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Employee Volunteers Making a Difference
Through our corporate volunteering programme, hundreds of employee volunteers from our corporate partners 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. Last year alone, nearly 800 corporate volunteers contributed over 6,000 hours to support Community Links! Below are this year’s projects to date and you can also view projects from 2007.
2008 – Corporate Volunteering Projects
Oct 8th - Morgan Stanley Hosts a Cockney Party for the Pensioner's Club
7 volunteers from Morgan Stanley's Equity Research team joined the Community Links Pensioner's Club for an afternoon to host a Cockney Party! Volunteers helped to set-up for the party and hosted the pensioner's throughout the afternoon by serving meals and drinks and joining them for a sing and dance!
Sept 11/12 - Accenture Volunteers Help with Chain Reaction 
3 volunteers from Accenture shared their skills with LinksUK by helping them to test their new website for Chain Reaction and to assist with their media strategy by contacting various press agencies.
Aug 29th - Fremantle Hosts Tour of The Bill for Arc Youth Club
Young people from Arc in the Park enjoyed a trip to the set of The Bill television programme, organised by corporate supporters and TV production company Fremantle Media. The lucky young people, all Jack Petchey Award winners, enjoyed learning about all of the behind-the-scenes activity on the set of The Bill and enjoyed having the opportunity to meet the tour team and interact with a friendly and energetic group of people from Fremantle.
Aug 6/7 - Accenture Undertakes Research Piece on Special Needs
Vikas from Accenture undertook an important piece of research for the Head of Children's Work on working with children with special needs, particularly those who are deaf and those with autism. This research will help to inform Community Links' future direction in planning services for these children.
Aug 7th - Accenture Completes Extreme Makeover of Asta Centre
21 volunteers from Accenture teamed up with 10 young people from the Asta Youth Club to transform the entire inside of the Asta Centre by freshening it up with a new coat of paint! The young people really enjoyed meeting the friendly team from Accenture and working alongside them to give their centre a fresh look.
Aug 4th - Standard Bank at Victoria Park with Asta Youth
6 volunteers from Standard Bank joined the Asta Youth Club for a sports day at Victoria Park, as part of the summer programme the young people are taking part in. The volunteers generously brought along a variety of sports equipment for the day, which they then donated to the youth club for use in the future.
Aug - Accenture Pro Bono Help for Radio Station License
Jason from the Pro Bono team who undertook the Regeneration project contributed an extra month of his time, thanks to Accenture, to enable Community Links to prepare a license application for a community radio station. This idea grew out of the work he and his team undertook earlier this year on how Community Links might play a role in the regeneration taking place in East London.
Jul 28 - Aug 15 Accenture Summer School with Education: "Expression and Experience"
13 volunteers from Accenture mentored young people as part of the summer school programme with Education Links, which was also sponsored by Accenture. The theme was “Experience and Expression” based on the PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) learning outcomes and young people enjoyed a range of experiences and activities where they could learn and develop.
July 30th - Goldman Hosts Sports Day for Summer Schemes with S-Team
12 volunteers from Goldman Sachs teamed up with the Community Links S-Team to host a Sports Fun Day at Central Park in East Ham for over 100 children from our summer schemes. The children had a chance to participate in a range of fun activities from the egg and spoon race to sack racing to the inflatable obstacle course.
July 16th - Goldman Sachs Takes Pensioners to Kew Gardens
10 volunteers participating in Goldman's Community Teamworks programme hosted a trip to Kew Gardens for 25 older people from the Community Links Pensioner's Club! The group toured the palace and gardens, enjoyed a lovely lunch and had a fabulous time touring the grounds on the tram.
June - Nov Independent Review for the Council on Social Action
4 volunteers from different corporate partner companies including BDO Stoy Hayward, Henderson Global Investors and UBS teamed up to undertake an independent review for the Council on Social Action. The purpose of the review was for the team to undertake an exploratory piece of work to understand how financial incentives have been used around the world to increase volunteering and to recommend how financial incentives my or may not work here in the UK.
June 20th - Bank of New York Mellon Helps to Host Sports Day with Education
10 volunteers from The Bank of New York Mellon joined forces with staff from the Community Links Education Otherwise programme to host a Sports Day for young people from all Education centres!
June 5th – Drop-in CV Advice Desk at Youth Volunteering Fair
Mark and Prakash, from XL Capital and Accenture respectively, volunteered their time to run a drop-in CV advice desk at the first-ever youth volunteering fair at Community Links! They worked with attendees one-to-one throughout the afternoon to offer useful insights in how to improve their CVs and interview techniques.
