Millennium Point Charitable Trust Announces £30m Landmark in STEAM Support
The Millennium Point Charitable Trust has announced it has reached a landmark £30m in STEAM support to organisations across the West Midlands over the last seven years – including £4.98m in the last financial year alone.
Opened in 2001, Millennium Point is a landmark public building in the Eastside of Birmingham city centre. Inside, it is home to 17 versatile event spaces including a 354-capacity Auditorium, meeting rooms and offices, and tenants, including ThinkTank and Birmingham City University (BCU).
Commercial activity that takes place in the Millennium Point building feeds back into the Millennium Point Charitable Trust. This enables the charity to donate to, invest in, and facilitate STEAM-related projects, events and initiatives in the West Midlands. This has included over £2.7m in STEAM grants to schools, not-for-profits and charities in Greater Birmingham and the Wider West Midlands.
In addition, the trust funds £16,650 in STEAM degree scholarships annually, in partnership with Birmingham City University. To date, scholarships have totalled over £83,000.
Abbie Vlahakis, CEO of Millennium Point said: “Promoting STEAM education across the region is what we do – increasing the opportunities for the next generation via some of the most exciting career paths available.
“As a meeting and events space, the last 18 months has been incredibly challenging, but it’s fantastic that we have continued throughout to contribute to the West Midlands’ myriad of exciting STEAM projects and initiatives.”
The trust has also announced an extension to the deadline for applications to the Millennium Point Charitable Trust STEAM Grants Programme 2022, which is now 5pm on Friday December 17th.
Paul Hughes, Schools Manager at the Aston Villa Foundation, commented: “The STEAM grant we received from the Millennium Point Trust funded our innovative STEAM Stars project, which has allowed us to add a new dimension to our provision and provide children, teachers and schools the opportunity to embark on their STEAM education journey helping to develop skills of the future and make a real difference.’’
With STEAM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) funding grants of up to £20,000 available, the trust has moved the deadline to give more organisations time to apply for money that can often be life-changing for young people and their future careers.
The latest round of funding in 2021 saw a wide range of successful, creative STEAM projects – from a proposal to build a fully operational light aircraft to STEAM training toolkits for schools.
Abbie Vlahakis added: “Every year we are impressed and inspired by the applications we receive for our small grants programme, and this year has been no exception – and I’d urge any organisation looking to fund an exciting STEAM project in 2022 that there’s still time for their idea to be considered.”
To apply for a grant, please click here.
Find more interesting content from Millennium Point over at our news section, or follow us for daily updates on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn with @MillenniumPoint. Millennium Point is a landmark public building and multi-award-winning events venue in the Eastside of Birmingham City centre. Profits from our commercial activity are invested by the Millennium Point Charitable Trust into projects, events and initiatives which support the growth of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEAM) and education in the West Midlands.
