Employee Volunteers Making a Difference - 2007
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.
2007 Corporate Volunteering Projects
Dec 14th – Henderson and UBS Support the Christmas Appeal at Broadgate
Over 15 volunteers from Henderson and UBS got involved in supporting the Community Links Christmas Appeal at Broadgate this year. All day, volunteers helped to collect toy donations at our festive Toy Van and in the afternoon another group of volunteers helped children from our afterschool clubs take to the ice to teach them how to skate, thanks to Broadgate who generously offered the rink to Community Links.
Dec 10th – BLP Hosts a Christmas Lunch at their offices for the Pensioners Club
Over 20 volunteers from the HR team at BLP Law hosted 17 older people from the Community Links Pensioners Club for a Christmas Day Out at their Offices! The afternoon was filled with a traditional Christmas lunch, sing-a-long to popular tunes, a fun quiz and of course dancing! To top it off, the pensioners were delighted to receive Christmas hampers as they were leaving to go home.
Dec 7th – Accenture Hosts Christmas Party and Harry Potter Magic Show at Arc in the Park
13 volunteers from Accenture spent the day decorating and setting up at the Community LInks Arc in the Park centre to host a children’s Christmas party for nearly 75 kids from our afterschool play projects! The party was filled with lots of fun games, Harry Potter’s magic act, delicious food and Santa!
Dec 5th – Man Group Hosts Christmas Party for the Pensioners Club
14 volunteers from Man Group hosted a Christmas party for nearly 60 older people who are part of the Community Links pensioners club. The afternoon was full of great food, festive music and dancing! To top it off, the volunteers sent each and every guest home with a personalised Christmas gift!
Dec 07 – UBS Helps Sort and Wrap Gifts for the Toy Appeal
Nearly 20 volunteers came to Community Links over 4 days to support our Toy Appeal by helping to sort and wrap gifts for Christmas parties and for disadvantaged children in East London.
Nov 30th – iMPOWER Hosts Business Day for New Dealers
Nearly 10 volunteers from iMPOWER hosted 7 young people from our New Deal programme at their offices for the day. They ran CV and interview skills workshops, presentation skills and job search workshops — all in all the young people really enjoyed the experience and learned so much from the day
Nov 17th – Citigroup Global Community Day Decorating 6 Centres for the Holidays
Nearly 70 volunteers from Citigroup volunteered at 7 Community Links centres to decorate for the upcoming holiday season! Thank you Citigroup for the lovely new decorations at our centres and for offering our time to support our projects in this way.
Nov 16th – Credit Suisse decorates Hoskins Centre and Hosts Pizza Party for Special Needs Group
6 Volunteers from Credit Suisse decorated the Hoskins Centre with festive colours and garlands to prepare for the upcoming holiday season. They then hosted a pizza party for over 15 young people with special needs and staff.
Nov 5th – Paul and Dele from XL Capital Host Workshops for New Dealers
10 young people from New Deal visited the offices of XL Capital to participate in an Employability Skills workshop hosted by Dele Ogundere and Paul King. They learned how to strengthen their CVs, improve presentation skills and sell themselves to prospective employers by emphasising both traditional and non-traditional stregths.
Oct 3rd – 3i Brightens Up Play Area at Arc in the Park Children’s Centre
Nearly 15 volunteers from 3i returned again to Community Links for their team day this year to brighten up the play area at our Arc in the Park children’s centre. The team sanded down and painted all woodwork inside the building to a much brighter and welcoming colour. In addition, creative members of the team painted a beautiful mural of a beach scene!
Sept 27th – Accenture Team Raises Funds to Transform Outside Area at CBS Youth Centre
7 volunteers from Accenture worked hard to transform the area outside our CBS Youth Centre into a functional lively space for young people to hang out in. The team built planters and a stage for performances, assembled benches, painted a sports pitch and even had some spare time to paint one of the rooms inside the youth house! Thanks to the fundraising efforts of Alice Pearl and James Hogarth, the team made a major contribution towards the total cost of the project, which included resurfacing the tarmac area!
