July 2020: a month full of community spirit
July has been another fantastic month for Paddington with over 100 hours of virtual volunteering and Mars Wrigley employees completing their colourful sensory wall.
Colleagues from Visa, British Land, Paddington Central, Tishman Speyer, The Premier League and Vertex have continued engaging with local residents by hosting weekly Telephone Discussion Groups and Zoom quizzes. This month has seen our volunteers host 22 sessions for vulnerable members of the community who are still being advised to isolate during lockdown. Discussion topic favourites have included UK holiday destinations and how careers have changed over time.
Furthermore, three colleagues from Tishman Speyer, British Land and Visa committed an additional 10 hours to supporting local Westminster residents in need of basic IT guidance to stay connected to friends and family. Sessions covered topics such as how to access Zoom, setting up a home Wi-Fi booster and how to download anti-virus software.
Our first official volunteering event of the month saw Derwent London host their second virtual Teams tutorial for eight teachers from the Federation of Westminster Special Schools. The session on Thursday 2 July explored how colleagues can best utilise the application's interactive features for virtual teaching.
A week later, four colleagues from The Premier League and Vertex Pharmaceuticals collectively took part in King Solomon Academy's Year 10 ‘Virtual Career Insight Day’. The sessions were run for 28 students who had missed out on their summer work experience placements due the COVID-19 outbreak. Sessions explored careers in commercial law, corporate partnerships, project management and pharmaceutical finance.
On Friday 17 July, the Community Programme hosted a virtual induction session for four Vodafone colleagues who will be supporting service users from the Paddington Development Trust’s Employability Programme. The mentors will lead three virtual mentoring sessions over the next six weeks, supporting their mentees to build confidence and gain new employability skills.
Six colleagues from Mars Wrigley’s Design Team were back at Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee School for the final time on Thursday 23 July. Work on the school’s sensory playground wall had to stop during lockdown but this month’s visit saw the installation of a xylophone and new plaster sensory panels. A huge thank you to Mars Wrigley for all their work on this amazing project which will make returning to QEII even more special for their students in September.
The end of July saw volunteers from Paddington Central and Visa record two videos of themselves reading children’s stories which have been submitted to the Edward Wilson Primary School Learning Portal for their students to enjoy during their summer holidays. Please see the video below to watch one of our volunteers in action reading the amazing story ‘How Tom beat Captain Najork and his Hired Sportsmen’ written by Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake.
If you or any of your Paddington colleagues would like to get involved and support the Paddington Partnership Community Programme please do not hesitate to get in contact.
30.07.20
