Businesses - here are the opportunities you have been waiting for!

Take a look at the many wonderful opportunities available to businesses to help out in the community and support worthy causes.

Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research's - Wheels at Work

In this article:

  • Firms urged to give a lift to Hospice’s heroic drivers
  • Buckinghamshire Care asks businesses to get a taste of innovative funding project
  • Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research's Wheels at Work campaign
  • ChildCare Malawi supporting disabled and disadvantaged children
  • Carers Trust Thames achieves grant success and calls for more care workers

Firms urged to give a lift to Hospice’s heroic drivers

A hospice charity is appealing to firms to give a lift to the dedicated volunteer drivers who give up their time for free to help patients with life-limiting illnesses. Ten volunteers currently ferry patients to and from South Bucks Hospice from all around the area – though the charity is in urgent need of more drivers.

Now it is calling on local companies to pitch in by providing small incentives to the selfless volunteers to reward their efforts and, at the same time, encourage more to sign up. One suggestion is that a taxi business gives vouchers to the volunteers to allow them to enjoy free travel when they need it. But any business can show its support for these dedicated drivers by offering special discounts or complimentary ‘treats’.

Mary-Ann Leader, Community Engagement Officer at the Hospice, explained: “Our terrific ten drivers really make a massive difference to the lives of our patients who, otherwise, might find themselves isolated because they couldn’t get to us and they would miss out on life-affirming care.

“These volunteers give up their own time to help people in urgent need, so we would love to find local companies to give a ‘lift’ to these heroes in the form of occasional complementary cab rides, discounts on products or services, or anything a business feels it can offer. The volunteers would never ask for this themselves, nor would they expect it, but it would be a wonderful gesture to show them how the community appreciates their efforts.”

The Hospice, based in High Wycombe, serves the whole of South Buckinghamshire and is building a new £4.7m headquarters in Totteridge, which is due to open in 2017. It is urgently in need of funds to support more nurses, buy equipment for the new hospice and buy a new van to support its shops.

Anyone who can help should ring 01494 896563 or email Mary-Ann.Leader@sbhospice.org.uk.

Buckinghamshire Care asks businesses to get a taste of innovative funding project

Leading social care provider Buckinghamshire Care is calling out to businesses across the county as it launches an innovative scheme aimed at funding community projects.

Buckinghamshire Care, which last month was named EDF Energy Newcomer SME of the Year at the National Apprenticeship Awards, is holding its first-ever Soup Meeting in April that will see businesses from across the county invited to raise money for local community groups, charities and other organisations that will use the funds for projects and activities to benefit the local community.

Charities will be invited to present their ideas at the event – to be held at Aylesbury Opportunities Centre – where businesses will then decide which project is funded.

Benefits to businesses

  • Networking: the evening offers the opportunity to network with a wide selection of local firms and dignitaries, opening the potential for future business.
  • Publicity: the advertising of the event will raise the profile of donating companies within the local community.
  • Community engagement: the event offers the donating companies a way to engage with a wider cross section of the local community.

Benefits to charities

  • All charities and groups pitching will gain publicity for their cause
  • The winning charity will secure funding
  • Unsuccessful charities may receive offers of help from the audience if they are lucky.

The Soup Meeting is a relatively new approach to raising money for charities in the UK, though this approach to funding projects has been successful over the past decade in the United States.

Those who attend the event will be given a bowl of soup, a bread roll and a hot drink, all for a minimum donation of £5 per person. All money donated at the event will be given to the winning project.

The event is being created by Buckinghamshire Care’s Back2Base project, which supports adults with learning disabilities, autism and mental health problems back into the workplace through a range of employment schemes.

James Alford – Buckinghamshire Care’s Back2Base Manager – said: “Our vision is to ‘create opportunities which positively impact every person and community’. I would encourage businesses in Buckinghamshire to play a part in this event and ask charities and community groups to contact us with their ideas.”

