Volunteering

Volunteering

Volunteering

Photo: Columbia Threadneedle volunteers help out at Spitalfields City Farm

We look for opportunities where the talent and professional expertise of Columbia Threadneedle's people can add support, through skills-based and other volunteering projects. Columbia Threadneedle offers all permanent employees the opportunity to carry out volunteer work during normal working hours, as individuals or as teams, up to a maximum of one day per year. Not only does volunteering enhance our wider support for charities, it gives our employees the chance to develop new skills and network within the business, and for teams to collaborate more effectively across departments.

In early 2014 we introduced a formal volunteering programme and during the year over 140 employees participated in organised volunteering including:

  • The Whitechapel Mission breakfast challenge, a daily team-based event serving hot breakfast to help London's homeless
  • River clean-up days with Thames21, one of the country's leading waterway charities
  • Art-based workshops at Mall Galleries, for children and young adults who face disabilities and other challenges
  • Maintaining the grounds, plants and animals at Spitalfields City Farm, an essential resource for local people, and an outdoor classroom that offers educational tours to local disadvantaged schools.

The Whitechapel Mission is a charity dedicated to providing a lifeline to homeless people caught in the cycles of poverty, hopelessness and dependency. Founded in 1876, the Mission is open every day of the year, providing food, clothing, shelter and medical care, as well as recovery programmes which help vulnerable men and women find permanent accommodation and jobs.

Once a month, a team of between eight and 12 Columbia Threadneedle volunteers cooks and serves breakfast for as many as 300 people who drop-in to the Mission for a hot breakfast and to have a shower, shave, and wash after a night sleeping on the street. Volunteers work together to achieve the challenge on time and offer a warm welcome to Whitechapel’s clients.

                

RedSTART aims to put people in control of their finances, giving them the skills they need to successfully and sustainably manage their financial futures from a young age. Through educational days delivered by RedSTART partners, they work with young people aged between 10 and 18 from a wide variety of schools and locations across the UK.

In 2014 we became a RedSTART partner, with employee volunteers trained to deliver a series of lessons that aim to facilitate best practice in student-led interactive learning. Lessons cover saving, budgeting, assets, investing, wealth, pensions, borrowing and the entrepreneur.