While England kicked off in Russia, RSA brought it home!
How RSA made a difference during Community Action Month
2018 has been a year of firsts. What feels like the UK’s first actual summer in years. The first time we were all hopeful that football might actually come home. And most importantly, RSA’s first Community Action Month.
RSA painted, inspired, and donated their way through June. As they celebrated their first ever Community Action Month, RSA volunteers came out in their hundreds to give back to the charities and causes that mattered to them.
Our Highlights
Working across the UK RSA engaged volunteers to give over 2000 hours of time to their local communities and in the London office they gave a huge 696 hours to east London communities.
Together, they helped support employability through workshops to local students, acted as sounding boards through group coaching sessions with social enterprises, and lent a hand to community organisations in need. Community Action Month was about giving back through charitable actions, as a company RSA made a huge impact as they donated a collective £39,784 across the UK!
Volunteers got involved with lot of foodbank collections, painting, fixing, and gardening. Volunteers across RSA sites swapped the usual keyboard and mouse for a paintbrush or shopping trolley and in east London made a difference to 7 different community organisations. The volunteers gained a lot from their days too with Geoff Jones, RSA Commercial Claims Director reporting:
“It was a humbling experience all round which I got a lot out of. Getting out of the corporate middle class bubble for a few hours is something we should do regularly. It was well organised. I also think it worked from a team perspective.”
London volunteers spent various days with elderly and vulnerable individuals, supporting both the Hackney Caribbean Elderly Organisation and Creative Support. With lunch parties, creative arts, and games, RSA volunteers helped to brighten the day of some of our more vulnerable members of society.
Our 102 London volunteers fixed both fences and CVs, cleared pig enclosures and took plastic from the Thames, impacting a total of 133 beneficiaries. These beneficiaries included local school students, older people and community contacts as well as benefitting the wider environment. Volunteer Louise Daley, UK Risk Co-ordinator at RSA said:
“This was a really good team building opportunity and picking up plastic waste from the shoreline was real eye opener. You hear about all of this on the news but just seeing first hand the scale of how this impacts a local community was surprising. We all felt like we made a difference to this community and it encouraged us all to think differently about our use of plastic.”
RSPB’s Corporate Partnerships Officer, Charlotte Lawrence said:
“Taking a big step away from their day jobs, the RSA volunteers donned gloves and steel-lined boots to venture onto the foreshore of the Thames Estuary. Their challenge: to tackle the big plastic problem that is hitting our shores. It’s well known that the world’s ecosystems are suffering the effects of plastic waste, and RSPB Rainham Marshes is no exception. Many species rely upon wetland habitats for survival, meaning that the health of this reserve and its lifeblood water is so important. As plastic and other waste makes its way through the Thames and onto the shoreline, it threatens the creatures who make Rainham Marshes their home. The RSA team worked tirelessly to pick up as much litter as possible on our section of foreshore and the result was brilliant.”
The action continues…
This was just a snippet of all the great causes RSA have worked to support this year. Volunteering and charity activity isn’t just limited to June. If you missed the chance to get involved with RSA or if you want to volunteer from your company, email challengeelba@elba-1.org.uk to find out more about how you can impact east London.
