As part of the 25^th birthday celebrations of the Jack Petchey Foundation, the Foundation are creating an archive of all things Sir Jack Petchey! This includes photographs, diaries, publications, certificates, and many more, relating to his businesses, the charity, and Sir Jack’s personal life. My name is Katy, and I am the archivist with the fascinating job of delving into Sir Jack Petchey’s life.

On the first of every month throughout 2024 I will be offering a glimpse into that archive through a series of blogs. I’ll be picking out some of the key artefacts that tell the story of Sir Jack and the Foundation. Join us for that journey as we discuss the third item!

Object:

Annual Report 2001

One of the tasks when creating a Jack Petchey Foundation archive is to catalogue records relating to the operational side of the organisation. This can include financial and staffing records, as well as reports. Reports are an interesting way to see how the organisation has grown over the years. In this blog, we are looking at the year 2001, when a huge milestone was reached: It was the first time the Foundation invested over £1 million in a year!

Context:

Annual reports outline how an organization is meeting its primary objectives from an operational side – as in, how our money is invested. For JPF, that means how we are celebrating and rewarding the achievements of young people each year, investing in them and their youth organisations, and how plans for the following year may turn out.

This 2001 report highlights that the Achievement Award Scheme grew significantly from 1st January to 31^st December 2001. We can also see that £1,001,000 was in clubs, schools, and youth groups to enable young people to achieve their full potential and contribute to society. Remember, the Foundation only launched in September 1999, so it grew very quickly.

By 2001, the Jack Petchey Achievement Award Scheme was firmly established in east London and west Essex, with 98% of secondary schools in the area participating in the programme. The Foundation still hadn’t expanded to cover the whole of London and Essex, though – it was only in 2007 that this milestone was reached.

Relevance to the Foundation

If we compare this report to the latest report celebrating 25 years, you can see how much the Foundation has continued to grow. Compared to the Foundation investing £1 million in young people in 2001, the Foundation now annually invests over £10 million each year. On the Achievement Award Scheme, over 235,000 young people have been recognised to date – and that’s only one of JPF’s many schemes and programmes!

Altogether, the Jack Petchey Foundation has invested over £170 million in the 25 years that it has been established, benefitting over 1,170,000 young people! Not only do these reports evidence each year’s achievements, they can be used to track the Foundation’s growth. They also help us to see when and where milestones have been reached, and any celebrations or special events that relate to them.

Are you one in a million? Have you won a Jack Petchey Achievement Award or taken part in any of our programmes? If you have an inspiring story to share with other young people, we’d love to feature you. Get in touch now at pr@jackpetchey.org.uk.

You can also read the Foundation’s latest annual Impact Report here, while here is a special report outlining the full 25-year history of the charity.

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