Hamilton created Mission 44, which has aims to improve diversity in F1 and the wider motorsport world, in 2021 in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter protests witnessed across the world in 2020 – investing £20m of his own money at that stage.
Mission 44 is aimed at improving education and opportunities overall for black students in the UK, as well as improving diversity and representation generally across motorsport and STEM industries for underserved groups in society.
It is also supported by Hamilton’s Mercedes squad, UK broadcaster Sky and Swiss bank UBS, with Hamilton ultimately hoping it will expand to help people around the globe as opposed to its current set-up providing funding to organisations in his home country.
Mission 44 CEO Jason Arthur has now set out the key aims the charity will focus on for the coming 12 months, after growing from having “one grantee”, per Arthur’s latest blog post on Mission 44’s website, to it now supporting “23 brilliant organisations based across the country”.
Arthur, writing to provide an update at the start of the new financial term, states that this year Mission 44 will be dedicated to concentrating “further into our value of ‘Bravery’” as “our partners, young people and funders have consistently encouraged us to be bold and disruptive in our approach to grant-making, communications and advocacy”.
The charity will therefore be “engaging in participatory grant-making with our newly recruited Youth Advisory Board [and] empowering its members to shape and take decisions across our strategy”.
Source: Autosport