Celebrating 10 years of City Action!

City Action held a lunchtime reception at St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace on 14th March 2008 in order to celebrate the past 10 years of providing employee volunteering brokerage for the City which has resulted in over 6,600 volunteers offering their time and skills to help local community organisations.

Representatives from 35 City firms and 8 community partners had the opportunity to network, enjoy the champagne and hear from the City Action team about our plans to build on the volunteering support we broker. These plans include developing our website and undertaking a review of the added value skills-based volunteering can provide to both City firms and community organisations alike.

City Action took the opportunity to launch one new area of our website - a more interactive online volunteering database which is searchable by geographical area, opportunity type and has a built in RSS feed.

Feedback from all attendees was very positive and everyone enjoyed the occasion!

Tower Hamlets Community Tour

City Action’s first community tour of 2008 was held on a crisp, cold morning on 12th February. Our attendees were warmed up with hot drinks and pastries in our luxury mini-bus as we made our way to three inspiring community organisations; Toynbee Hall, Central Foundation Girls' School and Chisenhale Dance Space.

On the way to the first destination, the attendees were given a short presentation about Tower Hamlets and the social and economic challenges this diverse, highly populated borough faces. The tour was warmly welcomed by all three community organisations as they opened their doors for us to visualise their work as well as hear about the opportunities for volunteer support they have.

Susanne More from City bank West LB had this feedback about the tour: “Many thanks to City Action for organising a tour with such good hospitality and so much insight, it is very eye-opening what is going on so near us. It was also an excellent networking opportunity and I have already been swapping emails with some of the contacts I made”.

If you would like to attend the next tour, likely to be held in July, please do not hesitate to register your interest by sending an email.

Annual Networking Event 2007 – ‘Spring into Action’

City Action, held its annual ‘Spring into Action’ networking event on 30th March at St Ethelburga’s Centre for Peace and Reconciliation on Bishopsgate.

Bringing together past, present and future volunteers, the lunchtime reception served as a thank you to City employees who have supported City Action’s volunteering projects over the past year and a chance for potential new clients to consider how they might get involved.

In addition to corporate clients, representatives from nine community partners, were invited to present their work at the event, highlighting areas in which support from the business sector could most effectively benefit their organisations. The networking reception was well attended, and feedback from both corporate and community attendees was extremely positive.

Hackney Community Tour

Our Tuesday 27 February 2007 City Action's second Community Tour took place in Hackney. The trip took in visits to ELATT (East London Advanced Technology Training), Hackney City Farm and Headway East London - three very different community organisations in the heart of Hackney. Participants were invited to a tour of each venue and a short presentation on their work within the local community. They also highlighted how corporate volunteers could support them by providing valuable skills and expertise.

A representative from Inspire, the Education Business Partnership for Hackney, joined us on the coach to speak about the services they offer to young people in schools in the borough.

Southwark Community Tour

This tour visited Cambridge House, Walworth Garden Farm and Age Concern Southwark

The tour was a great success and a number of firms have begun to develop long term relationships with some of the organisations visited. One participant commented:

“It was a real eye opener and certainly helped me to appreciate what a difference corporate support could bring to an organisation doing such fantastic work in our local communities”