What is it?

The Mark Evison Foundation’s mission is to promote the personal development of young people through non-academic challenge, particularly those with less opportunity. It was set up immediately following the death of Lt Mark Evison, who sustained mortal wounds in Helmand, Afghanistan in May 2009. He was trying to get his platoon to safety, and his story inspires many of our young applicants.

The Foundation offer non-academic awards to Yr. 12s (17-year old’s) in London state schools. Students are invited (individually or in groups) to do anything they want to do as long as it is a substantial challenge for them at their level. They must research it, plan and cost it, and carry it out adult-free: they offer planning advice, risk-assessment and expenses funding of up to £500 per application. We want them to do what they want to do, to take control and use their initiative and energy independently.

But even if they do not get an award, students gain substantially from the planning process as it is demanding and new to them, and altogether about 2800 students showed interest and attended their sessions, and 600 applications were submitted from nearly 2000 students, who have directly benefitted from the process. The average granted in legitimate expenses per application is £300, or £100 per student, which is excellent value considering the personal impact on students. The maximum available is £500.

To find out more information, please visit their homepage at:

https://www.markevisonfoundation.org/

Mark Evison at Rooks Heath Sixth Form:

In 2022, which was our first year working with the foundation, we had one group that were extremely dedicated in their planning efforts and were successfully awarded funding to complete their challenge. This was project was efficaciously completed by Arjun, Larry and Shajigan on their ‘Wales hike’.

Here is some of what they had to say about their experience:

“It was a fun trip full of experiences, we had not travelled to Wales before, especially on an independent trip and we are glad we got this opportunity. All 3 of us found this a valuable experience as we learnt a lot of new things. We had to make our own travel arrangements and make sure it was budgeted to the lowest cost possible, so there was lots of walking before our main hike even started. All part of the challenge! On the first day we were only allowed to check in at 5 so we decided to do a hike to pass time. After that hike we made our way to the accommodation. Our trip and first stay at the place went well. The next day we had a hike near the mountains, but we faced some challenges with the harsh weather conditions. We met new people during this time and felt happy that we were able to experience this. Overall, our trip went splendidly, and we learnt a lot from it. But most importantly we enjoyed our time together in an area outside our comfort zone. Some of the things we got out of it were map reading skills, communicating and working as a team”.