Opportunities to Volunteer in Paddington
The Partnership’s social value work is well-established, with a respected and successful corporate volunteering programme that has been operating for over 20 years.
Under the BID framework this activity will be stepped up and extended. Every BID member company will benefit from access to a basket of volunteering and social value opportunities grounded in local community need.
- Recurring activities for small to medium-sized teams - a programme of opportunities, perfect for teams to attend on a one-off or repeat basis. These activities are often integral to delivering core services and include supporting food banks, undertaking canal clean-ups, reducing loneliness and digital exclusion among the older community.
- Bespoke practical team challenges - these hands-on tasks spruce up the spaces that are precious to our surrounding communities. Activities may include enhancing schools, community centres, gardens and charity shops.
- Seasonal social activities -centered around key dates including Christmas, World Book Day and Silver Sunday. These opportunities are focused on people and offer memorable events – supporting young people in schools, children and families in hospital or older people at local hubs.
- Multi-company events - these will be held two - three times per year and all BID members will be invited to join events such as Earth Day canal clean-ups and school, community centre or charity shop makeovers. These activities offer unique networking opportunities across businesses and the united volunteer effort achieves greater collective impact.
- Skills-based volunteering: Ad-hoc and longer term opportunities for individuals or teams that draw on your knowledge and skill-set to raise aspirations, inspire students and long-term job seekers and empower charity employees with strategies for more efficient and effective ways of working.
Skilled Volunteering
Skill-sharing and strategic programmes will enable companies to add significant value to community groups and schools surrounding Paddington. These include CV and mock interview sessions, mentoring schemes, reading and maths partners, careers fairs and talks and sector-focused clubs, for example on data, digital, AI, life sciences and fintech. The BID will enable companies to support work experience programmes with our school partners where there is an appetite.
Longer-term strategic programmes aligned to particular sectors or BID member interests will be built up over the first year of the BID’s term. These might include supported employment programmes, financial literacy schemes and professional in-kind advice in the local charity sector. These longer term programmes help bridge gaps between education and employment, foster skills and raise local outcomes - providing local people with vital skills and insights.
In recognition of the significant life sciences cluster in Paddington, a dedicated life sciences community role will be created in the first year of the BID’s term, to create a specialist bespoke life sciences ESG programme.
Practical Volunteering
There will always be demand for practical team challenges from companies and community partners alike, as they bring colleagues together, see investment in much-valued local community premises and often lead to the formation of long-term partnerships between business and community. Every BID member company will be able to access multiple practical team challenges. Likewise, they will also be supported to fulfil annual company-wide volunteering activity, with bespoke opportunities created across multiple locations to accommodate colleagues.
Multi-company volunteering activities will bring companies together to make a difference and can be incredibly rewarding; being able to make a significant, visible difference for a community partner or school’s premises in one day through a unique networking opportunity.
Environmental sustainability is a core interest of our member companies and the waterspace is a key component of the environment at Paddington. All companies will have access to environmental volunteering activities, which are a popular way to ensure Paddington remains welcoming to everyone who lives, works and visits.
Inviting the community into business premises for social and education activities can have an enormous impact, benefiting older local residents and school pupils, tackling loneliness, isolation and raising aspirations. BID member companies will be supported to continue these programmes, offering hospitality, companionship and access to resources.
Recognising variations in the BID levy, a sliding scale of opportunities will be applied to our programmes, to ensure fair and proportionate usage.