TH March Group recently announced to colleagues its Employer-Supported Volunteering Scheme which gives employees at TH March Group the opportunity to volunteer during working hours and contribute their time to make a positive difference within our local communities.
Jo Morgan (Regional Director – HR) comments: “I am pleased TH March have launched our Employer Supported Volunteering, it something we have been working on for a while. There are so many benefits to ESV for employees, employers, and local communities. TH March have branches all around the UK and we will be encouraging all staff to participate and have some fun connecting with local communities and businesses.”
During April 2023, Jo Morgan and Jo Federico decided to use their ESV time and offer St Luke’s Hospice Plymouth support with their online, pre-loved clothing business b.kinda. St Luke’s Hospice Plymouth is an independent charity providing specialist care and support to people with progressive life-limiting illnesses.
b.kinda is a fashion for good initiative, a pioneering nationwide online retail business that is selling mystery clothing online for women who want to “re-love the pre-loved”. The team at St Luke’s came up with the novel idea after contemplating the problem of what to do with the thousands of donated pieces of clothing which it hasn’t got space for in its numerous Plymouth stores, the solution was to sell online, with 100% of the profits from b.kinda going to the charity to help fund St Luke’s care.
Individual volunteering can cover several activities and does not necessarily need to be related to an employee’s current role or skills; this can be a chance to try something new.
Jo Morgan (Regional Director – HR) and Jo Federico (Receptionist/Administrative Assistant) both had personal reasons for choosing St Luke’s.
Jo Morgan comments: “My personal reasons for choosing St Luke’s were because they looked after a member of my family in their end-of-life care and the love and support they showed, not only to him, but also to us was invaluable and made such a difficult time easier. I try to take part in the midnight walks each year to support St Luke’s, but the ESV day gave me the further opportunity to support them, and I feel like I made a real contribution. I plan to return in my own time to help out.”
Jo Federico comments: “I feel very passionate about raising money for St Luke’s, this charity is very close to my heart having lost both my Mum and Husband, both at very young ages. I have organised lots of charity events at work over the years raising money for this amazing cause and ran ‘race for life’ a few times and participated in the ‘Midnight Walk’ for many years and look forward to this year’s 13.1 miles.”
Due to the incredible local support of individuals donating clothing, b.kinda has a growing backlog of clothes to sort and organise, checking through the quality of each clothing item as all items need to be immaculate for their new owners. This involves time visually inspecting followed by steam cleaning the items, hanging stock, and helping get the orders ready for boxes and packing. This is where Jo Morgan and Jo Federico stepped in to help and use the ESV time to make a difference.
“I really enjoyed the day and hope to encourage others to spare some time to volunteer.” Jo Morgan said, and Jo Federico commented “I thoroughly enjoyed helping out at St Luke’s for the day and would definitely considering doing so again in my own time.”
Simon Dawe, Managing Director at TH March Group comments: “A high proportion of people want to volunteer, but don’t have time – workplace volunteer schemes can make charitable deeds more accessible. The benefits of this can be enormous, not just for the charity, but for the mental wellbeing of the employees, and even the company, too. Volunteering and working to support charitable causes have never been as important as it is now.”