Aug 28-Sept 7 – Deutsche Bank MBA Graduates Offered Strategic Recommendations to Links
As part of their training, 10 MBA graduates from Deutsche Bank split up into 2 teams and took on two consulting projects for Community Links. One team provided financial modeling and marketing expertise to our Advice team for a new legal centre that they are developing. The other team offered change management advice and recommendations to our Children and Youth teams to help guide their strategic decisions going forward. Both teams presented their findings and recommendations at the end to a panel including members of the Senior Management Team and the Board of Trustees.
Aug 17th – Lehman Graduates Clear Grounds for New Play, Sow and Grow Centre
Over 100 graduates from Lehman Brothers joined forces on the afternoon of August 17th to clear the grounds, paint fences, lay pathways and build fences in preparation of the development of our new Play, Sow and Grow centre in Stratford! Volunteers split up into teams of 10-15 and were led by a Community Links staff member through various activities. The group enjoyed a bbq afterwards to celebrate their achievement.
August – Accenture Volunteers Mentor Young People in Transition Summer School
Volunteers from Accenture committed 3-5 days of their time to mentor young people in our Transition Summer School programme at the Playhut throughout the month of August. They had the opportunity to work with the young people to offer one-to-one support in order to build their confidence and self-esteem while boosting literacy and numeracy skills. In the afternoons, they joined the young people on excursions to various activity centres. We are grateful to Accenture for their sponsorship of our Transition Summer School programme this year.
July 27th – Paul King from XL Capital Hosted an Employability Workshop
3 volunteers from XL Capital, led by Paul King, hosted a half-day Employability Skills workshop at their offices for 18 young people on our Community Links Youth Employment Project (YEP). Young people learned about what XL Capital does, how to emphasise their strengths when selling themselves to an employer in an interview and how to maintain a positive can-do attitude throughout the process.
July 25th – Goldman Sachs Joins the S-Team to Host a Sports Fun Day
13 volunteers from Community Teamworks joined forces with the Community Links S-Team to host a Sports Fun Day in Central Park for 240 children from our summer projects! Volunteers ran a range of activities including an adventure course, egg-and-spoon race, wheelbarrow race, penalty shoot-out and a bouncy castle! The children thoroughly enjoyed the warm sunshine and the variety of activities along with the staff race at the end of the day! Winning teams were rewarded with a small cash prize that they could spend in their project.
July 12 – Goldman Sachs Hosts Special Needs Trip to the London Wetlands Centre
9 volunteers from Goldman Sachs Community Teamworks hosted a trip for a special needs group from the REC centre at the London Wetlands Centre. The morning started with an introduction from the staff at the Wetlands Centre, then a walk through the Wild Wetlands. After lunch, the group had the opportunity to go on a pond safari and do a bit of pond dipping to discover the different types of creatures and plants that inhabit wetlands.
July 6 – UBS Graduates Sweep up the Soft Play Room at the REC Centre
9 graduates from UBS came along to volunteer their time at the REC Centre, which specialises in provision for children with special needs. The spent the morning scrubbing down and cleaning the entire soft toy play room at the centre, which is heavily utilised by children year-round. In the afternoon, they spent time with the special needs group and the afterschool club doing various activities including arts and crafts, football and basketball.
July 2/3 – Ricoh Spends the Afternoon with Children at the Playhut
16 volunteers from Ricoh (formerly NRG Group) split up over two days to revisit the Playhut, where the entire London office was involved in building a new garden. Volunteers joined Links staff to pick up the 5-11 year-olds from school, prepare a snack for them and do activities with them in the afternoon including various arts and crafts and sport.
