Our partnership with ELBA has seen a continuous stream of volunteers from the corporate world who come in on an ad-hoc basis to volunteer with Redbridge Foodbank. The corporate volunteers are an enormous help especially in some of our busiest times, such as Harvest, Christmas and large supermarket donation drive events when we need all hands on deck.

Through our partnership with ELBA, we have received skills development workshops and mentors, virtual 1:1 coaching sessions and tech donations. Through ELBA and its business partners, we have received much needed equipment, including five laptops enabling us to expand our ICT Skills lessons for elderly people who might otherwise feel isolated and digitally excluded. In a world increasingly dominated by digital technology, digital inclusion is imperative. We look forward to our partnership with ELBA and its partners continuing.

ELBA have played an important role in capacity-building, through our involvement in several of their workshops and training sessions. We were also lucky enough to participate in the ELBA Board Match event in 2023, through which we recruited two fantastic new trustees that have contributed a great deal to the effectiveness of our organisation.

We have recently developed a new link with ELBA and have been benefitting from the support on offer to charities in east London. ELBA helped us to find some brilliant staff from Accenture to facilitate a recent staff development day focusing on developing a behaviour framework. This is not something we would have been able to do without the pro bono support and introductions from ELBA. Some of our managers are also currently benefiting from the mentoring programme and have accessed other training sessions. We’re really grateful for the support and range of offers from ELBA that help small charities like us to offer opportunities for learning and development for our staff.

Our work with ELBA has supported young people and families for over 3 years, providing them with much needed digital equipment such as laptops and raspberry pi operating systems. Many of the young people that we support also benefit from ELBA’s Christmas Toy Drive. Also with the support of ELBA, we have been able to provide young people with smart phones along with data sim cards, stationary, earphones, travel adaptors and more.

We are so grateful for all the work ELBA has put into helping us. Teaming us up with professional corporations and their volunteers to paint our building; inviting us on their training program and facilitating the donation of much needed furniture for our space. Having volunteers from corporates bridges the gap, exposes issues facing our boroughs and encourages dialogue and understanding between individuals and groups alike. Everyone we have been in contact with at ELBA has been so friendly and meticulous, making every stage of each process clear and easy to follow. ELBA has inspired and encouraged us to carry on our work for the community as their activities have propelled our programmes for the future. We couldn’t be where we are today without their dedicated work.