Social Impact Report 2023

The Paddington Partnership Social Impact Report 2023

The Paddington Partnership Community Programme 2023 In the year that The Paddington Partnership celebrated its 25th anniversary, our Community Programme saw a return to pre-pandemic levels of volunteering.

We end 2023 with plenty to celebrate; having engaged more volunteers and supported a greater number of beneficiaries than ever before across our six key strands of work: investing in young people, enhancing the local environment, reducing loneliness and digital exclusion, transforming community spaces, promoting life sciences and channelling donations.

This social impact report spotlights the contribution the Community Programme has made in 2023, with record numbers achieved.

Volunteers from Paddington companies at St Mary Magdalene & St Stephen’s CE Primary School.

36

Over

9,300

companies engaged in

volunteering hours delivered

community activity

38

7,625

charities, schools and community groups supported

unique beneficiaries reached through corporate volunteering

Proportion of activity hours under this theme

33%

Strand of work

Investing in young people Reducing loneliness and digital exclusion

21%

Transforming community spaces

21% 13%

Enhancing the local environment

9%

Channelling donations Promoting life sciences

3% 3

Investing in Young People Good careers provision in education is defined by the eight Gatsby Benchmarks and is the responsibility of all education providers to implement. Our Community Programme is committed to supporting primary, secondary, special schools and Further Education colleges in their delivery and in 2023 enabled 1,200 young people from five Westminster schools and City of Westminster College to benefit from CV workshops and careers talks, on topics including apprenticeship programmes and roles within property and STEM industries. These sessions equip students with the skills for completing job searches and applications in an increasingly competitive environment.

Opportunities for direct one-to-one contact with employers have been facilitated via our popular mock interview events. In total, 448 local secondary school students have had the opportunity to participate, with colleagues volunteering from British Land, Derwent London, Equinor, Hellman & Friedman, IQVIA, Marks & Spencer, Sony, Takeda, Tishman Speyer, Vertex and Vodafone to be interviewers. All students received bespoke written feedback to inform future technique.

We have continued to deliver a weekly maths breakfast club at King Solomon Academy (KSA) - first established in 2018 - and still run by the same team of dedicated volunteers from Equinor, who in 2023 hosted 28 sessions. We were delighted to re-introduce bi-weekly reading support for Key Stage 1 pupils at KSA, led by volunteers from M&S.

An M&S reading volunteer enjoys story time with a KSA pupil.

The Community Programme has sought to actively link curriculum learning to careers and life skills by facilitating a six-week after-school club focused on financial literacy to 20 pupils at Wilberforce Primary School. Content was planned and delivered

by Visa employees, enabling pupils to learn about budgeting, saving and interest rates in interactive sessions, with practical tasks and group discussion to maintain engagement and check understanding.

For the fourth consecutive year a mentoring programme was delivered for Year 10 students at The St Marylebone CE School. The mentees had been identified as falling below their peers academically due to challenges around mental health, behaviour and poor attendance and in past years the programme has been run by employees of Visa and Vodafone. The 2023 programme was led by aspiring future leaders from Marks & Spencer and colleagues delivered over 180 hours of mentoring between them; designing and delivering the taught sessions which culminated in a celebratory workplace visit for the mentees.

Outside the classroom the Community Programme has worked in partnership with Heathrow Express and local charity Pursuing Independent Paths to run an ambitious travel training programme for young adults with learning disabilities. Two trips to Heathrow Airport have taken place in 2023 for 11 PiP students, designed to build confidence in navigating stations and train journeys. The participants had the opportunity to design a wrap for the driverless electric pod vehicles at Terminal 5 and the winning design will be printed and unveiled on a pod in January 2024.

A Heathrow Express colleague helps a PiP student safely navigate Heathrow airport.

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Enhancing the Local Environment Sustainability and maintaining the local environment as a safe and accessible space for the community form key elements of many of Paddington companies’ ESG strategies. In 2023, we worked with 233 volunteers to care for five gardens enjoyed by 134 beneficiaries. The gardens were at Penfold Community Hub, a care home and community centre for older residents and at residential properties for adults with learning disabilities managed by LDN London. Volunteers mowed and sowed lawns, removed weeds, sanded, varnished and painted fencing, sheds and garden furniture to create enjoyable and welcoming spaces for older people and those with learning or physical disabilities to spend time in nature.

Visa volunteers pot plants and share gardening skills with older people at Penfold Community Hub.

Paddington volunteers brightened up grounds at nine local schools, ensuring 2,116 pupils had access to well-maintained outdoor areas where they can play and learn how to care for the environment and each other. Across all the gardens and school grounds Paddington volunteers have supported this year, local colleagues have planted a total of 1,350 plants and spring bulbs, so that community spaces will blossom into a riot of colour in the seasons ahead.

