benefit on pupils, shape their future and educate them in ways that are not covered as part of the national curriculum. We didn’t want to step on our clients’ toes by launching an education service or product, so instead we looked at partnering with three unique and incredibly vital charities that dedicate their existence to helping children of school ages.

By utilising our own edu-marketing services, software, and skills we knew we had the ability to spread the good word of these educational charities to schools, promote their message, and ultimately allow these charities to reach out to, and educate more pupils than ever before with their important messages. Then to truly fulfil our educational responsibility we would complete all work for these charities completely free of charge.

And so the search began… First up we had to set the criteria that these three charities must meet to make the short list. Here is what we came up with…

1. The charity should be local
2. Offer workshops/resources that educate students about child-aged issues
3. Or provide a service that helps save/support young lives

We then listed all the education charities we could find that met the above to give us our final shortlist.

Finally, myself and a few of the Sprint team started whittling the shortlist down. Imagine TV show talent judges hunched over a desk, moving photos of potential hopefuls around before the final three are moved to the top, as we gleefully exclaimed, “Guys! We’ve got our final three!”

So here they are, the three charities we have chosen to work for for free.

Charity #1 Name: FindEveryChild What they do: 140,000 children go missing each year. The longer they are missing, the greater the chance of harm. FindEveryChild (part of the Missing People Charity) are dedicated to every single one of these vulnerable missing children. Why we picked them: Back in 2009 I read about the disappearance of Andrew Gosden, a missing 14 year old school boy. This story struck a chord with me and made me want to do something to help, so I made contact with Andrew’s father and offered to design and send a missing poster to all schools asking them to print it and display it on their school notice boards in the hope that a pupil had spotted Andrew. Sadly it did not succeed in finding Andrew, but from that day onwards I periodically kept tabs on the Missing People Charity and more specifically their FindEveryChild initiative. I felt like there was unfinished business here, and having a 20 month old daughter myself I can appreciate now more than ever how a parent might feel if their child went missing, so I just had to have FindEveryChild on the list.

Charity #2 Name: Stand Against Violence (SAV) What they do: Provide anti-violence workshops and resources to educate pupils about the dangers and consequences of violence. The workshops they deliver equip and inform students in an effective manner, with the aim to save lives. Why we picked them: Being a client from our early days, we’ve watched as Stand Against Violence have grown as their important message has been shared in schools. However, it is the core story behind the charity that made our decision to work with SAV a no brainer. Stand Against Violence (SAV) was set up in 2005 by Adam Fouracre following the tragic murder of his 17-year-old brother Lloyd Fouracre. Lloyd was tragically beaten to death in the street by a gang of youths, and since that day Adam has dedicated his whole life to making sure other children in schools will never experience such tragic circumstances that befell his brother and family.

Charity #3 Name: Anti-Bullying Alliance What they do: Present ‘Anti-Bullying Week’, provide schools with anti-bullying resources and visit schools to educate children about the dangers and consequences of bullying in schools and online. Why we picked them: When considering all of our charity options there was one issue that we were all able to agree that is notoriously associated with school children; bullying. So we decided one of the three charities’ aims was to eradicate bullying and create safer environments in which children and young people can live, grow, play and learn. The Anti-Bullying Alliance with their nationally recognised ‘Anti-Bullying Week’ and resources/workshops was an ideal choice.

So, there you have it, the big three have been chosen, and we are already working on their edu-marketing strategies. I hope we can help these charities find missing children, eradicate bullying in schools, and educate children on dealing safely with, and evading violent situations, but I’d be kidding myself if I believed Sprint Education will play anything but a tiny part in these charities’ ultimate goals. It is of course the charities and the schools that will make the big difference; all we can do is offer the best of what we can possibly do, promote their message to schools for free, and hope it helps them, and in the process fulfilling part of our own educational and social responsibility.

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