GoogleServe 2010
Housing association painting project
About the community organisation
This charity organisation operates in an area where one in four people are in receipt of worklessness benefits and its aim is therefore to provide homes at affordable rent for those in housing need. As a charity housing association it also organises various community / social services and events for the local community and thus plays an active role in building a stronger, more vibrant community in one of the lowest income areas of Westminster.
The Volunteering Project
On two seperate days, 18 Google volunteers scrubbed down and painted a long car-park wall, plus a couple of smaller walls. Some of the volunteers also revitalised a garden of a resident who has mobility issues. Through the work carried out by the Google volunteers the housing association now have a more pleasant space in which to celebrate their 25 year anniversary together with residents and members of the community.
Housing association staff said "The volunteering teams were very cheerful and they did a fantastic job. Everybody is saying that it has brightened up the whole area. It has raised the morale of the staff as well, because we use that space every day."
One volunteer commented that an added value of this experience was in "gaining an insight into the financial and staffing constraints within which community organisations operate".
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"We wanted to do something for the community as part of Google Serve and yes we achieved that. We wanted to bond as a group and we did that. And we wanted to do something manual instead of something cerebral - we did that too!"
Volunteering Project Team Leader, Google |
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Day Centre Gardening project
About the community organisation
A Day Centre which provides day care for 15 physically frail older people as well as services dedicated to older people with dementia. As part of its service it provides door to door transport, meals, assisted bathing, personal care, outings and shopping trips and other activities like exercises, singing, quizzes - and other opportunities to become involved in the local community.
The volunteering project
14 Googlers volunteered. Arriving laden with plants, they soon got to work transforming the Day Centre’s garden; weeding, pruning, cutting, washing garden furniture and beautiful flowers and plants carefully planted all around. Meanwhile, some of the Google volunteers ran a Bingo game for service users at the Centre and handed out prizes they had brought along to the winners.
After the Bingo game there was a relaxed tea-party sponsored by Google and one of the service users got up to personally thank the volunteers for all the wonderful work they had done throughout the day. |
"The bingo prizes Google staff brought were perfect and the gardening was simply over & above expectations!"
Manager, Day Centre |
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Wildlife sanctuary revitalisation project
About the community organisation
32 years ago, as crumbling canalside terraces were being cleared, a local sculptor asked the local authority for permission to turn the rubble into a park. Westminster gave temporary permission – hence the name, Meanwhile. The name stuck and the Gardens prospered. Over the years through the support of many, many volunteers and a dedicated staff team, the Gardens have continued to thrive. What was once four acres of derelict wasteland is now a lush oasis for young and old alike, at the heart of local community.
The volunteering project
On 18 June 2010, five Google staff volunteered their time to restore the Garden’s centrepiece nature reserve and fit new decking boards, restoring the walkway leading to the pond viewing platform so that young and old alike could enjoy the thriving wildlife in the waters below.
Google sponsored the decking boards and gave the opportunity to 6 volunteers from City Youth to volunteer alongside them in the restoration project. City Youth are made up of school leavers who take a year out before university to volunteer with local communities across London. The project team fitted the decking boards and cleared a new circular pathway around almost the entire circumference of the reed blossoming pond which also serves as a coot-breeding area so that visitors to the gardens can now enjoy the nature up close. Transformative.
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“Great team of volunteers. They did not even take a lunch hour. They ate packed lunches in a few short minutes and then went right back to work!”
Project Director, Community Gardens |
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Google made a special arrangement with Time & Talents for Westminster in summer 2010 to set up these projects and is not yet a full partner
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Articles in this group
Transforming school's outdoor play areas (short)
Three separate teams of PwC volunteers totally transform the outdoor play areas for a local school in Westminster, whilst contributing valuable assets/tools to the school curriculum (Author: )
Transforming school's outdoor play areas
Three separate teams of PwC volunteers totally transform the outdoor play areas for a local school in Westminster, whilst contributing valuable assets/tools to the school curriculum (Author: )