Autumn Community Tour to Islington 2011
Summer Community Partners Workshop
Summer Community Tour to Lambeth
Autumn Community Tour of Tower Hamlets
Summer Community Tour of Islington
Joining Forces Partnership Workshop 2010
Spring Community Tour of Hackney
Annual Reception Event
Autumn Community Tour to Islington
Tuesday 18th October 2011
The borough of Islington in North London reflects the true diversity of London, where pockets of affluence and leafy streets border areas of real deprivation. In Islington 45.2% of children grown up in workless families and the job seekers allowance claimant count as a proportion of the working age population is 5%, compared to 4% in London and 3.5% Great Britain.On Tuesday 18th October a diverse range of business delegates from sectors including banking, asset management and construction joined the City Action team for an exciting and jam packed morning visiting three organisations in the borough
Our first stop was to The Peel Centre, founded in the 19th century and which works with local communities to promote and provide opportunities and facilities for education, recreation, and the advancement of the social, economic, physical and mental well-being of those most in need. We were treated to a presentation by the Older Persons Service Manager and one of service users outlined how she benefits from visiting the centre every day.
We then headed to the Holloway Road area to visit Rowan Arts, a local arts organisations which produces a diverse range of locally generated projects, events and activities including arts festivals, workshops, visual arts events and oral history projects. The group met 8 of the current volunteers who provided background to their roles and the projects they are involved in.
Our final stop was to St Luke's Centre, winner of the 2011 Lord Mayor's Community Partner Dragon Award. The centre provides a space for local people to gather and socialise, and other organisations to deliver their own services to the local community and provides over 65 weekly activities. After an insightful tour of the recently refurbished building the St Luke's team delivered a presentation highlighting the support needs and volunteer roles including employability support and befriending.
The visit prompted a lot of interest from the delegates, many of whom are in the early stages of developing a community engagement programme. One commented that the tour was a “great opportunity to actually visit in person and meet with the organisations, hear what they have to say, what they are looking for and challenges being faced.”
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Summer Community Partners Workshop
Tuesday 26 July 2011
Close to 30 representatives from a diverse range of community organsiations including community centres, employability charities and colleges joined the City Action team for a morning of activities, knowledge sharing and networking.
The event gave new community partners an opportunity to meet City Action and other community organsations and find out more about the benefits of involving skilled employee volunteers in their organisations.
The focus of the session was on managing employee volunteers in the current economic climate and delegates produced an impressive and comprehensive list of top tips for ensuring a postive employee volunteering experience. Attendees also engaged in an exercise to 'translate your support needs into a corporate offer' which involved delegates 'pitching' their organisations to the room.
The atmosphere was extremely positive and delegates were very generous in sharing the expertise and experience with their peers. One attendee commented that the session “really opened my eyes to the wealth of opportunity out there for tapping into skills and experience from outside – for free!”.
Summer Community Tour to Lambeth
Tuesday 12th July 2011
This week, we took a group of our newer business members on a Community Tour to Lambeth where delegates had the opportunity to see and hear about the challenges that the borough faces. Lambeth is one of the most densely populated areas in the country with a diverse social and ethnic mix; over 130 languages are spoken by residents. According to the Indices of Deprivation (2010), which take into account health, mortality, educational attainment, housing and worklessness, Lambeth is the 5th most deprived borough in London and the 14th most deprived in the country. Lambeth however, has a young population with much potential and, as a neighbour to the City, can really benefit from stronger ties with, more support from and greater exposure to City businesses.
On the tour we visited 3 community organisations. Richard Atkins Primary School is a unique organisation, which has opened its school gates to the wider community and in particular to the parents of pupils. They have provided a space and a programme of activities which are helping to up-skill the community and to engage parents in their children’s learning. This extraordinary extended school programme has seen Richard Atkins climb up in Ofsted reports. Our host Mary invited businesses to organise workshops to help local residents who want to set up small businesses and to provide basic IT workshops for elderly members of the community.
The second organisation we visited was The Baytree Centre, which provides services for disadvantaged women and children, mostly refugees and asylum seekers with devastating histories. Baytree offer training, English language lessons, mentoring schemes and after school clubs. Our host Una explained how businesses could help by offering their marketing skills to help the centre publicise its services and to raise awareness or by mentoring a young person.
Our final host was Glen from The Palace Project, a community centre targeted at local young people and providing them with a range of performing arts offers as a way to engage them, nurture their talent and encourage them to reach their potential. Glen asked our business delegates to get involved as activity coaches, or to give workshops on how to manage finances, how to write a CV and how to present at an interview.
The tour was a great success and delegates found they had gained a real insight into how community organisations work, how important they are for their local neighbourhoods and how they could benefit from the volunteering time of City employees.
Let us know if you want any more information on these volunteering opportunities. They will be on our volunteering database shortly, so check in and browse for something that interests you. Our next community tour will be in October.
