Our ambition when we moved to Kings Place in 2008 was to be more than just another shiny new building in King's Cross. We wanted to be an active part of our local community, working on joint projects and sharing resources, so we set about forming relationships with local organisations, schools and charities. As a result, our existing community programme expanded from four to 11 partners.
Nearly six years on, those relationships are thriving and the work we have done together has made a real impact on our local area. The projects include our long-term work with the Great Croft Resource centre, (Age UK Camden), Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School and Winton Primary school, as well as a project started this year at the New Horizons Youth Centre, designed to support young entrepreneurs. One staff member there commented:
Volunteering reminds us we belong to a larger community.
And feedback from other partners speaks volumes about the quality of our connections:
It is good to feel that the Guardian, which has such a big national presence, is also part of our local community. On a practical level it has brought something special to what Global Generation.
Jane Riddiford (director), Global Generation
When you walk past that big building, knowing that you have worked with people from the Guardian, it feels good.
Patrick Prince (young person, Global Generation)
Projects
This year (2013-14) we ran close to 50 individual projects with our community partners and 340 staff volunteered for more than 3,000 hours. These figures include our ongoing volunteering programme, annual volunteering week and volunteers at the GNM Education centre. It is difficult to calculate the reach of our local programme but we estimate this year's projects supported nearly 700 members of our local community.
The GNM Education Centre's reach extends well beyond our local community. This year alone, the centre welcomed 7671 visitors from across the UK, Europe and some international groups. You can read more about their year, which includes winning a World Association of Newspapers 2013 award, in the Education Centre article.
We have regular meetings with our community partners to make sure the volunteering programme and projects are running effectively, and we monitor the impact they are making.
Planning process
After an independent monitoring and evaluation of the community programme took place in 2012, we began a more formal yearly review and planning process. This process, involving meetings with all partners, looks at the impact and reach of the previous year's collaboration. It also allows us to assess the viability of proposed projects for the year ahead in terms of resource such as staff skills and time, as well as projects that are most effective in meeting the needs of our partners.
The planning process allows us to develop a clear programme for the year ahead. It also helps us to review the scale of our activities so we are able to keep in step with the reduction in internal resources and changes within the business. And while our ambition is to work with our partners for the long term, sometimes the end of a project, the carbon reduction partnerships for example, supports the transition to a more manageable programme.
Challenges
We can summarise the main challenges we face under the following three headings:
Balancing community and business needs
One of the biggest challenges for the community programme is to demonstrate value to key internal stakeholders while, at the same time, supporting our partners and running volunteering projects that staff enjoy and find rewarding. These challenges don't have to be mutually exclusive: when a project works well, everyone benefits – our partners, our staff and our business.
We are seeing the fruits of our efforts at GNM where there has been increasing and sustained engagement at a senior level with volunteering. For example, board members contribute to developing the themes and objectives for volunteering week. In 2013, this was collaboration, which is also one of the objectives of GNM's transformation programme. And there is also a senior sponsor for each of the volunteering week projects.
Our reporting process also illustrates the value of volunteering in a tangible way. Data from across the business is used to demonstrate performance against our four key challenges. This includes information collected from volunteering surveys about engagement and motivations.
Feedback from our volunteering surveys in September 2013 and March 2014 reinforces the value of volunteering to the business in key areas such as being a good place to work, taking pride in GNM and the well-being and happiness of employees:
I really enjoy the volunteering programme I'm involved with, at Winton primary school. It really enhances my week when I get out of the office and into a completely different place. I'm very pleased that GNM has such a commitment to voluntary and community partnerships - I think it's one of the things that really marks us out as a good organisation to work for.
I am really proud to work for a company that prioritises volunteering and try to get involved as much as possible.
It really does inspire you even in your everyday work. I think it's great that the Guardian encourages staff volunteering.
Having volunteered this year, I think it was a very valuable experience for me personally and for GNM. I also believe the children we worked with really valued the opportunity to have exposure to our organisation.
Communication and engagement
We do get great feedback from staff who get involved in the programme but it's clear that some people find it hard to take part because of work pressures. The survey findings also highlighted the need for better communication of volunteering opportunities and the community programme. The coverage and the participation in volunteering week, including giant drawing boards detailing the week's events as they happen in communal areas in the building, help to raise awareness. A number of staff who take part in the volunteering week go on to take part in projects that run throughout the year.
Overall, staff who take part in volunteering at GNM report it as being a very positive experience:
94% of people who responded in a survey said they are likely/very likely to recommend volunteering to a colleague.
Some volunteers carry on working with community partners, even after they have left the Guardian. And it is clear from feedback that volunteering can be a very fulfilling thing to do:
Volunteering at Winton is easy, fun, rewarding - and a great excuse to re-read Roald Dahl. The pupils and teachers are very appreciative, and there is a lovely sense of satisfaction to be had in watching a child progress over the year.
Skills sharing and development
When a partner needs volunteer(s) with specific skills, we make sure they team up with the right people for the job, from the right areas of the business. As well as meeting our partners' needs, it gives people an opportunity to develop their skills, as feedback from our volunteers illustrates:
Volunteering is a great way to give something back, at the same learning new skills.
Volunteering certainly gave me an opportunity to learn new skills.
Very enjoyable and worthwhile.
I learnt lots of new skills and more about the area.
One area where this is particularly true is IT: this year saw the third technology team away day, at Camley Street Natural Park (London Wildlife Trust). We have also run an IT skills sharing project with our digital development team and our technology team continue to provide IT support for two of our partners - Global Generation and Bemerton Villages Management Organisation.
We have also developed a good relationship with the marketing staff, who have been supporting the social enterprise project with New Horizons Youth Centre. And, to help people who are keen to develop their project management and organisational skills, we created the volunteer project manager role, which comes into play during volunteering week.
