By Kate Shaw, Charity Lead at IPSL
Alongside our colleagues at Imagile Group, we’re proud to be celebrating Volunteers’ Week, an initiative dedicated to showcasing the amazing contributions people make across the UK through volunteering.
Across Imagile Group, giving back is an important part of our company culture and employees are actively encouraged to help their local communities as often as possible.
At a time when community spirit is more vital than ever, there’s never been a better opportunity to promote and celebrate our wonderful volunteers.
Having been involved in many of the volunteering initiatives led by Imagile Group, I’ve seen first-hand some of the amazing benefits of this work, not only for the communities we’re supporting, but also for our team’s wellbeing and development too.
A commitment to giving back
Since April 2017, employees from all areas of the business have completed 157 volunteering days, with employees working at farms, kitchens, charity shops, schools, homeless charities and on a number of community and charitable projects. With this in mind, we thought we’d share some of our volunteering stories…
British Heart Foundation
Imagile has a long-standing partnership with The British Heart Foundation. In 2019, a group of our staff spent a week volunteering at the charity’s Warrington furniture store, lending a helping hand to the fantastic team of volunteers who run the shop.
The Red Box Project
This community-based initiative is committed to tackling period poverty and provides free sanitary products to those struggling to afford them, who are missing out on their education as a result. To support the work the Red Box Project is doing, Imagile staff donated sanitary products to several schools involved in the scheme.
East SILC Primary School
Volunteers from across Imagile carried out a full renovation of a pond and wildlife area at the SEN school in Leeds. This involved a large team of Imagile staff, sub-contractors and FM provider to dig over the ground, find the pond and bring it all back to life. It was estimated that the renovation costs including materials and labour equated to about £17,000.
Ellie Sinclair, a senior SPC operations manager at Imagile Infrastructure Management was involved in a number of the groups volunteering projects. Ellie explained: “Through volunteering, we’ve had the opportunity to learn new skills, meet amazing people and provide valuable support to communities and charities in need.
“We’ve also worked with Bishop Auckland Hospital Children’s Outpatients Ward to give the ward a makeover, creating a contemporary space with bright walls, new flooring and a dedicated teenager room. We donated DVD players, DVDs, books, toys and bean bags to help bring a smile to patient’s faces. It was so rewarding to see the project come together and the hospital was very pleased with the outcome.”
Choices
Imagile employees have supported Choices for the past two years, a charity focused on providing support to young adults who have been through physical and mental abuse. This year, the team donated and hand-delivered £600 to help the refuge build storage for buggies and to buy more freezer space to store food.
Alongside this fantastic work, our people have also volunteered at Tesco’s foodbank, donated books to Leeds City Council to engage children in reading, volunteered at Mary’s Wheels in Glasgow to help the homeless, raised money for local hospitals and offered their skills to students at a school in Bradford, helping them to improve their interviewing skills.
Eleanor Burns, from Imagile Group’s Business Support team leads the volunteering initiatives at our Bristol office. Eleanor said:” I can’t overstate the importance of giving back, whether it be through fundraising, donating or volunteering. It’s such a meaningful way to help others.
“Volunteering can also facilitate your personal development, helping to gain valuable new skills, boost your confidence and improve wellbeing. That’s why it continues to be a key focus for Imagile Group and will remain a huge part of our core values.
“There are so many fantastic causes that need additional help and I’m incredibly proud that employees across Imagile Group are helping to provide that support to local communities.”
Thank you to our volunteers
We wanted to take this week to share some of our fantastic volunteering stories and thank our staff for their dedication to the scheme. Hopefully, we can inspire more people to get involved in similar initiatives across the UK.
I’m incredibly proud to work for, and alongside, organisations that prioritise and encourage active involvement in community work. All employees are offered paid volunteering days per year, which allows us to use our time wisely and make a difference to causes close to our hearts.
