ESS colleagues from the company’s Defence and Sales teams have spent time supporting the Royal Voluntary Service at its Community Centre in Hanley.
The centre, which incorporates a café, hosts regular clubs and groups for members of the local community and provides a warm, welcoming environment for all.
Prior to the event, the project leads from ESS met with Royal Voluntary Service representatives to discuss the plan for the day and which activities the charity needed support with.
22 ESS team members then spent a day on site with members of the Royal Voluntary Service management team and centre staff. The volunteers split into five working groups to maximise their impact during the time available, with different teams responsible for:
- Clearing the outdoor space, including waste clearance, weeding and tidying.
- Painting the large hall, café and two meeting rooms in the charity’s colours to refresh the look of the centre and cover previous water damage.
- Baking brownies, lemon drizzle cakes and carrot cakes, and providing the necessary allergen information so the items could be frozen and sold in the café at a later date.
- Manning the café for the day.
- Sorting and tidying a large storage area used by the centre staff.
The event was the first of its kind under a partnership announced earlier this year between Royal Voluntary Service and Compass One, which brings together the specialist expertise of Compass Group UK & Ireland’s ESS, Healthcare and One Retail sectors. Please see ESS Unites With Volunteering Charity to Improve Community Connections | ESS for further details.
Helen Podmore, Health & Community Operations Support Manager at Royal Voluntary Service, commented:
“Having the team from ESS come and volunteer here for a day made a huge impact on the centre. They were a fabulous group who were keen to get started and worked so well and understood what we were trying to achieve. The people who attend the centre have all said how much better it looks!”
Neil Prestidge, Bid Programme Manager for ESS, who coordinated and participated in the day, commented:
“The team had an amazing day and felt a real sense of achievement after volunteering at the Hanley Centre. We’re pleased to have supported the charity and users of the centre, and we can’t wait for our next volunteering day!”
Neely Mozawala, Social Value Lead for Compass One, added:
“We are proud to see the impact that our employees are making within the communities they serve. The difference that they have made in just one day shows how powerful our volunteering partnership with Royal Voluntary Service is. This takes us a step closer to achieving Our Social Promise, to support one million people from within and outside our organisation by 2030.”