Volunteer Voices 2024, Meet National Gas

Employer Supported Volunteering, or Corporate Volunteering, is where the employees of an organisation take time to volunteer during work hours, or organise volunteer activities. Action Together works with local groups across Oldham, Rochdale and Tameside to develop volunteering projects and roles, and then matches workplaces that want to volunteer with local organisations who need their help.

In November 2023, as part of of our Employer Supported Volunteering offer in Rochdale, we successfully placed employees from National Gas with The Bond Board. National Gas approached us expressing their wish to undertake a volunteering day to support a local group that really need that extra help. After speaking with several groups, one that stood out to was The Bond Board.

The Bond Board has been operating in Rochdale since 1993 and is a registered charity that exists to reduce homelessness by getting people on low incomes into private rented accommodation. One of many support initiatives they offer is their regular 'Quid's In' coffee mornings at St Andrews Church in Rochdale, and they were in need of volunteers to support in the kitchen as well as front of house.

National Gas were more than happy to support and, since volunteering in November, they have developed quite a partnership and have since returned to volunteer again for The Bond Board in January this year!

Emma Bellis, National Gas said;

“I just want to say a big thank you for allowing myself and my team to come and volunteer on Wednesday, we had a great time!

We really enjoyed having an opportunity to understand The Bond Board, the super hard-working team you have there and also meet the people who depend on your services. Also thank you Action Together for helping set this up for us.”

The Bond Board said;

“It was so good to welcome four Employer Supported Volunteers from National Gas with us at our Coffee Morning today. They got stuck in with supporting our existing volunteers in the kitchen and helping to manage our donations table. They enjoyed it so much they want to come back! A big thank you to Action Together for facilitating what will hopefully be a brilliant ongoing partnership.”