Autumn Community Tour of Tower Hamlets
Wednesday 27 October 2010
According to the Indices of Deprivation (Communities & Local Government 2007), Tower Hamlets ranks the third most deprived local authority in
Our first visit was to Age Concern Tower Hamlets’ Appian Court Resource Centre in E3, which provides support to older people in need, including day care and outreach services. The Volunteer Manager gave a talk on the range of social and well-being activities run at the centre and the challenges facing the organisation as a result of the current government funding cuts. Delegates were also given a summary of all the ways they could engage their volunteers at the centre, ranging from befriending and supporting social activities and outings, to becoming a trustee and providing marketing advice.
Our second visit was to Praxis Community Centre in E2, where the Chief Executive provided an introduction to the needs of refugees and new migrants living in the local area and an overview of the support services offered by the centre. Colleagues then talked in more detail about the centre’s employability programme, English language schemes, and new businesses fellowship for refugees looking to translate their Big Ideas into a viable business; and identified how volunteers can support these.
Our final visit was to Fastlaners in E14, a new programme run by the Young Foundation aimed at bridging the gap between education and employment, where currently graduates receive little to no support in developing their employability skills. Fastlaners provides opportunities for graduates living in Tower Hamlets to sharpen their practical career skills, access new networks, and develop tools to navigate into the world of work, via an intensive two week training course and follow-up support. Delegates heard from graduates for whom the programme has already made a difference and then the project manager highlighted how business volunteers could provide valuable insight and advice to these young people.
Summer Community Tour of Islington
Thursday 17 June 2010
Islington is best known for areas such as bustling
Our first visit was to Sotheby Mews Centre, Age Concern Islington (N5) who run a range of projects and services with the aim of helping isolated older people to maintain their health and well‑being. The Centre manager gave a talk on the various personal challenges that their service users face day-to-day, and gave details of the various support services and activities that the Centre offers them. Delegates were interested to hear that the Centre has its own choir, who regularly practice their own renditions of current pop hits!
Next stop was Whittington Park Community Centre (N19) where delegates were treated to a tea break in the Centre’s community café. The director of the Centre explained their position in the Whittington community and their mission to bring together local residents of all backgrounds. A tour of the building included a quick preview of the Senior Citizens dominos club in action.
Our third and final visit was to the Peel Centre (WC1X), a purpose built community centre which provides a wide range of activities and services including an after school clubs, day centre for older people, counselling, vocational advice, employment and training advice. The focus of this visit was on the older people’s day centre, and the various levels of support they need with keeping this going.
Joining Forces Partnership Workshop
Thursday 29 July 2010
On Thursday 29 July, City Action facilitated a workshop on partnership-working between representatives of the voluntary and private sectors. This event was attended by corporate members of City Action and a mix of community organisations from the City fringes, some of whom were new to City Action. Via a mix of presentation and group work, this workshop looked at the principles, resources and processes for effective partnership-working.
The event was a success with 95% of delegates feeding back they had learnt something new about partnership-building from the session.
City Action hopes, in its role as liaison between corporate and community members, to promote and help establish more sustainable and multi-faceted relationships across the sectors.
For further resources on partnership working, please visit our Building Partnerships page
Annual Reception Event
Friday 26th February 2010
The City Action team invited a range of local community organisations to the Guildhall on Tuesday 3rd November to introduce the range of benefits available to them if they joined the City Action service. Twelve organisations attended the session which ran from 3-5pm.
We were delighted this year to host our Annual Reception event in collaboration with City Action member, Macquarie Group, at their CityPoint offices. The view from the 36th floor was fantastic and provided a rare opportunity to look over the whole of London. More importantly, its views helped to illustrate why the City of London Corporation is committed to supporting community organisations not only within the City but also those based in the boroughs that surround the City.
The aim of this year’s event was to highlight the need for City volunteers to share their work-related skills with community organisations. 16 of our community organisation members attended the event to talk to corporate guests about their current support needs. The room was certainly buzzing with conversation and feedback from guests was very positive.
Graeme Conway, Senior Managing Director at Macquarie Group, opened the event with a keynote speech and was followed by The Right Hon the Lord Mayor Nick Anstee, who that morning had taken part in a sponsored swim for his charitable Appeal. The Lord Mayor highlighted that sharing skills with community organisations allows them to concentrate on their areas of expertise – delivering front line services to those who need it most.
Guests were also treated to a first showing of City Action’s promotional film, as well as a video message from Tim Campbell, first winner of BBC show ‘The Apprentice’ and founder of the Bright Ideas Trust.
Liquidnet & Sotheby Mews Day Centre
Liquidnet Europe Limited, a small asset management business, joined City Action following attendance on a Community Tour to Islington in June 2010. One of the community organisations visited was Age Concern Islington’s Sotheby Mews Day Centre, with whom Liquidnet have chosen to support a variety of social events for local older people.
Colt and Friendship Works
Colt have been building their CSR programme from scratch since 2009. Selecting a charity partner was one aspect of setting up their community programme - the other aspect was introducing an employee volunteering policy which they introduced at the end of 2009. Colt operates in 14 countries and in 2009 each country was asked to work with its employees to select a charity partner for the next two years.
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