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Employee Volunteers Making a Difference - 2009
Through our corporate volunteering programme, many employee volunteers get involved in the work we do each year and help us to make a meaningful difference in the lives of local people living in east London.
2009 Corporate Volunteering Projects
Feb 7th/8th - Barclays Capital Hosts Pensioner's and Young People at O2 for Strictly Come Dancing
Two volunteers from Barclays Capital took a group from our Pensioners Club out for an evening at the O2 centre to watch Strictly Come Dancing, one of their favourite TV shows! Another volunteer and her daughter hosted a group of young people from our Education Links projects the second evening. The older people and education group enjoyed the show and had a lovely time out with the volunteers from Barclays Capital and were so grateful for their warm hospitality all evening long.
Feb 25th - Bank of New York Mellon Hosts a Business Mentoring Afternoon
5 volunteers from The Bank of New York's Wealth Management group hosted an afternoon business mentoring day for 7 young people from the Community Links New Deal programme. The young people had the opportunity to learn all about how to improve their CVs and fine tune their interview skills from the expert volunteers.
March 5th - Bank of New York Mellon Apprentice Challenge with Auction My Stuff
5 volunteers from The Bank of New York Mellon teamed up with 5 youth volunteers at Auction My Stuff to undertake an Apprentice-style Team Challenge! Teams competed to choose their lots and list items for sale on eBay. They then watched the auctions close together over lunch a week later to see which team has raised the most money for Community Links!
March 9th - Investec Football Workshop with S-team
2 volunteers from Investec joined the S-Team, which runs estate-based sports programmes for disadvantaged young people, in running the Monday evening football session for the Hoskins Youth Club at Newham Leisure Centre.
March 16, 18, 20 - Careers Week Workshops at Education Links
10 volunteers from Accenture, 11 volunteers from The Bank of New York Mellon and 14 volunteers from UBS hosted an exciting series of workshops for young people as part of Careers Week in Education Links! On Monday, the Accenture team hosted two CV workshops, on Wednesday, the BNYM team hosted two CV Revision / Interview Skills workshops and on Friday the UBS team hosted two Mock Interview sessions at their offices.
April 15th - Investec Takes Kids from Hoskins to London Wetland Centre
6 volunteers from Investec took a group of 30 kids from Community Links Hoskins Centre out to the London Wetland Centre during the Easter Holidays. The children had a chance to do some hands-on learning during the pond dipping session, explore the wetlands and see all of the plants and animals that make their homes there and play at the adventure playground!
April 30th & May 1st - Bank of New York Mellon Hosts CV 1:1 Workshops with Education Links
Over the course of 2 days, volunteers from The Bank of New York Mellon hosted 1-to-1 CV workshops as a follow-up to the Careers Week Workshops with young people from Education Links. The young people had a finished CV in their hands at the end of the session and then had a chance to go up to the top of the tower to their Canary Wharf offices for a lovely lunch!
May 13th - 4th Annual Tea Dance and Karaoke Party for Pensioners
14 volunteers from Goldman Sachs Community Teamworks hosted the 4th Annual Tea Dance and Karaoke Party for 70 local elderly people who attend various Community Links' pensioners clubs. The volunteers set-up for the party in the morning and then hosted the pensioners in the afternoon by serving them a lovely lunch, plenty of drinks and even joining them for a sing and a dance to their favourite 1920's tunes!
May 22nd - 2nd Annual Education Links Sports Day
19 volunteers from The Bank of New York Mellon and Clifford Chance joined forces to participate in the 2nd Annual Education Links Sports Day at Barrington Fields! The Kings of Squash were the champions for the second year in a row! Volunteers had a chance to take part in the teams and compete alongside the young people and also to help run the various sports workshops on the day.
May 27th - Standard Bank Undertook a Team Building Activity with Asta Centre
5 volunteers from Standard Bank came along to do some team building activities with the children and youth groups at the Asta Centre! Kids had a chance to work on small teams to build the tallest tower from spaghetti and marshmellows and then competed to build a structure which could carry a pack of paper from one end to the other!
May 28th - Bank of New York Mellon Hosts Zoo Trip for Playhut Kids
7 volunteers from The Bank of New York Mellon took 13 children, including 5 with special needs, from the Community Links Playhut to London Zoo for the day! The children enjoyed seeing the lions, tigers and penguins while learning about different types of animals from around the world. Volunteers accompanied the children in small groups as they adventured around the zoo.
June 5th - Ricoh Team Day 2009 at City Farm
As part of 4th Annual Ricoh Eco Action Day, nearly 200 volunteers from Ricoh Europe contributed their time and skills to helping Community Links brighten up Newham City Farm! The volunteer team did a fabulous job of cleaning up grounds and pathways, building a new market garden including raised beds and greenhouses, assembling brand new picnic benches, impressively painting animal stables and buildings, children’s playhouse, stunning murals and the surrounding fences. The makeover really brought the farm to life!
June 5th - ARAMARK UK Community Day at Arc in the Park
100 volunteers from ARAMARK transformed the side garden at Arc in the Park by building a stage, reviving the flower beds, building a new pagoda, painting lovely murals and brightening up the outside woodwork in the garden. Volunteers braved the wet weather to turn the outside space into a thriving activity centre for children to enjoy for years to come!
June 15th & 16th - Standard Bank Team Building Workshops with Education Links
Over 2 days, 50 young people from across all of our Education Links classes came together to undertake team building activities led by volunteers from Standard Bank! The students had to work together in small teams to build a pulley system out of large lego blocks, which could carry a handbag. The young people competed while learning how to work together, listen to each other and lead their group to victory!
July 9th - Nomura Graduates Brighten Up City Farm
32 graduates and 4 staff from Nomura joined us to volunteer at City Farm for the day, helping to paint fencing, tidy allotment areas and raised beds, build a greenhouse and to put up murals around the centre!
July 15th - Pensioners Trip to Tower of London
Nine volunteers from Goldman Sachs took 23 pensioners from Community Links out to the Tower of London for the day to see the Queen's precious crown jewels and a venue that is filled with hundreds of years of British history. They enjoyed touring the grounds and having a lovely lunch together at the Tower.
August 5th - 3rd Annual Children's Sports Fun Day
14 volunteers from Goldman Sachs Community Teamworks joined our S-Team in hosting a sports day for nearly 130 children across our summer projects! Children participated in 10 sporting challenges including wheelbarrow race, egg and spoon race, relay, skipping, football dribbling, basketball shoot out, bouncy castle obstacle, three-legged race, sack race and tug of war!