An ongoing project which has captured the enthusiasm of many of our volunteers this year is Blomfield Road Garden. In 2018, alongside environmental education organisation Plant Environment, Edward Wilson Primary School chose to adopt this space from The Canal & River Trust in order to engage pupils in nature. The garden is now regularly visited by the pupils, enabling them to learn about nature and wildlife, grow vegetables and attend a gardening club. Over the course of 2023, 51 volunteers

Armed with litter pickers and nets, Kingfisher colleagues join the Earth Day effort in April 2023.

from Paddington companies have volunteered at Blomfield Road Garden, working with the school’s environmental tutors to build and paint raised beds and shelving, construct a bug hotel and help out with general gardening tasks to maintain the space for local children to enjoy and nurture.

“We are extremely grateful to all the volunteers, who have contributed their time and energy to both maintain and develop this beautiful and much-needed Green Garden for the benefit of all children at Edward Wilson, the local and wider communities and wildlife. We really appreciate the help of all volunteers, making a positive difference to this local, educational and interactive green space, where city children have opportunities to grow a variety of food and other plants, explore wildlife and experience, first hand, the wonders of our natural environment.”

Sophia Ioannou, Founder, Plant Environment

Throughout the spring and summer months, groups of Paddington volunteers set sail along the Grand Union and Regent’s Canals on electric GoBoats, removing litter from the water to keep the environment clean and safe for the community to enjoy and for wildfowl to thrive. In 2023, 502 volunteers from 23 companies covered 453km of the canal, removing 189 bags of litter. In April, we held our largest canal clean-up event to celebrate Earth Day, a global campaign raising awareness of environmental issues and championing initiatives to protect and conserve the natural world. This large-scale clean-up saw 74 volunteers from 14 companies attend to remove litter from the water.

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Reducing Loneliness and Digital Exclusion Loneliness amongst Paddington’s older community is a key issue we aim to address and ameliorate through our volunteer activities. We work with care homes, organisations supporting those with learning disabilities and older persons’ charities to deliver volunteer-led events which enable local people to share companionship, enjoy conversation and participate in crafts, quizzes and games. In 2023, 160 Paddington volunteers led 25 tea parties, games afternoons and celebrations for older people, attended by 596 beneficiaries. Throughout the year, Paddington volunteers have challenged older people to 800 quiz questions and spent 18 hours offering companionship through telephone discussion groups with isolated older people.

We work closely with Penfold Community Hub to host a monthly social lunch, where a team of volunteers designs and prepares a nutritious vegetarian meal for around 30 guests, sitting with them to eat. This year, through these lunches volunteers have served 720 courses to older guests, spending time sharing stories and enjoying food.

This year we are delighted to have developed a connection with Hyde Park Ward Councillor and Older Persons’ Champion Judith Southern, who visited our November social lunch at Penfold and enjoyed chatting to volunteers and residents about the initiative.

Companies from the Brunel Building host a tea party to mark the King’s Coronation.

A continuing focus for us and a number of our partner companies is tackling digital exclusion. Our Paddington volunteers lead regular 1:1 IT help sessions for local older people at care homes and older persons’ charities, offering a total of 152 tech support appointments in 2023. In order to further embed this programme in the community and to reach more local groups, we worked with local councillors to set up an ongoing programme of IT support at Hallfield Estate. Our volunteers offer 1:1 tech support to residents of the estate at regular drop-in sessions, working with people to answer queries on their devices, update software and stay in contact with loved ones.

“Following a number of requests for IT support from local residents, The Paddington Partnership worked with us to develop an ongoing tech support programme for those living on or around Hallfield Estate. Volunteers from Vodafone now offer bimonthly open advice sessions, meeting one-toone with local people to talk through their queries and help with their devices. This programme has been a fantastic way to tackle digital exclusion in the community, ensuring local people are able to get the most out of their devices and stay in touch with family and friends.”

Councillors Ryan Jude and Ellie Ormsby, Lancaster Gate ward, Westminster City Council

Vodafone volunteers offer IT support to local residents on Hallfield Estate.

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Transforming Community Spaces In a culture where hybrid and homeworking has become the norm for many, practical team challenges have an important role to play; enabling colleagues to work collaboratively on a shared project where they can quickly see the impact made, on tasks which take them away from screens and associated work pressures (with all the wellbeing benefits that brings) and allow them to connect meaningfully with colleagues.

In 2023, teams of volunteers brightened up 97 classrooms, community rooms, halls and items of playground furniture with fresh coats of paint – making spaces feel more welcoming and cared for. Creative colleagues have designed and created 31 murals and mosaics at our local schools, depicting London landmarks, animal lifecycles and underwater scenes.

“I have just walked around the centre and am left amazed at what the team of volunteers completed in such a short space of time. With the wall in the Orange Zone now safely repaired we can reopen this room for activities for our teenagers, and the outside space looks so much brighter and more welcoming.”

Kayleigh Lloyd, Westminster Operations Manager, Children’s Services

Many of the North Westminster primary schools the Community Programme is currently working with are experiencing a falling pupil roll due to low birth rates, living costs in London and surplus capacity; allowing families the freedom to move their children between schools. Whilst this creates attractive small class sizes, it has significant financial implications for education providers and makes the contribution from volunteer teams to the maintenance and enhancement of learning and play environments within our schools even more essential.

