THEY were two countries he called home and now two years' on from Sir Sean Connery's death his family have revealed a foundation has been set up in his name to help projects in both Scotland and the Bahamas.
The Sean Connery Foundation has been created by his estate to honour Sir Sean’s legacy through strategic grant-making.
The aim of the foundation is to accelerate positive change in areas of interest and importance to Sir Sean and his family, with an emphasis on education and ocean conservation.
Read more: Dyslexia and long-lasting mental health issues laid bare in hard-hitting film
James Bond star, Sir Sean died on October 31, 2020, and had been diagnosed with dementia.
Among those to benefit from his foundation are St Andrews University's Scottish Oceans Institute, the Scottish Youth Film Foundation, the Scottish International Education Trust and Dyslexia Scotland.
Stephane Connery, Sir Sean’s son and Chairman of the foundation, said: “After two years of reflection, research and discernment, we have chosen to focus on the communities that Sean loved and on issues that reflect his beliefs, passions, and legacy. Above all, Sean believed that education was a force-multiplier and was most concerned that children from disadvantaged backgrounds, like his own, be given opportunities to succeed. Thanks to Sean’s gift, we dearly hope that our family’s grant-making will help young Scots and Bahamians, along with our oceans, to thrive.”
Speaking about the recipients, the actor's son Jason said each group is doing such important work with integrity, excellence and commitment.
"These are the values my dad passed on to us, his family, and through the foundation, we hope to spread values that inspire many for the years to come. We look forward to championing each organisation as they work to enrich young people's lives and protect our planet," he added.
Read more: Scottish Women's Institutes re-emerges as they enter new era
The family has selected Holly Gordon, formerly Chief Impact Officer at Participant, as the Founding Executive Director of the foundation.
“Holly is a strategic and effective leader who brings her passion for community-driven social impact and a wealth of cross-sectoral and international experience to the role. We are grateful to have Holly guiding our family’s efforts,” added Stephane.
The foundation is on track to commit £6 million in grants by the end of 2022.
Sir Sean's family has teamed up with Dyslexia Scotland and the City of Edinburgh Council to support two exciting educational programmes designed to help dyslexic children and young people reach their potential.
While Sir Sean, who was born in Edinburgh, was not himself dyslexic, learning to read was life-changing for him, and he was passionate about sharing his enthusiasm for reading with others.
Cathy Magee, Chief Executive of Dyslexia Scotland said, “I am delighted and extremely grateful to the Sean Connery Foundation for their support with these two exceptionally generous grants. Both the Tutor Bursary Fund, which will enable our specialist dyslexia tutors to provide 2,500 hours of tutoring to children and young people most in need across Scotland, and the ground-breaking Dyslexia initiative in partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council, will make a significant difference to children and young people with dyslexia in Scotland.”
Councillor Joan Griffiths, Education, Children and Families Convener for the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “This is an amazing gift from the Sean Connery Foundation which is resulting in a significant increase in our support for individual learners, with literacy difficulties/dyslexia in all our schools.
“Thanks to this partnership work with the Connery family and Dyslexia Scotland, we are also increasing our staff training and developing groups for parents so they feel more confident and informed about how to support their child’s needs.”
Full list of Sir Sean Connery Foundation recipients
St Andrews University: The Connery Foundation is partnering with the St Andrews’ Scottish Oceans Institute to bring together postgraduate and undergraduate students from Scotland and the Bahamas. The students will conduct collaborative ocean research projects on-site with The Bahamas Marine Mammal Research Organization.
Scottish Youth Film Foundation (SYFF): The Sean Connery Foundation grant increases operational capacity, allowing SYFF to expand screen education efforts in three areas of focus: film education in schools, film outreach projects that reach students in need and the execution of their annual youth film festival.
Scottish International Education Trust: The Sean Connery Foundation grant provides resources for eight additional grantees, supporting the Scottish International Education Trust in its mission to give financial help to Scottish men and women who show exceptional ability and promise in their academic field and find themselves at a critical moment of need on their educational journey.
Dyslexia Scotland: In partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council, the Sean Connery Dyslexia Initiative will help schools provide additional dyslexia and literacy support for children, both at the school and at home. The programme is focused on both learners and educators. Every learner involved will benefit from three sessions per week of personalised or group support from specially trained educators. In addition, the educators will learn how best to respond to the needs of learners with dyslexia and those with other literacy difficulties.
Lyford Cay Foundations: The Lyford Cay Foundations FOCUS programme is an out-of-school enrichment programme aimed at college readiness and providing students with demonstrated potential and need an access to education. The grant supports the mission of the organisation and expands FOCUS’ reach into additional Bahamian communities.
Bahamas Reef Environmental Educational Foundation: BREEF runs the Bahamian chapter of the Eco-Schools Program, which addresses the lack of ocean literacy. The grant will support BREEF’s mission to expand access to ocean education.
The Cape Eleuthera Foundation: The Sean Connery Foundation grant supports the Bahamas Environmental Steward Scholars (BESS) Programme, a partnership between The Island School and BREEF, that invests in the next generation of Bahamian leaders who will play an important role in the social, environmental and economic stability of the Bahamas.
Girl Rising: Girl Rising is focused on girls’ education and empowerment and works for a world where all girls can learn, thrive and rise to their capacities. The Sean Connery Foundation grant supports the organisation's Future Rising Fellows programme, which demonstrates the power of girls’ education by supporting young female leaders across sectors who are tackling climate change in their communities, including in the Bahamas.
SWIFT Swimming: The Sean Connery Foundation grant supports the ‘Let’s Swim–Bahamas’ programme that works with public schools to provide water safety lessons and ocean literacy workshops across the country. More than 5000 Bahamian students have participated in the programme to date.
Additional Connery family grants, already announced, include:
The Race Against Dementia: Founded by Sean Connery’s friend and three times F1 World Champion, Sir Jackie Stewart OBE and based in the UK, Race Against Dementia is striving to catalyse faster progress and even fresher and bigger thinking to deliver life-changing advancement of preventative treatments and cures for dementia. The $1 million commitment has provided an annual gift of $100,000 for 10 years to support the work carried out by the RAD Dementia Treatment Discovery Hub and elsewhere in Scotland.
Lend a Hand Bahamas: Lend A Hand Bahamas (LAHB) was officially formed in 2014 to address the growing need for more community development "Over-the-Hill" in Nassau, Bahamas. LAHB opened their first community centre in 2018 in Grant’s Town. The Connery family’s generous contribution will go toward a recording studio in Lend a Hand Bahamas’ soon-to-come second community centre. It will serve as a place for members of the Over-the-Hill and Downtown neighbourhoods to record music, make broadcasts, play and record instruments, tape the spoken word and much more.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel