Last week, our volunteers spent a day at the Elizabeth Foundation in Portsmouth to give the preschool for deaf children a mini makeover in time for Easter.
The Elizabeth Foundation is the UK’s largest single provider of education services for babies and preschool children with all degrees of deafness. Rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted, they offer nursery services at their Family Centre in Cosham as well as home learning and support through their innovative Let’s Listen and Talk online programme.
Our Community Action Programme (CAP) gives our 4,000 people a day of company time each year to volunteer and help an organisation or charity of their choice. A total of 21 colleagues from our IT team spent their day at the charity carrying out a range of tasks, including tidying and clearing out a large basement area filled with toys and equipment, cleaning the minibus, painting their wooden play area and weeding the garden.
The charity was highlighted to the team by Brian Barr, our Business Solution Analyst, whose two children attend their preschool with moderate bilateral hearing loss. Brian said: “It can be a really scary and confusing time when parents discover their child has hearing loss and the Elizabeth Foundation helps them through that period. They get no external funding so have to fundraise themselves – they’ve given my kids lots of support and enhanced their lives, so this is a great way to give something back.”
Karen Vaughan BEM, Deputy CEO at the Elizabeth Foundation, said: “We have to raise over £750,000 every year to deliver our suite of services and maintain our facilities so we rely on corporate and individual support. From the moment the team arrived, it was all smiles, wanting to know about the Foundation, asking about what we do and putting their passion and hard work to good use and make a difference to our deaf children.
“The wonderful work they’ve done will make sure we’re able to keep our children safe, keep our services running and maintain our Ofsted rating.”
