Individual Employee Volunteering in Harlow, Essex

The company, as an educational publishing group, has schemes to support literacy in schools, including donations of books, and encouraging staff to participate in reading partnerships with local primary schools. The individual volunteer wanted to give something back to her local community, and the school were keen to have the support of interested, literate adults for their pupils.

Company Type: Publishing
Venue Type: Primary School
Time Commitment: 1 hour per week, ongoing
Location: Harlow, Essex
Activity Type: Regular weekly support to children learning to read

• Outcomes: The company benefits by developing its presence locally; the volunteer describes a huge sense of self worth as a result of her volunteering; the staff at the school gain from her time and expertise, and the individual children she helps gain confidence and reading skills.
• Venue Profile: The school is a local primary school, catering for approx 200 children aged 4 – 11 from the local area.
• Process: Before starting her volunteering, the volunteer attended a 3 hour training session with CSV about helping children in a primary school, and underwent a CRB and reference checks. The school then gave her an induction to helping children with literacy. Now she goes in regularly once a week during term time during her lunch hour. She sees the same children each week. She is now in her fourth year of volunteering at the same school and CSV maintain
  regular contact for support. She has seen the progression of the children’s confidence and reading skills over the years.
• Feedback:
  • “In these days of such pressure in the workplace, I find it so grounding to take this time out to do something at a much slower pace.”
  • “It gives me such a sense of simple self worth, being able to do something so small which makes a huge difference to these children.
  • “We value the support given by our reading volunteers. The children really enjoy their weekly reading sessions and it helps to improve their self-esteem.”
  • “It’s so useful having a regular person to spend quality time with individual children supporting their reading.”