The School of Communication Arts (SCA) and Global advertising agency and SCA Partner, Grey, have announced the launch of their joint scholarship initiative, entitled Next of Kin. The scholarship will provide one care leaver with an all fees paid place on SCA’s 10-month portfolio school course every year.

Next of Kin has been created by SCA alumni and Grey London’s Naomi (Gnome) Taylor, who came through foster care and won a scholarship to the Portfolio School back in 2016. Naomi went on to win a Black Pencil at the D&AD Awards and graduated in 2018 having spent an extra year on the course. She spent time at R/GA and Mr President and is now a full-time creative at Grey London.

Taylor has launched this initiative to help others from similar backgrounds to realise their potential and succeed in the world of creative advertising.

“A few years ago Next of Kin was a dream.” says Naomi Taylor, creative at Grey, “I wasn’t in a position to do it justice. But now with the backing of Grey, and Laura in particular, it’s a reality. Getting into advertising is  hard enough. Getting in when nobody believes in you is almost impossible.”

She continued “Care leavers are angry with the world, we feel let down, unloved and forgotten about. Stats say we should be in prison or dead by the age of 28. But stats can be changed. They will be. I’ve had to do things that I’m not proud of to survive. But it made me who I am. My life gave me a perspective and understanding of people that are often ignored. It’s this difference that makes care leavers perfect for this industry. We know what needs to change, we know how to hack it. Marc and Laura believed in me and now I can believe in others like me.”

The scholarship is launched in addition to SCA and Grey’s extensive diversity & inclusion work together. There is already an SCA’s partner programme that offers full scholarships to those from underprivileged backgrounds, as well as providing mentoring, support, and placement opportunities for students and graduates.

“I’ve always seen it as a competitive advantage that we should endeavour to have at least a third of our students on scholarships. The school stands for diversity in every sense of the word and Gnome taught me the power of diversity when she joined us on a scholarship in 2016” added Marc Lewis, Dean of the School of Communication Arts.

“We are over the moon to be supporting Next of Kin with the SCA. The SCA are an exceptional school who have done so much to widen access to our industry, and Naomi is a perfect example of that. Grey are delighted to be able to support such a talented creative and her organisation in widening that access even further.” added Laura Jordan Bambach, President & CCO UK at Grey London.

Other agencies that join Grey as part of SCA’s extensive partnership network include Adam & Eve DDB,  VCCP, AMV BBDO, Creature, Mother, JKR, Havas, Dentsu MB, Gravity Road, The&Partnership, Specsavers and more.

To find out more about Next of Kin or apply for a scholarship please click here.