Leading the Way: Volunteerism for Corporate Social Responsibility

As a social enterprise, ECS has embraced volunteerism as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy. ECS encourages employees to volunteer in local communities, focusing on initiatives related to health and social care, wellbeing, tacking social isolation and loneliness, environmental sustainability and building community cohesion. To enable this, all employees are encouraged to use two paid days off each year in order to volunteer in their community. Our hope as an employer is that our commitment to volunteerism not only improves lives but helps to ensure we remain a socially responsible employer.

We will be shining a spotlight on our amazing employees who give up their time to volunteer and sharing their stories of how they make a difference. In recent months two of our staff have taken the opportunity use some of their volunteering hours.

On International Women’s Day, our Community Outreach Lead at Healthwatch Halton, Kathy McMullin volunteered along with the Sisters in Arms Wirral Branch (Female Veterans and family members) at an event for children by Everton in the Community at The Peoples Place.

WRAC (Women's Royal Army Corp) and WRNS (Women’s Royal Naval Service) Veterans along with serving Armed Forces supported the event and school children from around Merseyside was invited to the event to try out different stands and activities. The veteran volunteers supported the Armed Forces area where children could find out about different roles in the Armed Forces, speak to the veterans, try on uniforms past and present, explore military equipment and even taste ration pack food.

Our Research Manager, Deborah Faulks, spreads her volunteering hours over the year, taking an hour every month and matching it with her own time, to bake cakes for her local Befrienders group coffee morning where there are regularly around 30 people in attendance.

In rural areas people often live quite a distance from local village centres and for older people who lack their own transport this can be particularly lonely and isolating. ‘Residents of rural areas have multiple barriers to connecting with one another, including transportation challenges, built environments that are not always walkable or conducive to social interaction, more limited economic resources, less access to broadband Internet and cellular connectivity, and more restricted access to health care, including mental health care. Each of these is heightened for older adults in rural areas, who tend to be less mobile than their younger counterparts and more reliant on resources within their particular community.’ Henning-Smith C. Meeting the Social Needs of Older Adults in Rural Areas. JAMA Health Forum. 2020;1(11): e201411. doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2020.1411

The Befrienders group has a range of different weekly activities with chair exercise sessions, coffee mornings and outings throughout the year. There is an activity every week that people can be involved with, and the Befrienders group have access to the Parish Council minibus to be able to pick up people who are unable to make their own way there.

Elizabeth Learoyd, Managing Director at ECS commented “As a Community Interest Company, we remain committed to empowering communities through volunteering initiatives, and we look forward to increasing our reach and range of volunteering activities.”