GRCC (Gloucestershire Rural Community Council) is an independent charity that works within Gloucestershire’s communities to inspire, enable, and deliver community action. They work countywide to strengthen and develop communities to create thriving, sustainable places for local people to live and work in, and also support other charities to deliver their own aims.
GRCC encourages both their teams and Board Trustees to volunteer.
Barbara Pond, Director of Operations at GRCC, says 'We are a leading organisation supporting charities who work with volunteers across the county and we feel it is important for us to model best practice around volunteering and employer supported volunteering. We also really believe that it is valuable for our staff’s health and wellbeing’.
All employees are encouraged to take up to 2 days per year to volunteer with an individual or organisation of their choice and at a time of their choosing. Feedback on time spent volunteering is shared regularly at team meetings.
Guy Dobson, VCSE Advice Officer at GRCC, spent one of his volunteering days repairing the sandpit at White City Adventure Playground.
Guy used to run adventure playgrounds in Bristol so it felt great for him to be back on ‘home soil’, connect with the staff and meet some of the community who use the resource. Being ‘back on the tools’ also made a welcome change from desk-based work and Guy derived a lot of satisfaction from seeing a physical improvement to a space which really benefitted from his support.
Guy says: ‘My local adventure playground in White City, Gloucester, known locally as the Venture. I’ve been supporting them for 6 months now with fundraising advice and also doing a few bits on the tools as a volunteer! Thanks to my current employer GRCC for paying for my time to volunteer here, it’s been a triple win.
Big up to Dawn, Carolyn, Tyreese, Billy and Katie and the rest of the team at the playground for their amazing work in the community at White City.’
The team there have been thrilled to have Guy volunteering with them:
‘Huge thank you to Guy from Gloucestershire Rural Community Council for spending one of his Employer Supported Volunteering Days giving our sandpit a much needed make over - it looks brilliant and we are very grateful ‘
