Programme updates
UK: Community benefits as Group Finance think global, act local
Date: 11 Jun 2008
The GFBS and Global Finance Change teams
who worked on the community centre project.
Colleagues from Group Finance in the UK have been supporting a local community centre that serves 20,000 residents in a London suburb.
The Group Financial Business Solutions (GFBS) and Group Finance Change teams spent a day away from their desks providing essential gardening and refurbishment work at the Grove Centre, a community centre in Sydenham, south-east London.
The centre runs a range of activities for members of the local community, including toddler drop-in and a lunch club for the elderly.
The centre is so well used that finding a time when essential redecoration work could be done had been proving a real challenge for the centre manager.
Event organiser Robert Chorley from the GFBS team said: "We set to work repainting the lounge, kitchen and toilets in the morning.
"After lunch while the centre was occupied by a baby weigh-in clinic, we moved outside to tackle the rear and front gardens. We cut back hedges and bushes and removed large quantities of undergrowth, ivy and brambles."
It was a rewarding experience for everyone involved, giving something back to the local community and helping to build team spirit, he said.
Judith Buttigieg, group financial solutions and change director, explained the importance of the day: "This kind of community-based activity can make a real difference to people's lives and is another way that Aviva can achieve its purpose - bringing prosperity and peace of mind.
"It's about all of us doing many small things that together make a difference," she said.
Walter Hayn, the Grove Centre manager, contacted the team the day after the refurbishment work to thank them for their support.
He said: "I'm still trying to take yesterday in! It would have taken a capable handyman labouring away for well over a month to do what your team did yesterday. Thank you for also going the extra mile - getting everything so well cleaned up and packed away."
The work was arranged through Business in the Community, an organisation that challenges its 800 member companies to improve the impact they have on society and the environment.
