Nottinghamshire Cares
Cares is Business in the Community's national employee volunteering programme. Cares connects employees with their communities through a range of volunteering opportunities, designed to make volunteering easier and more effective for all those involved, including companies, their employees and local communities.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) came to Nottinghamshire Cares with an unusual and particular request. They wanted a team challenge with a difference. Rather than the more usual challenge involving 10 people over a day or two, they wanted a practical activity to form an ‘Away day’ for 70 staff. With our thinking caps on, we went to talk to National Care Homes (NCH) in Sutton in Ashfield.
Example of a Nottinghamshire Cares project: West Notts Independence Project – Sutton in Ashfield
The West Notts Independence Project, owned by the national charity NCH, is a well established service providing planned support for 15-21 year old young people who are leaving the care of the local authority and 16-17 year old young people who are vulnerable and potentially homeless, living in the Ashfield and Mansfield locality.
There was a derelict allotment within the grounds of their centre on Alfreton Road, Sutton in Ashfield which needed transforming to make it user-friendly for children of all ages.
This was no overnight exercise. It took 5 months of planning and preparation. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ team leader, Julie Brough, spent time liaising with NCH as well as local materials suppliers so that the project could be achieved on time.
Julie said:
“We wanted to celebrate the opening our new offices at East Midlands Airport by contributing something tangible to the local community. The sense of team work – and the fun we had, was just great”.
A landscape designer worked with PwC and the home to incorporate their own ideas into the final design. The youngsters also worked alongside PwC, helping with the physical graft on the challenge. The transformation was incredible. The newly refurbished grounds included a summer house, benches, arch-ways, new paths and lots and lots of plants.
Chris Bakewell, Project Manager of the centre explains:
“We had ambitious plans for improving the grounds. However, our own limited funds have to be allocated to more pressing needs. The opportunity to have a business come in to turn our vision into reality was a dream come true!”
Chris added:
“This was no one-off exercise, the garden is now a living resource. We use the grounds as a relaxed environment to work with the young people and they take pride in its upkeep. We have since involved the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Fund and the Greenwood Forest Project in the ongoing maintenance and further development of the area.”
They were officially opened as part of an Open Day at NCH, attended by staff, young people and PwC. The day was a celebration of partnership and tremendous achievment. PwC have made a tangible and lasting difference to the quality of the facilities at NCH’s Centre.
Strategic Context
This series of case studies has been produced to show some of the ways that local businesses in Nottinghamshire have engaged with their local communities to tackle poverty and disadvantage.
In addition to demonstrating some very practical examples of business engagement, the case studies illustrate how this activity links to strategic objectives of the various LSPs across Nottinghamshire. It is hoped that, in reading the case studies, businesses, LSPs and community groups alike, will better understand the mutual value to be gained from such activity.
The LSP, (known as The Ashfield Partnership) includes in its key aims:
“To counter the causes of social exclusion, allowing people the opportunity to lead fulfilling lives”
Under a list of Priorities for Action 2001 – 2006 there is a range of key targets. These include:
- social inclusion - to integrate social inclusion seamlessly into partnership work
- quality of life - to improve the health and welfare of children and young people
- to promote the independence of vulnerable people
The work of PwC through Nottinghamshire Cares has helped the West Notts Independence Project to significantly improve the quality of its service to a vulnerable group of young people in the Ashfield and the wider Nottinghamshire community.
The strategic benefits of this project are:
- improved services for young people in statutory care
- reducing the high correlation between those leaving care and young offender convictions.
- greater employer awareness of issues/opportunities of care-leavers
- improved morale of staff and user of NCH
