The CSV Make a Difference Day Awards, which are sponsored by Barclays Community Investment Programme, recognise the huge impact that volunteers have on the lives of others in their community. They help transform lives by providing friendship to lonely and isolated older people, give new hope to homeless people and bring smiles to the faces of disabled children.

CSV Make a Difference Day is the biggest single day of volunteering with a record breaking 120,000 volunteers taking part in over 4000 activities in 2006, around a 5% increase on the year before.

The CSV Make a Difference Day Awards will take place on Thursday 1st February 2007 at Plaisterer's Hall, London.


ENDS


Further press information: Esther Freeman, CSV Make a Difference Day Press Office on 020 7812 0035 or email: efreeman@csv.org.uk Out of office hours: 07981 591150

Latest press releases: www.csv.org.uk/press


Notes for Editors


1. CSV Make a Difference Day will take place on Saturday 27th October in 2007.

2. CSV (Community Service Volunteers) creates opportunities for people to take an active part in the life of their communities through volunteering, training and community action. Each year 227,000 people give 5 million hours of their time as volunteers through CSV. CSV trains 12,705 people of all ages.

3. Barclays PLC actively encourages employee involvement and provides direct support through its employee community programmes. These include paid time off in work time for volunteering, grants for group volunteering activities, matched fundraising and matched payroll giving.

4. In 2005, more than 26,000 Barclays employees around the world took advantage of the support available to them for their work in the community - to the benefit of more than 7,500 charities and community groups.

5. Last year, more than 10,000 Barclays employees took part in Make A Difference Day activities around the world. This year, international volunteering is up by 63% to 8,200 people, in 24 countries outside the UK. Colleagues in Thailand, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Portugal are taking part for the first time.

6. Barclays is taking its community investment responsibilities seriously - investing £39.1 million in 2005. The organisation focuses on the areas where it can use its knowledge and expertise to make the biggest difference to key social issues. In the UK, this includes programmes about money education, debt advice, financial inclusion and getting people into work. Barclays also strives to strengthen the local communities in which they operate, and are investing £30 million over three years in grassroots sport through Barclays Spaces for Sports.

7. For further information see social responsibility at http://www.barclays.com. Media enquiries contact: Jon Logie, Barclays PLC on 0207 116 6040.



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