Buckinghamshire Care’s Soup Meeting will take place on 12 April at Aylesbury Opportunities Centre, starting at 6pm. If your business is interested in being part of this event, please call Buckinghamshire Care on 0333 121 0121, or email jalford@buckinghamshirecare.co.uk.

If you run a charity or local community group and have a project idea, you can submit it via www.buckinghamshirecare.co.uk/contact.

Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research's Wheels at Work campaign

In this Paralympic year, Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research is asking their fellow Buckinghamshire Business First members to get a small insight into life as a wheelchair user, by opting to do a sponsored day's work in a wheelchair at your office, either on your own, or with your team.

In doing so, you will be raising money for their vital research that will improve the quality of life for people living with a spinal cord injury throughout the UK.

Organisations across Buckinghamshire have already taken part and gained so much from the experience. Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury College and local businesses and schools have all found it has had a profound impact on their understanding and empathy for wheelchair users. Their short film will give you a snapshot of how it works and their website will also answer any questions you may have about taking part.

They are looking for two businesses per month to take part, with those that do featuring on their website and social media. So pick your month and set a date for your special day and let Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research take care of all the logistics with the help of their campaign partners, the mobility specialists, Gerald Simonds.

To find out more about the benefits of joining in, please email briony.brock@smsr.org.uk or visit www.lifeafterparalysis.com.

ChildCare Malawi supporting disabled and disadvantaged children

ChildCare Malawi’s main purpose is to provide wheelchairs for children in Malawi whose parents cannot afford to pay for them and provide ongoing support for these children and their families.

The charity also seeks a wide range of donations to support other disadvantaged children.

Clothing, cooking and lighting

ChildCare Malawi collects nearly new children's clothes, toys, books and household items in the UK for distribution in Malawi. They also supply portable, fuel-efficient cooking stoves and solar lights purchased in Malawi to support local businesses.

Donate your wedding dress project

This involves collecting wedding dresses and bridal accessories from jewellery and tiaras to clutch bags and bridesmaid dresses donated in the UK and hiring them out at reasonable prices in Malawi to brides who could otherwise not afford to get married in style.

Wheelchair project

As there is no government funding available for the provision of wheelchairs in Malawi, they remain beyond the reach of all disabled children whose families cannot afford to pay for them. ChildCare Malawi’s bespoke wheelchairs are made by Malawian technicians in the Orthopaedic Centre workshop at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre.

Ongoing support

ChildCare Malawi firmly believes in continuity of care and the importance of supporting all the children in a family rather than focusing exclusively on one child, which could result in sibling rivalry. Depending on particular circumstances, they create an individual support package for each family, focusing primarily on education, which they see as the most effective way of breaking the demoralising, repetitive cycle of abject poverty. Having provided a family with an opportunity to start building a better, more sustainable future for themselves, ChildCare Malawi closely monitor their progress.

Further information on Princes Risborough-based ChildCare Malawi is available online: www.childcaremalawi.org.uk.

Carers Trust Thames achieves grant success and calls for more care workers

Local social care charity, Carers Trust Thames, have been awarded £10,000 to help people with a learning disability to learn new skills. Now, they are looking for caring and compassionate people across Buckinghamshire to work with them to support their clients.

Carers Trust Thames support nearly anyone who needs help to live independently – from people aged over 100 with a variety of health conditions to children with autism whose parents need some time to themselves, the charity is here to help.

The Learn To Trust Yourself grant from the Whalley White Charitable Trust is there to help their clients with a learning disability, of any age, learn to do something which makes them a bit more independent in future. This could be anything from learning to text a friend to going to the gym alone.

If you would like to work for this great charity that’s right on your doorstep, then get in contact: call 01494 568981 or email info@carerstrustthames.org.uk. Pay starts from £8.63 per hour and full training is provided – it’s your attitude and willingness to learn that counts more than technical experience.

If you would like to find out more about how the charity could support you and your family, call 01494 568981 or email info@carerstrustthames.org.uk.

Business community ambassadors