In July, St Stephen’s CE Primary School was forced to close its doors in light of this numbers crisis and the Community Programme responded by holding our largest ever volunteering event at the newly merged St Mary Magdalene and St Stephen’s CE Primary School. We recruited 77 volunteers from Dun & Bradstreet, Heathrow Express, Kingfisher, Lendlease, Marks & Spencer, Sony Pictures, Splunk, Tapestry, Tishman Speyer, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Vodafone to tackle tasks across the premises and grounds to help staff prepare for the new academic year; painting classrooms, sorting stationery, labelling exercise books, creating displays and moving furniture.

Vertex colleagues brighten up the playground at QEII Jubilee Special School.

Throughout the year we have marked festivals and cultural celebrations including Eid, Easter and Halloween by decorating youth and community centres. Teams of Christmas angels and elves have ended 2023 by spreading festive magic at 11 schools and charities; creating grottos for Father Christmas at fundraisers and fairs, decorating trees with baubles and strings of lights in care home lounges and school halls and hanging metres of paper chains and festive garlands.

British Land pick up their paintbrushes to brighten a colourful mural at the Marylebone Project.

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Promoting Life Sciences An impressive multi-agency collaboration came together to launch Paddington Life Sciences Partners in 2023, led by Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

The partnership comprises NHS, business, industry, community and academic leaders, promoting a commitment to healthcare innovation, reducing health and life expectancy inequalities and fostering greater social value in our communities and schools. There is a growing life sciences cluster in Paddington, attracted by the presence of the Trust and Imperial College, reinforced by Paddington’s world-class accessibility, stunning working environment and grade A office spaces.

The Community Programme has worked in collaboration with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust to co-design and deliver a programme of monthly community walks aimed at raising awareness amongst St Mary’s Hospital colleagues of health challenges facing the local population, specifically within Church Street - the most deprived ward in Westminster. The walks have taken place since May 2023 and have been attended by 69 NHS colleagues who have visited nine community partners and schools. To date, nine new projects, volunteering opportunities and joint-funding bids have been identified from these, all aiming to reduce local inequalities in health experiences and outcomes.

“I found the community walk both insightful and incredibly inspirational. I’ve worked for Imperial NHS Trust for almost 15 years and been based at St Mary’s for the past nine or ten years and had no idea this community was just on our doorstep.”

Claudine Brolly, Front of House Manager, St Mary’s Hospital.

We’re developing a new life sciences routeways programme in four Westminster secondary schools, encouraging pupils to explore the broad range of careers in life sciences, supported by 40 volunteers from Paddington life science companies. In 2023 we held life science career carousel workshops for 140 Year 9 students, where volunteers shared with pupils their education and professional background, before detailing what their role entails and how it supports the development of life sciences.

In 2023, Paddington life sciences companies welcomed 42 local school students into their offices for work experience, insight days and workshops, enabling students to appreciate what it is like to work in a life sciences environment and to understand the pathways into careers in STEM.

Students from St Marylebone CE School learn about careers in STEM on a visit to IQVIA’s office.

Colleagues at St Mary’s Hospital take a tour of the local area, visiting community initiatives.

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Channelling Donations Our corporate partners have been incredibly generous in 2023, working with The Paddington Partnership to facilitate the sustainable and beneficial donation of office supplies and technology to local schools and charities. This year we have facilitated donations to 17 local schools and charities from British Land, Convatec, Equinor, European Land, Finastra, GoBoat London, Heathrow Express, Kingfisher, Marks & Spencer, Sony Pictures, Takeda, Visa and Vodafone to the approximate value of £107,000.

One company donated over 350 desks to three local education establishments, enabling hundreds of students to have a dedicated space to focus on their work.

One team of volunteers was so inspired by a local school after helping out there in the summer that they purchased 200 items of school uniform – enough for every child to have an additional sweatshirt for the cooler months. We channeled donations of eight digital screens to three local charities and schools and supported the distribution of over 150 items of kitchenware, stationery and office supplies to the Paddington community.

“At the Penfold Hub, our community garden benefits so much from the many hours that volunteers have contributed to making this space so special and welcoming. The additional support through the donations of garden furniture, tools and plants, makes it possible for us to create and deliver opportunities to look at issues of health and healthy eating using herbs and the mental well-being benefits of seeing and enjoying flowers growing – even if it is on a kitchen window sill. It’s wonderful to have participants come back to the Hub and take pride in letting us know their joy in observing, season after season, their Penfold plants coming into bloom.”

Denis Kane, Project Manager, Penfold Community Hub

One local organisation kindly filled a school library with 134 new books following flood damage to existing copies, and others donated 221 Christmas gifts to young people’s centres and charities. We also directed the donation of 20 beautiful, handmade Christmas wreaths to bring festive magic to a local care home.

These generous donations hugely benefit local people and offer a sustainable solution for companies wanting to invest in new equipment for their office.

Festive joy as Takeda colleagues wrap donated gifts for children supported by Cosmic.

Visa volunteers stand ready to distribute donations at Social Supermarket.

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Contact our Community Programme for more information or to start volunteering.

Email volunteer@thisispaddington.com

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