May 29th – Investec Hosts Cricket Workshop at the Playhut
9 enthusiastic volunteers from Investec hosted a half-day cricket workshop with over 30 children at the Playhut during the children’s half-term holidays. The kids had a chance to practice batting, catching, throwing and bowling. When it started to rain, the volunteers improvised and undertook a variety of activities with the children indoors, which concluded with a thrilling relay race!
May 28th – Life Bank Panel Supported by Barclays Capital
2 volunteers from Barclays Capital got involved at the panel meeting for Life Bank, which is a small grants fund sponsored by Barclays Capital that our projects can make applications to. Applications can be made for specific initiatives their club plans to undertake or specific items they would like to purchase for the club. The Life Bank judging panel is made up of and run by young people from our youth projects!
May 21st – XL Capital Global Day of Giving
15 volunteers from XL Capital hosted a business day for young people from Community Links New Deal programme as part of the company’s 3rd Annual Global Day of Giving. The day involved a series of practical workshops on CVs, interview techniques and presentation skills and even included an exciting tour of the famous Lloyds of London building!
May 14th – Goldman Sachs Hosts Tea Dance for Pensioners
14 volunteers from Goldman Sach’s Community Teamworks programme hosted the 3rd Annual Tea Dance and Karaoke Party over 60 local pensioners from East London! The volunteers spent the morning hours setting-up the hall, decorating and putting out food and drinks. They then welcomed the pensioners in the afternoon and spoilt them by serving a nice meal and having a dance/sing with them!
May 9th – Bank of New York Mellon Hosts Business Day
27 volunteers from the Bank of New York Mellon’s Corporate Trust Department got together to host a business day for young people from the Community Links New Deal programme! The day included advice on careers and job search along with practical workshops on CV improvement, presentation skills and interview skills.
April-July Accenture Pro Bono Project
A team of 5 Accenture consultants volunteered 12 weeks of their time to undertake a pro bono piece of work for Community Links focused Making Regeneration Relevant in East London. This research will enable Community Links to strategically position itself to influence and benefit from the regeneration agenda in East London, with a special focus on engaging children and young people.
April 18th – Ricoh Team Day at Playwood
Over 170 volunteers from Ricoh Europe contributed their time to transforming an abandoned wood into a children’s environmental learning and recreation centre called Playwood! The team did a fabulous job of beginning the transformation of the site as they cleaned up grounds, put in new plants, installed impressive new fencing, built tree houses, put up bird boxes, painted stunning murals and added a fresh coat of paint on the surrounding fences all to bring the wood to life.
April 3rd – Accenture Utilities Team Day #2 at the New Canteen
10 volunteers from the Resources Team at Accenture took a day out of their busy schedules to finish up the garden project at the New Canteen that they started at their Community Day in February. We had some lovely sunshine throughout the day and the young people from the Education project really enjoyed working alongside the volunteers to makeover their outside space at the centre.
March 31st – Accenture Volunteer Offers Strategic Advice
Rob Hoyle from Accenture offered to use on of his charity days to support the Head of Youth Work to strategically think through a potential restructure of the team and advised her on how to manage change during this transition.
Feb 22nd – Accenture Utilities Team Day at the New Canteen
8 volunteers from the Accenture Utilities team came along to begin phase 1 of transforming the garden area in front of our New Canteen centre in Stratford.
Feb 21st – BLP Takes Kids from Arc in the Park to London Zoo
Volunteers from BLP took 23 children from Community Links Arc in the Park to the London Zoo for the day! The kids enjoyed viewing all of the different exhibits, had a nice lunch break and then continued viewing through the afternoon.
Feb 20th – Clifford Chance Hosts Tour and Workshops for Young People
Volunteers from Cliffod Chance hosted workshops and a tour for unemployed young people to help them build confidence and see what a real-life workplace is like.
Feb 19th – BLP Hosts IT Training Day for Youth Clubs
44 volunteers from the IT team at Berwin Leighton Paisner organised an IT focused business day for young people from 5 different Community Links youth clubs, involving an IT careers presentation and training workshops on presentation skills and how to develop an online youth newsletter.
Jan 24th – Tate & Lyle and Reed Smith Richards Butler joint Business Day with New Deal
16 volunteers came together from Reed Smith Richards Butler and Tate & Lyle to host a business day for 6 young people from the Community Links New Deal programme. The day was full of hands-on workshops to help the young people gain confidence and to improve their CVs and interview skills.
Click here to see how employee volunteers made a difference through our 2007 Corporate Volunteering Projects!