Dementia community hub gets fresh new look
A team of our volunteers have been giving a dementia support community hub in Tangmere a fresh new look as part of a new partnership.
Our Community Action Programme gives our team the opportunity to volunteer for charities or good causes close to their heart on company time.
Each employee is given one day per year to get involved in volunteering activities to make a difference to their community.
Teams from our depots and offices across Scotland and southern England support numerous local organisations and helped on a wide range of projects including building a new driveway for a disabled customer, giving a new lease of life to several garden areas and helping create a new home for rescued animals.
A team of our volunteers have been giving a dementia support community hub in Tangmere a fresh new look as part of a new partnership.
Eleven members of our Operations Control Centre spent the day painting fences, filling holes in the field, and building some new shelves.
Our Portsmouth office spent a day at the FitzRoy charity site transforming its green space to develop a memorial garden.
Our apprentices have been spending time at a Bonnyrigg care home as part of an initiative designed to give back to their local community.
We support the fundraising efforts of our colleagues by matching the money they raise through our Into Action fund for any UK charity.
We’re proud of any member of our team who chooses to raise money for excellent causes and are delighted to help boost their totals through Into Action fund donations.
In 2018, our Into Action fund added £41,300 to the fundraising totals of our colleagues and we hope to raise more this year.
We’re partnered with the Outward Bound Trust who help disadvantaged young people build self-confidence and learn new skills. Outward Bound courses offer young people the opportunity to experience outdoor adventures which help improve their teamwork skills and resilience.
We sponsored 144 students from six schools in 2019 and our 12 employee ambassadors joined the young people on their courses to ensure it was a positive experience and to be visible role models within our community.
Our ambassadors participated in the outdoor activities and continue to support the young people’s personal development through a series of teambuilding games, CV writing workshops and mock interviews in schools after the weeklong courses.
Solutions for the Planet (S4TP) is a student sustainability programme that we support which encourages young people to identify key issues and solutions to challenges affecting local communities and beyond. The programme focuses on students working with its business partner mentors and provides young people to explore opportunities within science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Our mentors work with student teams to create innovative solutions as part of a national competition that concludes each year at the Palace of Westminster. Mentors support students to develop their ideas, and accompanying presentations and business plans, to amaze the judging panels.
In 2019, an SGN-mentored team from Mayfield School in Portsmouth won the national competition with their ingenious idea to have a commercial bus powered only by renewable energy. You can find out more below.