The heating has finally been switched on and it's getting toasty on the inside as we get chillier outside, happy October to you!
Not to alarm you but we have only 9 weeks to go until Christmas! Much like the rest of this year, celebrations are going to look a bit different to previous years. We would love to hear if you are making plans and if you're thinking about how you might like to volunteer for the festive season! Maybe you're organising a collection or thinking of running something online, let us know!
What do we do?!
Very often the starting point for employees looking to volunteer is to complete our Team Oxford Skills Audit. Sometimes it can be tricky to know where to start when thinking about volunteering so we start by finding out what skills an employee has, so we can match them to volunteering opportunities. Exciting no?
Once a team of employees has completed their Skills Audit, we collate their information into a snazzy Team Oxford Skills Report containing a summary of the responses. This is a great way of learning more about your colleagues' skills and abilities and is a great tool for offering a voluntary organisation with a menu of potential help!
If you'd like to hear more, do get in touch with Hannah Mackie, Team Oxford Project Coordinator via hello@team-oxford.co.uk
The Westgate Centre’s headquarters office is looking to lend its expertise to Team Oxford member OCVA (Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action). As a large employer, Westgate has expertise in areas as diverse as procurement, web development and health and safety. OCVA is a membership organisation of around 300 Oxfordshire-based voluntary organisations. They provide advice, information and training to their members and are a great way for Team Oxford to make available skills and expertise and economies of scale not normally available to smaller charities
Things are in full-swing with Bouygues, a global company with offices in Oxford. They have taken on a graduate intern for 6-months and excitingly one of her objectives is to increase employee participation in volunteering. Part of this has been encouraging employees to fill in the skills audit with Team Oxford.
If you’d like to chat with us about building up your company’s employee programme, do get in touch.
This winter, Oxford's night shelter provision for rough sleepers has had to evolve with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Where in previous years communal spaces including churches and community centres would open up overnight for people to bed down for the night, this is now not 'Covid secure'. Aspire is currently putting together their plans to address this by working to bring online newly acquired accommodation with self-contained rooms becoming available when the weather becomes dangerously cold.
OCVA has their Trustee Week coming up 2-6 November including a virtual trustee fair. If you’re interested in becoming a trustee, this is the event for you! Find all the information on OCVA's website here.
Business planning guru needed!
Oxford Mutual Aid is a volunteer-led organisation tackling food poverty by distributing donations to families in need. They need help with writing a business plan.
Can you help? Get in touch with Hannah for more details.
A message from our friends at Oxford Hub
"At the beginning of the pandemic we really needed everyone out and about connecting with your street - as winter comes in and doorstep chats become more difficult, we do really need people on the phones!
We know that isolation is really becoming less manageable for people, and we have received lots of referrals from people who would like to have a friendly check-in. We are training Phone Link callers all the time, but the number of callers we can place is limited by the number of Phone Pod Leaders we have.
If you have the time to become a Pod Leader, the next training session is Monday 26th at 6pm for one hour. Email Miriam to register your interest."
Thanks for reading and have a marvellous weekend!
Take care and stay safe.
Hannah Mackie
Team Oxford Project Coordinator
email: hannah@aspireoxford.co.uk