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Spring Community Tour of Hackney

Tuesday 16th March 2010

Although a vibrant and diverse borough and already supported by City firms, Hackney is still the most deprived area in London and in need of further corporate support. Our community tour provided a group of our corporate members with an insight into the challenges faced by the borough, as well as an understanding of how volunteering business skills can help, and some of the different opportunities available.

The first stop on our tour was with the Free Form Arts Trust, which provides a range of arts and creative services for the built environment, and places art at the heart of urban regeneration. The Associate Director gave the group a tour of the work and studio space ‘Hothouse’ and provided an overview of the regeneration and community arts projects undertaken by the Trust.

Next delegates were taken to meet Training for Life at their Hoxton Apprentice enterprise. Training for Life seeks to tackle issues of unemployment and poverty through an entrepreneurial approach. It works with vulnerable and excluded groups within society who face barriers to work, offering them a range of apprenticeship schemes. An enthusiastic presentation was given by the Project Manager, Chief Exec and a number of current apprentices, which set the scene for delegates and was followed by the circulation of a comprehensive list of volunteering opportunities.

Finally, we visited ReachOut! London at the Petchey Academy where they run their Soccer School. ReachOut! London is a mentoring charity that works with young people in inner city areas to help them develop both academically and socially, helping them grow into successful, responsible and self confident adults. They achieve this through academic mentoring paired with sports coaching and the Project Managers explained to our group how they could contribute to the programme as mentors and make a difference in these young people’s lives.

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.

An Introduction to City Action
Tuesday 3rd November 2009

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.

After an initial presentation to introduce the volunteer matchmaking service, the team was joined by four corporate members: State Street, Bingham, Drivers Jonas and COLT who took part in a Q&A session. Each corporate member was asked to provide an insight into their employee volunteering programmes and to outline the motivations behind getting involved in community engagement initiatives. The discussions were honest and open, with all corporate members citing employee morale and motivation as one of the main reasons why they provide volunteering opportunities to staff.

Feedback from the event was extremely positive and the team have recruited several new members as a result. The corporate member Q&A format was very well received and the team plans to run a similar event in 2010.

Autumn Community Tour of Southwark
Thursday 29th October 2009

In a 2009 report released by the Cabinet Office’s Building Stronger Communities Taskforce, Southwark was identified as one of areas in the country that is most need of business support. City Action’s tour of the borough gave attendees the opportunity to learn more about these findings, and to visit three Southwark-based community organisations that deliver services to local residents.

First stop was Time and Talents, a community hub that delivers services and programmes that are tailored to residents of Bermondsey & Rotherhithe, with a focus on improving the health, well being and social involvement of those individuals.
The organisation’s director explained how they go about initiating, developing and hosting several community support groups such as a youth project; older people’s groups; young mothers group and befriending service.

Delegates then hopped back on the luxury mini bus and headed to the Salmon Youth Centre in Bermondsey. Whilst giving us a comprehensive tour of their impressive building, the Centre manager told us about their aims to inspire young people to realise their potential, to contribute positively to the communities in which they live and discover meaning and direction for their lives. With around 1000 young people using their services every week, the Centre provides a range of leisure and educational activities, and delegates were particularly impressed by the 12.5metre outdoor climbing wall!

Finally, we visited Age Concern Southwark’s lively Yalding Centre. Here we were provided with an overview of the types of activities the Centre provides for older people, all of which focus on encouraging healthy and positive living. Delegates were then lucky enough to spend a few minutes chatting to a few of the Centre’s service users, which offered a cheery end to the tour.

Summer Community Tour of Lambeth
Thursday 4th June 2009

On a hot sunny morning in June, the City Action team welcomed several members including Drivers Jonas, Blackrock, State Street and the Como Group into our luxury coach at the Guildhall for a prompt 8.30am departure to visit three vibrant community organisations in the borough of Lambeth.

The City Action team was also joined by representatives from Lambeth Council and the Lambeth Summer Projects Trust who provided the delegates with a useful overview of the borough and the unique challenges it faces.

The first organisation we visited was the Lillian Bayliss Sports Action Zone. We heard from a charity representative who gave an enthusiastic presentation describing the wide variety of active projects that they provide to young people of Lambeth. The important role that sport and physical activity can play in aiding social inclusion and community cohesion was aided by examples of the range of volunteer support that can be provided to the centre.

The second stop was the Karibu Centre, based in Brixton, Elaine the charities Trustee provided a warm welcome and refreshments whilst giving an overview of their community hub which acts both as a social enterprise for the local community and as an education centre which provides young people with the educational & social skills needed to move them safely into adulthood. We were also joined by the Head Head of Communities and Neighbourhoods at Lambeth Council, Lead Levane who provided an overview of the employability project they were launching later in the year at a venue very close to Karibu.

