Our activity
Employee volunteering – ‘Just an hour’ – latest volunteering activity
Design engineering challenge
Several volunteers with an engineering background took part in a challenge aimed at raising the profile of engineering as a career option to Year 8 students and to enable the students to explore the different sectors of engineering. Students and volunteers were challenged with the task of developing and designing an every day device that will enable a young person with special needs to live independently. Business in the Community organised the challenge through their Back to Business Programme which is a unique education programme devised to tackle skills shortages in the north east region. It involves businesses working in partnership with schools to address the issues collaboratively.
The art of teamwork
The Laing Art Gallery set staff from Northumbrian Water a very different challenge from their usual work. The Team Challenge, which was established as part of Tyne & Wear Museums’ Business Partnership, Connecting through Culture, saw volunteers helping to reorganise the gallery’s storeroom.
Ten eager volunteers were set the task of helping the Laing Art Gallery archive some of its valuable historic publications as part of a team building exercise.
Under the watchful eye of the museum’s curator Julie Milne, the staff cleared the bookshelves, dusted and boxed materials and labelled the contents, a job for which there had previously been no resource.
The team was also taken on a behind the scenes tour of the picture store and the decorative art store as part of their day. The tour helped them to appreciate how important archiving and correct storage is to the museum’s service.
Julie Milne, curator, said:
“It is the first time that Tyne & Wear Museum has set up a project of this kind and it has proved to be a great success for everyone involved."
“We are delighted with the work that has been carried out by the volunteers and that they have had the chance to work as a team in a new environment. …….”
Nipping bullying in the bud
Pupils from St Charles RCVA Primary School in Spennymoor, County Durham worked with Northumbrian Water, ASDA Spennymoor and Lumsden & Carroll to tackle bullying which affects children every day throughout the north east.
The school children carried out a survey which shows bullying mostly happens in the playground. Twenty enterprising students, aged 11 and called ‘buddies’, designed an ‘anti-bullying garden’ for victims to escape to for advice, friendship and safety.
Northumbrian Water and Lumsden & Carroll volunteers spent hours doing back-breaking work involving clearing, digging, levelling, building, painting and planting to create the garden, which is 30 metres long and 14 metres wide.
The garden has six sections including a prayer garden, touch garden, sight and smell garden, music garden, wildlife and bog garden and a rockery garden.
Peter Trees, a Northumbrian Water project manager who lives in Darlington, said: “The work to create the garden was exhausting but worth every minute – in fact, collectively, our team has so far put in 100 hours of labour in freezing cold conditions. The children made us tea and it was going cold within minutes! Hopefully when we return to do more, the weather will be kinder."
"Bullying is something which can have a devastating effect on a child’s life and I think it is excellent that these children have identified that and are doing something about it. We are proud to be involved."
Digging for Dilston
Dilston College is located in Corbridge Northumberland, it is one of only two MENCAP Colleges in England, there is another in Wales. The college caters for young people with learning difficulties. The college provides the opportunity and assists young people to make the transition from the school environment to adulthood, so that they may live life as independently as possible and attain their true potential.
In 2003 a team of project managers from Northumbrian Water Investment Delivery department assisted staff and students at Dilston College to lay the foundations and a concrete floor for a new stable block. In addition work was also undertaken on refurbishing the compost bins and fences in the college gardens.
More recently, the college again called on Northumbrian Water’s Just an hour initiative for further support to provide a new service trench. The trench was required to enable the provision of water and power to the new stable block, which had now been constructed.
In June a team of nine project managers assembled early at the college and set to work. The trench was to connect an existing building with the new stable block, twenty five meters away. The route crossed an access road and needed to pass under an existing wall and then negotiate mature trees with mature roots! Due to the route the trench had to be hand dug. The work was hard but rewarding and at the end of the day when the job was complete there was a great sense of achievement. The day was enjoyed by all of the team and the team’s efforts were very much appreciated by the college.
A life on the ocean waves
Volunteers took part in the Mary Joicey restoration project. Mary Joicey is Newbiggin by the Sea’s retired lifeboat. The team spent their time scraping, cleaning and priming the 37 foot craft, which was the last offshore lifeboat to be stationed at Newbiggin, spending more than 20 years on active duty in the region. She returned to the area after spending 24 years in Reading. The boat is used as an essential tool to educate people about the important work that the RNLI do and how important the service is. What a difference 75 hours of the team’s hard work made!
Payroll Giving
More than 4% of our employees have signed up for the programme since its launch in October 2005. More than £30,000 in total has been donated to the charities and good causes supported by our employees.