June 26/27 – Accenture Paints Children’s Mural in Playground at Arc in the Park
11 volunteers from Accenture split up over two days to paint bright and colourful children’s murals at our Arc in the Park centre. The murals were painted on a large container in the playground which stores all of the outdoor sporting equipment for children who attend their programmes. The team spent most of the day painting and even had a chance to spend time with the children in the afternoon, who admired the volunteers’ efforts from the sidelines.
May 21, 24, 25 – Barclays Bank Paints Educational WAWWD Murals at Godwin School
Over 20 volunteers from Barclays split up over 3 days to paint colourful murals highlighting actions from the WAWWD best-seller, Change the World for a Fiver. The school held a contest in each year to come up with the designs for the murals and then the children selected their favourite design. The volunteers then painted these designs onto large murals, which will be mounted on the walls of the playground at Godwin School. The volunteers also helped to prepare the wall with a fresh coat of paint to brighten up the playground for the children.
May 23rd – Goldman Sachs Community Teamworks Hosts a Tea Dance and Karaoke Party for Pensioners in Newham
15 volunteers from Goldman Sachs hosted a delightful afternoon of great food, fun music, singing and dancing for the elderly community in Newham. The volunteers started the day by setting up the hall, laying out the sandwiches and cakes, preparing drinks and decorating for the party. In the afternoon they played host to nearly 50 pensioners by serving them tea and coffee along with lunch and singing and dancing with them to their favourite tunes!
May 10th – XL Capital Global Day of Giving Hosted a Business Day for New Deal
For the second year in a row, over 15 volunteers from XL Capital hosted a business day for 12 young people from New Deal at their offices. Workshops covered a range of topics from what is insurance, to CV/interview skills to what types of jobs are at XL. The day also included a tour of the famous Lloyds building, where the young people learned all about the history of the building and the company. Young people were truly inspired by their experience and felt much more confident about getting started with their careers.
May 8th and 9th – Lehman Brothers Renovated Peabody Hall and Hosted a Party for the Kids
Over 30 volunteers from Lehman Brothers split up over two days to volunteer their time to transform Peabody Hall for the afterschool club children. They painted the walls with bright colours, put up educational displays, assembled new furniture and hosted a welcome back party for the children when their room was finished!
April 13th – iMPOWER Youth Research Project in Stratford
Over 20 volunteers from iMPOWER joined forces with several members of Community Links staff and a group of 5 young people to conduct a research project in Stratford. The aim of the research was to understand the needs of young people in the area and to find out how they feel about regeneration taking place locally due to the Olympics coming to town. In total, 2 focus groups were conducted at the New Canteen centre and 134 surveys were conducted in Stratford Shopping Centre to collect data and then the findings were presented to members of the local community at the end of the day.
Friday, February 23 – The Bank of New York Hosts a Business Day for Young People from Community Links
Nearly 20 volunteers from The Bank of New York hosted a business day for 12 young people from various Community Links youth projects. The day involved teaching the young people background information about the company, running a variety of interview/CV workshops and a hands-on workshop on how to prepare for interviews and research companies. The younge people were really inspired by what they learned from the corporate volunteers and a few of them even had the opportunity to go on work placements at the Bank of New York as a result.
Mon/Tues, February 19/20 – HSBC Transforms New Offices for Auction My Stuff
Nearly 20 volunteers from HSBC offered two days of their time to clear out an old office, clean the entire place up and paint a fresh coat of paint everywhere to brighten up the space! The new space will house our new social enterprise, Auction My Stuff, as it is expanding to involve unemployed young people to help them obtain work experience, which will eventually enable them to obtain full-time employment.
Thursday, February 1st – BLP Law Transforms the Park Community Centre for Youth
Nearly 40 volunteers from BLP Law transformed the newest addition to Community Links, the Park Community Centre in Stratford. Volunteers gave the entire buliding a fresh coat of paint to brighten up the space for our Youth Inclusion Programme to move into. In addition, young people from the programme designed artwork, which the volunteers created murals out of to give the space more character and make it more inviting for the young people. Thanks for the tremendous job you did in brightening up the centre!