Projects

Examples of staff involvement in community volunteering

1. WaterAid

WaterAid is an international non-governmental organisation, dedicated to the provision of safe domestic water, sanitation and hygiene promotion to the world’s poorest people. It currently has programmes in 15 countries throughout Asia and Africa, working with local communities.

To date, seven staff members from the bank have volunteered to “Speak Out” for WaterAid through the WaterAid project. This involves acting as voluntary speakers for community groups, providing information on the work done by WaterAid and raising awareness of the issues they deal with. These speakers provide an invaluable resource for WaterAid, in terms of raising awareness and support for their work. The volunteer speakers also benefit personally, through improving their public speaking and communication skills. All volunteers are co-ordinated through an email network maintained by United Utilities and receive training, support and encouragement in developing their skills.

In addition to the volunteer speakers, The Co-operative Bank organised a fundraising “WaterAid Day” on National Environment Day (5th June 2003) at the Pyramid building in Stockport. This helped raise funds for WaterAid through a variety of initiatives including a “Soak the manager” event, recycling of mobile phones with proceeds going to WaterAid, provision of plain and flavoured drinking water in exchange for donations and allowing donating staff to dress down for the day.

These fundraising initiatives complement the ongoing support that The Co-operative Bank gives WaterAid through its Affinity visa credit cards.

Follow this link to find out more about WaterAid  - http://www.wateraid.co.uk/
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Follow this link to find out more about WaterAid visa credit cards – http://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/personal/visa_affinity_wateraid.html
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Follow this link to the indicators on water -http://www.cfs.co.uk/Sustainability2003/ecological/water.htm

2. School Governors’ One Stop Shop

The School Governors’ One-Stop-Shop (SGOSS) is a small limited company with charitable status, which raises awareness of the school governor role and recruits governor volunteers for primary and secondary schools in inner city areas. It offers a service that puts volunteers in touch with schools that would benefit from their support.

Volunteer governors are responsible for promoting high standards of educational achievement and enabling the head teacher and staff to deliver these. They are involved in planning the school’s long term future, in overseeing its aims and values and placements normally last for up to four years in total.

The project has been successfully promoted to staff in the The Co-operative Bank, CIS and smile with nearly one hundred staff registering interest in becoming trained as school governors.

Follow this link for information on School Governors’ One-Stop-Shop - www.sgoss.org.uk
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3. Project Formation

Project formation works with the people of Skelmersdale who are either at school or looking for work. The project was initiated by staff at Skelmersdale Customer Service Centre, who also successfully promote, co-ordinate, monitor and evaluate volunteer activity in Skelmersdale. To date, 25% of the customer service staff have been directly involved in the initiative. The project has four strands - work experience, mentoring, school mentors and industry liaison days.
• Work experience aims to introduce young people into the bank and the working environment. Those involved spend two weeks across different departments in the bank with different team managers. Approximately fifty placements are undertaken each year.
• Connections is a mentoring programme aimed at 16-24 year olds from the local area to provide support and guidance for young people about work. Mentors spend approximately an hour a week with their mentees at the local employment centre. Five mentors are recruited on an annual basis for Connections.
• The Business Link School Mentors Projects links bank employees and secondary school children for a school year providing support and guidance about careers and employment. Eight volunteers took part in activities in 2003.
• The school liaison and industry days are aimed at building links between schools and the bank. A diverse range of activities fall under this heading; including career seminars and events giving students guidance on how to write a CV, mock interviews and workshops about the world of work. Ten volunteers took part in liaison and industry days in 2003.

The success of Project Formation was recognised in 2004 when it achieved a Business in the Community “Big Tick”, in the Education and Lifelong Learning Category. The project was named as winner of BitC’s Northwest Awards in this category and the project went on to be ‘Highly commended’ at the National Awards. This Award is given to acknowledge excellence in responsible business practice, where a project shows a positive effect on both society and the business.

Follow this link for information on Business in the Community - www.bitc.org.uk
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4. Greater Manchester Cares

Greater Manchester Cares (GMC) is an organisation which links employees with community projects in their local area. Employees can either volunteer individually or in teams. CIS and The Co-operative Bank have been involved in the project since 2000 and since then over 100 team challenges have taken place, over 1,000 hours have been donated in completing team challenges and over 1,200 employees have registered as GMC volunteers.

The community projects provide great benefits to all concerned. The communities benefit from the work done and the volunteers are able to take part in activities that are not only worthwhile, but help to develop personal skills and teamwork, as well as promoting a positive brand image for the businesses. CIS’ Chief Operating Officer Finian Boyle is Chair of GMC’s Leadership Team of GMC.

Examples of projects completed to date include volunteering in urban outreach groups, schools for children with learning disabilities and Henshaw’s Society for the Blind as well as creating wildlife and play areas in the Greater Manchester area.

Follow this link for information on Greater Manchester Cares - http://www.bitc.org.uk/programmes/programme_directory/cares/index.html
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5. Young Enterprise

Young Enterprise is a national educational charity which aims to inspire and equip young people to learn and succeed through enterprise. CFS volunteers are involved in the Company Programme. This involves students aged between 15 and 19 setting up and running their own companies over the period of one academic year. The students are responsible for electing a board of directors from their peers, raising share capital, marketing and financing a product or service of their choice.

During 2003, a number of CIS staff volunteered to act as Advisors for Young Enterprise students. Volunteers are required to be a point of contact for the students, attending most of the weekly meetings held by them and providing valuable business advice. This role greatly benefits the students and also allows CIS staff to apply the business knowledge they have gained through work to help those in the local community.

Richard Hough, a Training Auditor at CIS and a Young Enterprise volunteer won the prestigious title of Young Enterprise Salford’s “Adviser of the year” in 2003. This was for the support he gave to the “Books 4 U” business, created by a group of students at All Hallow’s RC School in Salford.

Follow this link for information on Young Enterprise - http://www.young-enterprise.org.uk/
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