Our community relationships: the partners (original) (raw)
Schools: reading, literacy, employability and leadership mentoring
At Winton, volunteers help to run a weekly chess club and provide regular reading support. We also donate books to the school library.
“I enjoy teaching schoolchildren chess, and GMG gives me the time to do that, for that I am very grateful.” - Chess club volunteer
“Jim [Guardian volunteer who organises the club] is really great with the kids and makes a lot of effort to get their every week. It’s great to see the children really engaged with chess and want to learn how to play rather than just turning up for the sake of it. My favourite moment so far was at the end of a session when one of the kids said “Oooh, I wish Chess Club was every day.”
“Reading with your pupil at Winton is most rewarding especially when you see their little faces light up when you arrive and also how they progress over the year. I find it very rewarding!” - Reading support volunteer
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (EGA)
EGA is a secondary school for girls aged 11 to 16, located just a few minutes from the GNM offices in Kings Place. Our work there includes the running of the Booked Up reading club and helping the girls to develop employability skills such as CV writing and interviewing skills. There is also mentoring for girls who have leadership roles at the school and there are regular book donations to the school library.
“Volunteering at EGA School on Employability day is not only good for the young women but reminds me how much I know and can offer to others.”
Richard Cloudesley special needs school
Colleagues volunteer regularly at Richard Cloudesley, helping out in the classroom.
Older people: helping to tackle isolation and loneliness
Volunteers work at the Great Croft resource centre, running darts matches, singing sessions, poetry workshops and other leisure activities. Some colleagues spend an hour a week visiting older clients of Age Concern in local sheltered housing, as part of the Dementia befriending scheme . At Christmas, volunteers run a stall at the Guardian, sellinggifts and crafts made by clients at the resource centre. And the Guardian prints the monthly newsletter for Opening Doors London, an organisation that provides information and support services with and for older members of London’s LGBT community.
“_I always enjoy the volunteering I do with Age UK Camden Great Croft Centre and find it very rewarding._” - Great Croft volunteer
Bemerton villages management organisation is a tenant-run residents committee and Team Cally supports local residents and businesses in the Caledonian ward.
Volunteers from GNM help to run Job Club supporting local seekers with CV writing, job applications and interview practice. Guardian volunteers also help to maintain computers at the Cally Resource centre that’s used for classes and training sessions. And we donat books to the Cally festival
“_When people realise you care it makes all the difference._” – Job club volunteer
Contributors to Live Mag UK take part in Lunch and learn sessions at the Guardian for sessions on writing for film and music and how to contribute to Comment is free.
Pentonville prison
The prison produces a quarterly magazine and radio station with help and support from Guardian journalists who running skill sessions and training in InDesign and picture research.
“I have found doing workshops at Pentonville very stimulating and rewarding because the prisoners are so engaged and obviously interested. The level of effort that they put in and the group conversation is always moving and uplifting as well as extremely interesting. I have learnt so much from the experience of volunteering there.” - Regular volunteer at the newsletter clas_s_
Homelessness/young people
**New Horizon Youth Centre **is a social enterprise programme that aims to give young people who attend the centre the chance to acquire skills they need to start their own business. Guardian staff run marketing masterclasses and provide one-to-one mentoring. They also help out with developing a social media strategy for the centre. Last Christmas, Guardian staff donated more than 70 ‘Secret Santa’ gifts for young people who attend the centre and the Guardian Angels choir sang at a fundraising concert. Occasionally Guardian volunteers who are bilingual help out with translation for younger people accessing their services.
Environmental/youth leadership and enterprise
We provided event space for a book launch and Honey club auction and exhibition. Young people from Global Generation also toured GNM’s offices and attended a session designed to give them into journalism.
Environmental/local habitats
The Guardian is a corporate member of the London Wildlife Trust(LWT) and provides space and catering for its AGM. LWT events are also publicised regularly to staff .
The Guardian is also a member of the Media Trust through its parent company Guardian Media Group. This year we ran a speedmatching session with our partners.
The projects above don’t include our yearly annual volunteering week. You can read more about this here (link to VW14 report).