THERE’S MORE TO COME SAY COVENTRY CITY OF CULTURE ORGANISERS

At its six-month mark, organisers said that Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture has already brought major benefits to the city–and there is more to come.

Coventry City of Culture kicked off in May last year in the midst of tough Covid-19 restrictions.

Since then City of Culture has seen activity across every neighbourhood in Coventry, including smaller events created alongside communities such as Party on the Green and European Hearts as well as city centre celebrations. There has also been larger, citywide activity including Coventry Moves, Faith, Little Amal’s Walk, the ambitious artwork which has travelled the work, and Summer of Surprises.

The Coventry City of Culture Trust has directly created 102 jobs, including employing 14 apprentices, and the year-long event has secured £172.6 million of direct investment into the city since winning the title in December 2017.

Martin Sutherland, Chief Executive of the Coventry City of Culture Trust, said: “The city can be proud of everything that has been achieved over the last six months – but there’s much more to come in the second half of our year.”

“There’s so much to look forward to as our year runs through to May 2022.

“We can already see the positive legacy of our investment in people that will benefit the whole city longer term.”

A unique partnership has seen a forest of 1,000 trees planted to celebrate new staff joining a business outsourcing provider.

Working with international environmental charity Treedom, which allows people to adopt or dedicate a tree Tanzania, Ecuador and Madagascar, Sigma Connected has purchased a forest of young trees with the dual aim of helping to cut carbon emissions and to celebrate new colleagues completing their probationary periods at the firm.

The Worcestershire company, which offers ‘white label’ customer contact centre services across the energy, water, retail and financial services, has signed a partnership with Treedom for The Sigma Forest, with thousands more trees to be planted in the coming years.

As part of the initiative, Sigma Connected staff receive a photo of the moment the tree, which could be a fruit tree or another species, is planted in either Tanzania, Ecuador or Madagascar. They then receive regular updates about the tree and the farmer caring for it.

Founded in 2010, Treedom aims to improve the environment and help to provide social benefits to farmers and their workers.