Paddington volunteers share their professional skills with our local community

Amidst a global pandemic and three national lockdowns, Paddington volunteers have found new ways to safely give back to the local community. Over the past few months, volunteers from companies across Paddington have lent their professional skills to local charities to advise on a range of areas.

The pandemic brought with it a collective turn to home working, online socialising and virtual celebrations. Paddington volunteers took action from the very first lockdown to ensure those who were unfamiliar with virtual meetings, conference calling and emails were supported to get online and maintain vital contact with loved ones when many found themselves feeling isolated. Volunteers have so far contributed almost 50 hours of their time supporting charities, schools, community champions and charity service users with technology. Tishman Speyer and British Land colleagues have created guides and led training sessions on how to use Zoom, Google Docs and Microsoft Teams, and volunteers have worked one to one with charity service users to offer them IT support and answer their technology questions over the phone.

Many other volunteers have used their professional skills to support the community through a time of great difficulty and uncertainty. Expertise in marketing and social media remains in high demand, with specialists from Vertex working with Westminster Society, an Equinor volunteer paired up with Tree Shepherd and Visa colleagues collaborating with North Paddington Foodbank to advise on their respective social media strategies and approach. British Land colleagues have shared their knowledge with Tree Shepherd to deliver a marketing workshop to local small businesses, supporting them to promote their services and engage with current and potential customers.

For some Paddington volunteers, their experience giving initial specialist advice to local charities led to an ongoing volunteering relationship, with colleagues from Citrix, Tishman Speyer and Equinor now providing ongoing skilled support to charities across the community in their areas of expertise. Volunteers continue to provide guidance on social media, copywriting and IT to charities working with young people, supporting adults with learning disabilities and working to bring communities together.

If you feel inspired by the incredible work of our volunteers and would like to get your colleagues involved, do get in touch with our community team. We work on a number of skilled volunteering opportunities throughout the year and would love for you to join us.