Lewis Hamilton's charitable foundation has launched a two-year partnership with Sky to address the disproportionately high rate of school exclusions amongst Black students in the UK. Sky will donate over £1million to Mission 44 as part of the company's £30m commitment towards tackling systemic racism. Hamilton established Mission 44 last year in order to empower and support young people from underserved communities in progressing into key sectors and professions, as well as creating more inclusion in the education system. The Mercedes driver has welcomed Sky's support. "Understanding and addressing issues that lead to young people being excluded from school is really important to me," Hamilton said. "Having experienced unfair exclusions during my time at school, I understand how upsetting and stressful it can be. "When we launched Mission 44 last year, implementing initiatives such as these was a personal priority and I am grateful to have the support of Sky to help Mission 44 take action. "Through this partnership, I hope we can deliver meaningful change by arming schools with the proper strategies to support and empower young Black students, instead of giving up on them."
Building on the work of The Hamilton Commission
The partnership between Sky and Misson 44 will include various initiatives, such as investing in interventions that reduce school exclusion rates, with research from Mission 44 showing that Black Caribbean students are 2.5 times more likely to be permanently excluded compared with White students. These initiatives have been formed based on the findings of The Hamilton Commission report . Published last year, the report set out 10 actionable recommendations to help address the issues limiting Black students' progression into engineering careers and barriers in the motorsport industry. Sky Group's CEO, Dana Strong, added: "We are passionate about tackling racial injustice and welcome the opportunity to partner with Sir Lewis Hamilton and Mission 44 to champion and empower young people. "We hope our partnership will support Mission 44's work to improve the experience of Black pupils and support them to succeed at school and beyond."
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