Lastly, our final stop of the morning was at the Waterloo Action Centre. The delegates were provided with a useful historical overview of the centre; for the past 35 years the charity has been committed to supporting their local community in a variety of ways, offering assistance to people of all ages, irrespective of their problem or query.

Employee Volunteering Made Easy, Annual Reception Event
Thursday 12th March 2009

City Action held it's Annual Reception event on at Beyond Boyle, All Hallows by the Tower on Byward Street. The aim of the event was to introduce City businesses to simple and convenient ways of making valuable contributions to organisations and schools within the City-fringe boroughs.

The Right Hon the Lord Mayor Ian Luder opened the event with a keynote speech about his Financial Literacy Initiative, which aims to engage businesses in programmes in schools that raise young people's enterprise skills and financial capabilities of which City Action is the official volunteering broker service. The Lord Mayor also introduced City Action's new 'virtual volunteering' concept which allows volunteers to provide remote support via email or telephone.

Over 60 City firms attended the event and delegates had the opportunity to network with one another and seven community organisations that either had financial literacy or virtual volunteering opportunities to discuss. The team was thrilled with the unprecedented turnout, which included a significant number of businesses new to employee volunteering.

All attendees were also provided with a film 'premiere' as a City of London Corporation DVD was aired which has been developed to showcase it's internal employee volunteering programme and will now be shown at every new staff induction session.

The feedback from the event has been unanimously positive and the food provided by Beyond Boyle highly praised!

Joining Forces Workshop
Tuesday 25th November 2008

City Action collaborated with the International Business Leaders Forum to deliver a half day workshop to 30 delegates from the corporate and community sectors.

This free, interactive workshop was designed to provide an introduction to ?Partnering? with another organisation. The workshop included sessions on the theory behind Partnering and practical exercises to introduce the tools that can be used to do so, such as resource mapping and identifying the key drivers for developing a Partnership.

Some feedback from attendees included the following:

'thank-you, a great introduction to Partnering'
'this event further highlighted the enormous benefits to Partnering'
'an excellent workshop and a morning well spent'

Due to the success of the event and the appetite for learning about Partnering, City Action plans to run another workshop in 2009 and also launch a website area containing free resources and tools for developing a Partnership.

Autumn Community Tour of Camden
Thursday 6th November 2008

City Action's final Community Tour of 2008 took place on Thursday 6th November and focused on the challenges facing young people and education in the Borough of Camden.

Attendees from a range of City companies jumped aboard to visit Friends United Network, Haverstock Secondary School and Kingsgate Primary School, to find out about their individual support needs and the opportunities they could offer corporate volunteers.

We started at Friends United Network in Kentish Town where attendees were quizzed on their knowledge of Camden, and were given talks by FUN representatives (including a Volunteer Befriender).

Next on the tour was Haverstock Secondary School, who had very kindly baked delicious cookies for their visitors and invited five of their pupils to come and speak about their experiences of being mentored by corporate volunteers.

Finally we ended the tour in Kilburn, with a vibrant visit to Kingsgate Primary School. Attendees returned to the classroom and interacted with a Year 4 class which ended the tour on a fun note.

Summer Community Tour of Islington
Thursday 31st July 2008

A group of intrepid City professionals joined the City Action team on a Community Tour of Islington.

Transported in a luxury bus complete with breakfast refreshments and (very welcome!) air conditioning, the tour attendees were given a talk about the area of Islington and an opportunity to visit three diverse community organisations.

Our first stop was the energetic Angel Shed Theatre Company, which 'woke up' our tour group by facilitating a drama session as an example of how they work with young people from the local community.

Freightliners Farm was our next stop, where the group was given an informative tour of this vibrant community farm complete with chickens, cows and organic produce.

Last but not least, our tour finished at the inspiring Body & Soul charity, where we received a tour of their multi-faceted centre for adults and children that are affected by HIV.

Karen McFarlane from the Feel Good Drinks Company commended the event:

Thank you City Action for yesterdays outing. It was a great morning with 3 great charities and the fact that they were in Feel Good Drinks local area made it a really rewarding experience.

Celebrating 10 years of City Action - Annual Reception Event
Friday 14th March 2008

City Action held a lunchtime reception at St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation in order to celebrate the past 10 years of providing employee volunteering brokerage for the City.

The City Action service 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.

Tower Hamlets Community Tour
Tuesday 12th February 2008

City Action's first community tour of 2008 was held on a crisp, cold morning in 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.