Charity and Communities Champions 2023 Highlights
In FY23, we have donated £6250 of our emergency response fund to UNICEF’s Syria and Turkey earthquake appeal, as well as £37,500 as part of our ongoing partnership with PADI AWARE Foundation™ and £5000 to MindOut to support mental health in the LGBTQ+ community - part of our Pride Month activities. We also volunteered 104 hours with Sebby's Corner, making sure all kids have a gift for Christmas.
STEM organisations
Being a skincare brand dedicated to innovating science-based products, investment and awareness in STEM education and learning is part of our DNA. At Medik8, we’re proud to say that ALL of our formulation scientists, research and regulatory team are incredible, trailblazing women. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to produce the ground-breaking products and technologies that put Medik8 at the forefront of scientific skincare.
In 2023 we’ve proudly supported two STEM organisations; Stemettes in the UK and STEMforHER in the US. Our donations will help support mentoring, qualification academies and STEM programmes that keep girls, young women and non-binary people engaged to launch future STEM-related careers.
PADI Aware Foundation™ Partnership
In February 2023, we signed our first charity partnership with PADI AWARE Foundation™. This was a natural choice for us as we share PADI AWARE’s mission to drive local action for global ocean conservation through a comprehensive, science-backed and results-driven approach. The ocean plays a hugely important role in carbon sequestration and climate regulation, as well as fostering biodiversity and supporting coastal communities. Medik8 is very proud to have partnered with PADI AWARE Foundation™ to support their amazing work caring for our precious oceans. Read more about PADI AWARE’s work here.
Supporting PADI Aware's Mission
Our ongoing partnership with PADI Aware Foundation™ will begin with us sponsoring 4 core projects through their Mission Hub Community Grant Programme. This programme is a cornerstone initiative designed to accelerate participation, education and advocacy for ocean protection. It provides direct financial resources to PADI Mission Hubs and community-based, non-profit organisations to address key threats to the ocean such as climate change, marine debris, marine habitat loss and marine species decline.
Community Grant Project #1 Kosamare (Greece)
This hands-on initiative seeks to engage the local community to monitor and restore seagrass (Posidonia) meadows in the Mediterranean Sea. Now in the second of three phases, the project is taking place in four different bays off the coast of Kefalonia. The ultimate goals for this project are to significantly increase the seagrass meadows (a blue carbon habitat), increase biodiversity through associated species that are reliant on seagrass beds, and to advance protection measures for the wider Ionian sea. Learn more about the project here.
Community Grant Project #2 - Maui (Hawaii)
This collaborative project seeks to unite local non-profit organisations, government and 7 PADI dive centres under a shared mission of mooring maintenance, underwater cleanups and citizen science monitoring - across 50 ocean sites. The purpose is to track and remove marine debris in order to decrease the risk of entanglement to critically vulnerable species such as sea turtles, while also protecting critical marine habitats, including coral reefs. This initiative will activate citizen participation and all data will be shared with local governments and non-profit organisations to better inform future protection measures surrounding marine animals and their habitats.
Community Grant Project #3 - Florida Keys (USA)
This particular ocean-saving initiative comes from Medik8’s third grantee, I.CARE (Islamorada Conservation and Restoration Education). The group hosted its inaugural Annual Trash Derby; a marine debris collection marathon which lasted for 72 hours and removed a huge 5761 kilograms of debris from both the land and sea across the Florida Keys area. The event was supported by the local government and all debris was carefully recorded in order to better inform decision-makers on how to stop marine debris at its source moving forward. Over 180 volunteers took part in the event, which marked the start of a community commitment to keep the waters in Florida Keys clean.
