Sponsor Accelerate
Can you help?
Accelerate is a pioneering education and mentoring programme aimed at increasing diversity in the architecture profession. It gives sixth form students, from under-represented backgrounds, the confidence, skills and connections needed to make strong applications to study architecture and other built environment courses. Accelerate helps address bias in who gets to shape the cities we live in.
The pandemic has hit much of Open City’s work including Accelerate which has lost core funding. We are therefore looking for new partners to support the programme with financial support and mentoring.
“Accelerate is making a meaningful contribution to diversifying architecture. It is opening a path to the profession that for young people from non-traditional and ethnic-minority backgrounds has been closed.”
— Sir David Adjaye OBE
About Accelerate
Accelerate is an annual programme that champions wider participation and diversity in the industry and was developed and established in 2012 by Open City, in partnership with The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. This year the course will be hosted by three Universities: UCL, UAL and Kingston University.
Open City will recruit 90 young people from across London and from a diversity of backgrounds who have an interest in the built environment. Within 12 skills development workshops we work with the students to give them a real insight into what it’s like to study architecture and related subjects, what it’s like to work in built environment industries and how cities are designed and built.
We deliver skill development workshops, mentoring sessions and work placements to support these young people in successfully gaining places at top universities. In delivering the programme we hope that these young people will draw on their diverse experiences, personalities and creative skills to shape an exciting future for our city that is responsive to and inclusive of everybody’s needs and backgrounds.
Visit the Accelerate homepage to find out more about the programme.
Supporting Accelerate will help us to:
Find and mentor 90 Accelerate participants on a year-long programme of workshops, placements, visits, interview preparation and portfolio development.
Deliver an end of year exhibition celebrating the work of the Accelerate participants.
Provide placements at architects’ practices for Accelerate participants during their school or university holidays.
Deliver CV-writing workshops with industry experts for Accelerate participants and graduates looking to secure their part one placements.
Deliver an annual celebration event for Accelerate participants, potential employees, industry experts and programme partners focusing on the impact of Accelerate, careers development and widening diversity within the sector.
Capture the work and success stories of Accelerate in an annual end of year publication that provides a valuable tool for Accelerate graduates to use in interviews and inform future years of the course.
In return, we can offer:
Depending on the level of the contribution, we are able to offer Accelerate supporters:
Visibility across all Open City programmes including Open House London.
Opportunities to present at and contribute to Accelerate public events.
Invitations to all Open City events including special project launches and receptions including Open House, and the annual Thornton Lecture.
Branding on all Accelerate media (print, digital, live event, including Accelerate exhibition).
Social media coverage throughout the year.
Acknowledgement, information and links on Open City’s website.
Sponsorship levels
Small Practice
£1,000 sponsors one student
Support Accelerate with a tax-deductible donation which will go directly to supporting young people from under-represented backgrounds access built environment careers. Your practice will be credited with a logo on all Accelerate web pages and programme materials. If your practice is also able to make a donation of time, we are currently looking for more Accelerate mentors and tutors to support the participants throughout the year with mentoring sessions.
Get in touch about becoming a supporter of Accelerate
Medium Practice
£5,000
If you are able to go one-step further, support Accelerate by becoming a Medium practice supporter. We will use your contribution to support young people from under-represented backgrounds access built environment careers and develop the Accelerate programme to reach more people. Your practice will be credited with a logo on all Accelerate web pages and programme materials and across across all Open House and Open City platforms.
We are currently looking for more Accelerate mentors and tutors to participate in the programme directly by supporting our students throughout the year with mentoring sessions.
Get in touch about becoming a supporter of Accelerate
Headline Supporter
Please get in touch to discuss your contribution level.
With headline support we will be able to accomplish some long-term objectives to make Accelerate more impactful and sustainable. Your company would receive all the benefits listed above and be credited as the headline sponsor on the following new programmes:
Appointing an education advisory panel of educationalists, teachers, tutors, architects and others to help steer the future direction of the whole Open City education programme.
Appoint a media partner to publicise and promote the Accelerate programme to achieve better media communication and improved coverage across the industry.
Enhance the programme content, including a mini-lecture series by industry experts available to all Accelerate participants and broadcast publicly.
Improve the resources given to students.
Hold a major event with all Accelerate past participants and mentors celebrating the programme and the many people who have contributed to it over the years — a landmark moment in the story of architecture’s struggle to be a more inclusive industry.
Develop an Alumni Network, which we hope will provide a valuable resource to Accelerate students by providing work placements and mentoring during the long road to qualification.
Extend the programme to include a wider variety of skills including landscape, engineering and property.
Develop proposals to see Accelerate rolled out across all London Universities.
Get in touch about becoming a Headline Supporter of Accelerate
