Mayor goes back to school to urge businesses to get volunteering

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson turned his hand to teaching today to highlight skills-based volunteering opportunities.  The Mayor taught Latin and Ancient History studies to pupils at St. Saviour's & St. Olave's Secondary School, in south London, as he called on medium sized businesses in the capital to sign up to employer supported volunteering.

After teaching the students, the Mayor shared his experiences with representatives from 200 businesses at City Hall.  He encouraged them to allow their staff up to three days leave annually to volunteer their skills with the wider community.  The Mayor was joined by speakers from charitable trusts and medium sized businesses, including etc.venues who have embraced the scheme. The event took place in support of National Volunteering Week (1st – 7th June).

The Mayor said: “My goal is to make volunteering an everyday part of working life in our city. If every medium to large sized business gave 25 per cent of their staff a day off, this would create a million additional days of volunteering. Businesses are heaving with skilled staff that could add immeasurable value to society.

“The business case is compelling, with companies who offer volunteering reporting greater staff retention, training, leadership and motivation at work.  I thoroughly enjoyed teaching a Latin class today and it’s a subject that 70 per cent of state schools would love to offer, but simply do not have the trained staff. There are so many worthy recipients of our time, I hope I am able to raise the momentum for businesses of every shape and size to really get on board.”

Dr Irene Bishop, Head teacher at St Olaves said: “We were delighted to welcome Boris to our school and appreciated his contribution to our class. We couldn't provide enrichment opportunities such as Latin without the hard work of our teachers and our partnerships. For Latin studies we have benefited from volunteer teachers from Dulwich College and James Alleys Girls  (as part of our independent/state school partnership) and now from the A level students from Westminster School. MAGNIFICUS! EUGE!”

While many of London’s biggest firms are already committed to a volunteering policy, medium sized businesses (100 to 500 employees) need more encouragement to get on board. Etc.venues is a successful medium sized firm who back the initiative.   

Alastair Stewart MD of etc.venues said: “As a business operating in a frenetic industry, life is very busy but making time for our staff volunteering programme has been an important part of raising team spirit and staff development. I'm not an obvious do-gooder but we really do see the benefits from our efforts. It allows us to escape from our day to day pressures, and gives us a perspective on what's going on in the real world. Finding the right activity is important, which is why we were so pleased when Heart in the City put us in touch with Carmel McConnell at Magic Breakfast, which provides over a million healthy breakfasts to London primary school children and this was a great scheme for us."

KPMG, like many larger businesses has encouraged staff to volunteer and offer up to five days leave a year.

Dr Ashley Steel from KPMG said: “Never has there been a more opportune time to re-shape and more explicitly link volunteering with skills development.  Forward-looking organisations are focusing more attention on how to leverage volunteering to maximise benefit to the volunteer and local community.” 

During the business event a range a number of exhibitors, including brokerages such as Business in the Community, London Education Business Partnerships, Youthnet, and Timebank, explained the types of volunteering activities they offer, typically with schools, charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises.

Ends

Notes to editors

1.The Mayor has given all Greater London Authority staff three days a year leave for volunteering activities. His advisers and directors will be involved in a variety of activities during volunteering week (1 – 7 June) and on an ongoing basis. Events include restoration work on HMS Belfast and environmental task force for Capital Clean-up.

2. 200 senior executives of medium size firms attending the business event on 26th May will be asked to be the first signatories of the mayor’s volunteering network, a simple online pledge to give their staff time off for community participation.

3.For more information on volunteering for medium sized businesses visit:
http://www.london.gov.uk/get-involved/volunteering/businesses