About Us

The Ormiston Trust believes in a future where all young people can lead fulfilling lives. By being equipped with the right tools and support, young people and their families can become empowered to make a positive difference on the issues that affect their lives, their communities, and broader society. 

Over the last 40 years, we have been providing added value support, resources, and funding for projects and institutions to achieve these goals. We are proud supporters of Ormiston Families and sponsors of three Multi Academy Trusts – Ormiston Academies Trust, Gateway Learning Community, and Birmingham Ormiston Academies—which together support over 40,000 young people. We know that by partnering with and investing in schools, charities, and organisations, we can make a difference together.

One of our key programmes over the last six years has been uniting young people with a shared belief in the power of youth social action. This programme takes a lead from young people, who can both develop their skills, resilience, and wellbeing and create change to tackle issues they care about. 

Young people should never be underestimated, but they need our help. Please get in touch with our Head of Education, Aneela Bukhari, or our CEO, James Murray, if you would like to discuss working together.

Improving Life Chances

Improving Life Chances
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Latest News

Latest News

Latest news from our partnerships across the UK, who are delivering high quality programmes to support young people and families.
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YSA Resources

YSA Resources

A space dedicated for teachers and students to access resources on youth social action and skills.
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#We Will Campaign

The Youth Charter

The Ormiston #WeWill youth social action campaign empowers young people to help others, use their voice and develop critical life skills.

Founded Organisations

Since it began in 1969, Ormiston Trust has founded four more organisations: 

  • Ormiston Families 
  • Ormiston Academies Trust 
  • Gateway Learning Community
  • Birmingham Ormiston Academy

Our Causes

Areas We Support

Impact

Assessing the impact on the COVID-19 crisis on vulnerable groups across our network

38,000

young people and families supported

350

projects funded
since 2015

£12m

in funding granted since 2015

Where We Work

Funded Projects and Schools

Ormiston Trust is a national charity which funds projects all over the country with many delivered by OAT, BOA, GLC and OF.

Partner Organisations

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Mailing List

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Recent Blog

Latest news stories from across the Ormiston Trust network.

James is the Chief Executive officer of Ormiston Trust. He has worked as an organisation advisor in the private, public and voluntary sectors, helping organisations to grow sustainably over the medium to long term. He has helped charities for over 20 years in the fields of strategic development, partnership setup, programme and project delivery.

Poppy is the Youth Engagement and Partnership Officer at Ormiston Trust, responsible for coordinating our team of Young Advisors and developing effective working relationships with external organisations. She is currently studying ‘Politics, International Studies and Global Sustainable Development’ at Warwick University and previously worked as Board Advisor for a non-profit youth-focused organisation in Croydon. She has experience in activism work – attending COP26 with environmental education company Force of Nature and had been a member of the UK Youth Parliament for many years, speaking on environmental issues in the House of Commons for its ‘Make Your Mark’ campaign.

Genéa is the Communications and Events Coordinator at Ormiston Trust. She plays an integral role in overseeing the communications and media strategy – along with leading the content development for internal and external comms and PR across the Trust and the #WeWill programme. As well as supporting all event planning across campaigns, including the delivery of comms workshops with the Youth Advisory Council. 

She has worked predominantly in broadcasting PR, comms and editorial and now works as a narrative designer alongside her work since completing her MA in Narrative Environments at Central Saint Martins. 

Fiona is the Grants Assistant at Ormiston Trust and in her role she supports the Grants team. Previously, she worked in the City for 10 years, firstly as a dealer on the floor of the London Stock Exchange and then as an equity salestrader.  

Samia is a business and ICT Teacher with over 20 years of leadership experience in Education, working with leaders from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 5. Her experience has ranged from working as an Acting Head Teacher to a Deputy for an Education Trust. Some of the key highlights from her education career have included building schools and setting up education provisions, including a teaching school, and winning several National awards. Samia is passionate about ensuring the young people in her care have the best possible experience and has always led by example by sending her own children to the schools she has been a part of.

Ray leads the youth engagement, partnerships and fundraising work streams at Ormiston Trust, in particular having strategic oversight of how we as an organisation can embed the voices of our young people in everything we do, and how we can work with partner organisations to maximise shared outcomes and opportunities.

His background is in community project development and funding, having worked with charities, schools, and local authorities in East Anglia to develop a plethora of projects including primary-secondary school transition, award-winning youth amateur theatre, social prescribing in rural GP practices, and youth commissioning boards, for which he was recognised as a Prime Minister’s Point of Light.

Ray is a global health and medicine graduate, alongside his work at Ormiston, he is a hospital doctor and public health academic. He is also an #iWill Ambassador and national #iWill Partnership Board member.

Anne is Finance Manager at Ormiston Trust and has worked for Ormiston Trust for over 30 years, overseeing the property portfolio and asset management. She combines her work at the Trust with voluntary community work and has raised thousands of pounds to enhance leisure and education opportunities for young people in disadvantaged communities. 

Karlene is Finance Manager at Ormiston Trust and has been handling the Financial Management of Ormiston Trust since 2014. Her background is in Financial Services with 20 years working in the industry and she has a passion for systems, processes and spreadsheets to enable good finance management. 

Aneela is the Head of Education at Ormiston Trust. Prior to joining Ormiston Trust, she was Head of Professional Development and School Improvement at Beaconhouse Group, overseeing the professional development of over 8000 teachers and implementing systems for school improvement across 200 international schools, in the Southeast region. Prior to this, she worked at Universities in the UAE, where she taught on the Bachelor of Education and Diploma programmes, and previous to this she was a Lead Advisor for Nord Anglia Education services, working with head teachers and principals to raise educational standards across schools in Abu Dhabi.

Melissa is a Programme Management Officer at Ormiston Trust. In her role she supports the #WeWill programme management, and works closely with the monitoring & evaluation, social action toolkit & skills, and youth engagement teams. She completed her undergraduate degree in International Development at the University of Sussex, and her postgraduate degree in Global Health and Development at UCL. Over the last eight years, she has dedicated much of her time to working with non-profit organisations in the UK, Nigeria, China, and Tanzania.