Our communities are at the heart of what we do...
We continue supporting local charities, events and organisations which contribute to the quality of life in the communities we serve. We’ve come a long way since our inception in 1953 and we continue to maintain our traditional values as we look to the future.
Our CSR programme continues to have two primary purposes and ensures we respond to our communities needs in ways that matter to them the most.
Firstly, by demonstrating our core best practice behaviours as a Building Society:
- Ensuring our commitment to providing responsible financial services
- Serving our customers with honesty and integrity
- Recognising our employees’ contributions and their part in our success
- Striving to optimise benefits for our Members
Secondly, to ensure we have an ongoing commitment to the local communities in and around where we operate.
We take great pride in the work we do in the local communities, our volunteering for local charities and also the fundraising our colleagues do for causes close to their heart. Take a look below at some of the work we have recently done within our local communities.
Small Acts of Kindness – Volunteering 2024
Earlier in the year we contributed another volunteering day at Small Acts of Kindness (SAOK), our third visit in consecutive years. This time four of our team wrapped up and volunteered an afternoon to help pack warm in winter gift bags. These bags are distributed to older and vulnerable people in Hertfordshire to ensure they feel warm and connected within their community.
SAOK mission is to reduce loneliness and isolation for older and vulnerable people, one small act of kindness at a time. The charity does this by sourcing and distributing practical gifts that reduce the negative impact that feeling lonely and isolated can have on older people’s physical and mental wellbeing.
SAOK impact
1 in 5 older people spending their waking day alone. Many struggle to keep warm
105,000 older and vulnerable people are now warmer in their homes, happier and better connected to their communities
450 volunteers and 150 partner organisations help SOAK reach thousands older and vulnerable people each year.
Our time at SAOK is always rewarding and our colleagues fully enjoyed their volunteering session, especially knowing the huge difference that these gift bags make.
You can also visit the Small Acts of Kindness website here: https://www.smallactsofkindness.co.uk/
Watling View School
On Monday 22nd July, eight of our colleagues volunteered a day at Watling View School. Watling View School is a 2-19 maintained special school in St Albans. The school caters for 100 pupils, with a wide range of complex and profound learning difficulties.
Our Savings Operations Association Jane Beddoe talks through the day.
“Our team were told to expect to be doing some painting of classrooms or possibly some outside work, so we were dressed accordingly.
We were met by Mark, the site supervisor, who welcomed us with a broad smile and a knowing look in his eyes – he clearly had a plan for us. We were shown through the school premises to the upper years area where there was a corridor and a room in need of painting. Mark asked for some volunteers to start painting and so 5 of our group were quickly set underway with paint, brushes and rollers. The remaining 3 of us were allocated the outside task of sanding down some metal scaffold-type pole railings. Armed with sandpaper and scrapers we got started. The weather was a bit overcast with a hint of drizzle in the air but was ideal really for the job in hand.
The ”inside” team went great guns and had definitely got more paint on the walls than they had on themselves which is always good. The room was almost finished, and the corridor was looking good. It seemed a good time to stop for lunch, so we congregated in an outside seating area and built our energy levels back up with sausage rolls and some leftover hog roast from our HBS family fun day.
The afternoon flew by in a frenzy of more sanding, scraping, and painting before Mark gave us a half hour warning of time up. Spurred on to get as much done as possible the inside team (who had finished their task) came out to assist with the railings. We didn’t quite get them completely finished but Mark, the supervisor, was very smiley and seemed pleased with our efforts. We got cleared up and headed to the pub for a well-deserved beer!”
Sunnyside Volunteering
Sunnyside Rural Trust is a small, horticultural project for young people and adults with learning disabilities. It is thriving charity and social enterprise with three sites, offering training and work experience for over 150 vulnerable people (trainees) in the local community.
In late May, our 4 intrepid volunteers arrived at Sunnyside Trust in Northchurch ready for a day helping out with various tasks. After a debrief on what our tasks for the day included, we were led over to polytunnels 3&4 which were to be our home for the day. As the pictures will show, our job was to clear the considerable number of overgrown/old plants along with weeding and working alongside a couple of the regular trainees. Sunnyside were a bit behind with the work in the polytunnels due to other priorities, hence our attendance was timely.
Armed with our various gardening tools we launched ourselves into digging, forking and hoeing, with the plant waste piled-up to be loaded into wheelbarrows for distribution around the site, including feed for the 300+ rescue chickens on site.
Once we had cleared the first polytunnel we were given a tour of the site including taking some of the plant waste down to the chickens…they eat most plants and then onto the ducks. After this we were shown their sheep, goats, and then onto to see the 3 pot-bellied pigs which had been rescued from a house in London! Following this we had our lunch, which was provided by the team at the Trust and consisted of produce from the site, including salad, pickles and egg sandwiches, all of which was excellent.
Fortified by our lunch we returned to the polytunnels and set about removing the overgrown plants and weeds, although with a bit less energy than in the morning. At the end of our shift, we had successfully cleared both tunnels. A fantastic day was had by all our team with Sunnyside staff really appreciating our help.
Open Door
Open Door is a community café and arts space in Berkhamsted where locals can be active, creative and social, whatever an individual’s circumstances. Last year, we contributed a grant of £7,600 to Open Door which helped towards phase one of their ‘Community Garden Project’. The garden is part of a wider community enterprise and is available for local residents to enjoy.
In March, six of our colleagues spent a day volunteering at Open Door to help get the garden ready for the Spring/Summer. Our colleagues spent the day hard at work planting numerous plants, including daffodils, forget-me-nots, lilies, snow drops, tulips, and a few strawberry plants. The General Manager was very grateful for our assistance on the day and also for the donations of clothes which were made by colleagues at HBS.
Click here to view more about Open Door: https://www.opendoorberkhamsted.co.uk/
Charity of the year
This year we have selected Mind as our Charity of the Year.
Mind is a mental health charity providing advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. It campaigns to improve services, raise awareness, and promote understanding. (For more information, please click the attached link https://www.mind.org.uk/).
In addition to raising funds via our AGM, we also will be supporting Mind in other ways throughout the course of the year so keep an eye out.
Youth Talk
Youth Talk are a St Albans based charity that provides confidential counselling/ psychotherapy to 13-25 year-olds who live, work and/ or attend school/college in the District of St Albans and surrounding areas.
We have a multi-year commitment with them which allows Youth Talk to provide free counselling, both digitally and in person, to young people with mental health issues. We have also worked with Youth Talk during Mental Health Awareness Week this year. Helping raise awareness of this years topic of 'Anxiety' with fellow colleagues. Youth Talk do incredible work and we are delighted to be able to provide continued support.
You can visit their website by clicking here