Community Action Suffolk’s volunteering team supports local businesses to encourage their employees to volunteer, known as “employer supported volunteering”.
Employers often organise team volunteering activities, but they can also give staff the opportunity to take time away from work to volunteer individually within their own community. This might include support for employees to become a charity trustee or board member, to participate in ongoing community activities, or to support local events and fundraising appeals.
Paul and Siobhan from CAS recently visited the Ipswich base of Playtech-owned Gaming Technology Solutions, a leading global supplier of gaming solutions for online gaming operations. Taken from Playtech’s global magazine, here’s how they got on…
On Monday 22 January 2018, our Virtual Sports team, based in Ipswich, UK, hosted a “launch and lunch” session to engage employees on volunteering and trustee opportunities within the local Suffolk community.
The office hosted Siobhan Kranjanasilp and Paul White from Community Action Suffolk (CAS), a non-profit organisation that supports Suffolk’s Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector; empowering local charities to operate more effectively.
CAS connects companies with communities to facilitate employer sponsored volunteering schemes and has worked with companies such as telecoms business BT and nationwide retailer John Lewis. It trains and connects employees who are interested in volunteering or serving as trustees with opportunities in the local area. During the presentation, CAS also presented a new report on the needs of the local area and presented the different options for how the local Ipswich office and individual employees can use their skills and time to help address some of the most pressing challenges in the local community.
The feedback received by those attending was very encouraging and they are now looking to plan ahead and determine which of the many volunteering and fundraising opportunities Playtech would like to support both collectively and as individuals over the next year.
We will look to roll this out initially across a number of other UK sites in phase one so look out for more information in the coming weeks for more “launch and lunch” sessions.
If you are a Suffolk employer, or are an employee interested in “employer supported volunteering”, read more here or get in touch with the CAS volunteering team:
[email protected]
01473 345400
