LONDON, December 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

BE OPEN, the international think-tank founded by businessperson and philanthropist Elena Baturina to encourage and support creativity and design thinking in various fields of human activities, continues its cooperation with the Mayor's Fund for London as the new lead partner of the City Pitch Leadership programme.

The City Pitch Leadership Programme involves young Londoners and helps them learn new skills while making a real difference to their communities. The programme offers young people the chance to develop important leadership, teamwork, and presentational skills, with professional mentors on hand to help them prepare their pitches. All the projects must present tangible opportunities to improve the life of their communities, and therefore make the city of London a better place for the younger generations through their own effort. By pitching their ideas to a panel of experts at City Hall, the children can secure funding for their projects.

Says BE OPEN's founder Elena Baturina: "We've worked closely with the Mayor's Fund for London for a few years now on projects ranging from a school astronomy initiative to the national London Curriculum programme, and now are very excited for BE OPEN to be supporting another major initiative that helps London's young people to make real differences to their communities and the city in general in meaningful and material ways. The whole ethos of BE OPEN is about inspiring and encouraging people to find creative ways of improving their environments, helping them to make a real change to our lives. We genuinely believe in the transformational potential of younger generations, so the City Pitch Leadership Programme is a perfect fit and one that we are very proud to support."

As part of this year's programme, City Hall together with BE OPEN will also host the Children's Festival on Friday December 1. The Festival will see hundreds young Londoners taking part in exciting and educatory activities at City Hall and other signature locations. London Mayor Sadiq Khan says: "London is the greatest place in the world to grow up - it is incredibly diverse and open, and there is a world of opportunity for everyone. Young Londoners will be the leaders of tomorrow and the London Children's Festival will give hundreds of schoolchildren from across the capital the opportunity to think about how they can help improve our city."

SOURCE BE OPEN Foundation