Swapping Paddington desks for decorating
Eighteen employees from Vodafone’s global HR team swapped their desks for decorating on Wednesday 4 October, when they spent the afternoon at The Marylebone Project – a social landlord providing accommodation to women in Westminster and delivering education, employment and training opportunities to support people into independent living. In just a few hours the team transformed residents’ corridors with a fresh coat of bright green paint and the laundry room and communal stairwells also benefited.
The volunteer team was made up of Vodafone colleagues based around the world – the furthest travelling from India. The team get together just a couple of times a year and so the afternoon spent as a team on a shared, practical project was a unique opportunity for the group to spend time in each other’s company.
“Being new to Vodafone, I loved the team-building element to the day and getting to know my colleagues better; but what really gave me a buzz was how much we managed to achieve in a very short period of time, working as a team to create a better living environment for the residents of The Marylebone Project.”
“I really enjoyed some of the conversations with team members from Luxembourg and India that I had not met before, but my personal highlight of the day was to suddenly realise that we were done and how quickly the day had gone by.”
For the majority of the team this was the first voluntary activity they had undertaken this year, but they seem to have the bug – two thirds being interested in volunteering again in the future. Of most interest were opportunities to provide mentoring support, to deliver one-off workshops teaching CV skills and volunteering in schools. The Paddington Partnership looks forward to working with the team to co-ordinate these opportunities in the future. In the meantime we are working with other members of Vodafone over Christmas and New Year, so do look out for tales of their volunteering here.
If you feel inspired and would like to get involved in your local community, contact our Community Programme Manager, Emily.
16.11.17
