We’re Digging It! Berkeley Volunteering Month is a Smashing Success

A huge thank you to everyone who took part in Berkeley Volunteering Month throughout June. It was absolutely brilliant to see everyone come together and support our charity partners and the communities that they work in. 

In total, 83 Berkeley colleagues gave their time and skills, volunteering an incredible 460 hours. Opportunities included gardening with Groundwork London, Richard House Children’s Hospice, and St Giles, selling preloved clothes and goods for Crisis, and supporting MyBnk to help teenagers get to grips with their personal finances. 

The Foundation operates a match-funding policy for volunteering with our charity partners. As a result, Berkeley Volunteering Month also generated over £28,000 for our partners. This funding is unrestricted, and an added bonus for the charities. 

Many colleagues signed up to volunteer for the first time. After their day, each volunteer is sent a feedback survey. This helps us understand how we can best promote and support opportunities with our partners going forward. We are delighted that 93% of respondents feel that they made a difference and 78% feel better connected to the communities in which the Berkeley Group operates and feel better connected to the Berkeley Group as a responsible business. And the best part? 100% of volunteers would like to get involved again!

Wendy Pritchard, Company Solicitor for Berkeley Group and one of the Foundation’s Trustees, spent a day with MyBnk delivering financial education sessions to primary school children. The session taught young people to recognise scam texts on their phone, asking them to pay money or make contact via a link. Volunteers worked with the students to answer questions and facilitate discussions, reaching over 60 young people in a day! 

Wendy comments: 

“It was a great day, doing something really worthwhile to help young people protect themselves. The children were really engaged in the exercise. MyBnk were very professional in the way they trained us and encouraged us to deliver training sessions.” 

We’ve had fantastic feedback from other Berkeley volunteers too: 

“The day was fantastic, my favourite volunteering opportunity I’ve done at Berkeley in my 3 years. Energetic, joyful, and inspiring. If there are any other days with the Taverners available for the rest of this year I’d be keen to offer up my services again.”

Max Aitkin, Quantity Surveyor, Berkeley Homes Capital East Thames, volunteering at Lord’s Taverners table cricket final 

“It was a great experience. Such a fantastic initiative, and lovely to chat to local residents who came in during the day and commented on what we were doing.” 

Debbie Larkan, Estates Manager, Berkeley Homes Oxford and Chiltern, volunteering at St Giles Grow Garden

If you didn’t manage to take part in June, we have lots of exciting volunteering slots over summer. All current opportunities are on the Volunteering Hub so head over and have a look now!