ELBA’s Evolve project shortlisted at the Business Charity Awards
ELBA’s Evolve project shortlisted at the Business Charity Awards
By Abbey Lew, Community Development Project Manager, Evolve Project
On 8th May, ELBA attended the Third Sector Business Charity Awards ceremony to represent the Evolve Project as a finalist for the Consortium Award. While Evolve did not win the award, it was a celebratory evening to share the successes of the project with our Evolve partners – Linklaters, UBS, Societe Generale and the Societe Generale UK Foundation.
The Evolve Project is currently in its fifth year and aims to build the capacity of community organisations across Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Haringey. It was set up initially to respond to the effects COVID-19, but has shifted to the cost of living crisis and building the capacity of organisations across the third sector.
Evolve has been designed to dynamically respond to the changing needs of local community organisations. Through high-impact, skills based volunteering, Evolve activities draw on the skills and expertise of employee volunteers to address the community’s key areas of interest including: funding, digital innovation, governance and leadership skills building, and networking.
This year, the Evolve Project has launched a Leaders in Partnership programme, a 10 month coaching programme that offers 1-to-1 support between senior employee volunteers and leaders within the community sector. Similarly, Evolve also launched Emerging Leaders that offers coaching support to rising leaders and middle managers working for VCS organisations across east London.
The Evolve Project highlights the increasing need and importance of collaborative partnerships to tackle complex challenges within the community sector and provide space for business volunteers to also learn from each other through sharing best practices and different ways of working. Amidst a challenging funding landscape, Evolve will continue to create spaces for collaboration within and between sectors moving forward.
Since 2021, Evolve has hosted over 100 skills-based volunteer activities engaging more than 650 employee volunteers from across the partner companies and contributing approximately 3,800 volunteer hours to hundreds of community organisations across east London.
It was an honour to be recognised at the Third Sector Business Charity Awards, and the Evolve Project will continue to offer impactful programmes and innovative workshops to support our community partners and ensure the sustainability of the third sector.
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