London City Airport: 50+ Volunteers in over 2 weeks! #VolunteersWeek2017
Volunteers’ Week is an annual celebration of the fantastic contribution millions of volunteers make across the UK. It takes place from 1st-7th June every year. Once again this year, London City Airport (LCY) and their staff took part in practical volunteer days during their Volunteering Fortnight with the help of ELBA!
The fortnight started with 10 volunteers at Royal Docks Learning Activity Centre (RDLAC), Newham where volunteers took part in some sports & activities with children – this included rounders, football and arts & crafts. Joy Canter – Director at RDLAC said ‘the children really appreciated having people come and work with them during their holidays – they enjoy seeing new faces!’
Some volunteers had the pleasure of visiting Gaswork Dock Partnership (GDP) in Newham. GDP is leading the regeneration and development of Cody Dock in Canning Town. LCY did a fantastic job in restoring the community boat that will be used as a mobile classroom along the Lea Valley. Liz Whitworth, Stakeholder Engagement Off
icer – ‘at the heart is the efforts of volunteers who help transform the site to a vibrant community site which is constantly developing’.
The week conti
nued with a team at Spitalfields City Farm in the heart of Tower Hamlets. Volunteers helped work on various different areas of the farm including – gardening and continuing the Woodland Shed Project, a future a central hub for the farm in 2017/2018. LCY volunteers ‘really appreciated learning more about the farm & building on new skills with their colleagues!’
Next stop was Hope Family Centre & Barking Foodbank – a group of 10 eager volunteers visited the area of Barki
ng & Dagenham to help with a supermarket sweep challenge. Volunteers expressed their ‘thanks for having the chance to complete such an interactive challenge and appreciate what needs to be done to make sure residents are not left behind’.
Final stop for the week was at Waltham Forest Disability Resource Centre (WFDRC) where volunteers helped with an exercise session and crafts with the service users. LCY CSR Executive – Fabienne Gress came up with a great idea to create an airport landscape for display in the centre, to link in with LCY arrival.
Volunteers from LCY also drew on their professional expertise to support two east London charities. Ellingham Employment Services & RDLAC benefited from consultancy sessions where they were offered advice and guidance on how to enhance the quality of their services. We were extremely pleased to hear that the LCY volunteers will be continuing to work with Ellingham Employment Services and Royal Docks Activity Centre to offer ongoing advice and guidance!
Fabienne expressed:
“Volunteers’ Week and practical team challenges alongside ELBA were great fun! I loved how we got to work across all our key boroughs linked to our flight path and have such a variety of community partners to work with! Thank you for making this week such a success!”
