Wales & West staff volunteers gave back 350 hours last year
At Wales & West Housing we encourage all our staff to give time to volunteer within our communities. We call it our Giving Something Back Days.
Every member of staff is allowed to take an extra day’s paid leave a year to volunteer to help make a difference to our residents and the communities they live in or the charities our staff and Board choose to support financially every year.
In 2023 61 staff committed 350 hours to help on community projects and charities.
One of those was Wales Air Ambulance (WAA), one of our chosen staff charities, where staff donated a total of 90 hours to work at their headquarters in Llanelli helping with their annual fundraising raffles.
Spread over three days in July, August and December, a total of 17 WWH staff helped with the mammoth administration task of organising Wales Air Ambulance’s Summer raffle and Christmas appeal entries, giving staff and their helpers more time to concentrate on other important elements of fundraising.
Kerry Williams, Community Assistance Co-ordinator at Wales & West Housing, was one of the staff who volunteered at Wales Air Ambulance.
She said: “Our Giving Something Back Days have brought so many wins for both sides. It was inspirational to hear the stories and understand the impact these charities are having on people.
“Sometimes it doesn’t have to be financial, the gift of time can be massive. Helping with the admin for the summer raffle meant Wales Air Ambulance’s staff and their helpers could spend their time doing the things that they do best – going out and fundraising.”
Kerry Williams, Community Assistance Co-ordinator at Wales & West Housing
Phae Jones, Individual Giving Manager at Wales Air Ambulance said: “We want to say a big thank you to the staff at Wales & West Housing for all their support. It’s been awesome.”
“The cost saving gifted by the volunteers has amounted to more than 90 hours of time, which was a great saving and hugely beneficial for the progress of our raffle.”
“It shows the difference that volunteering makes to the charity, and we hope it will inspire other potential partners to consider supporting us in this way.”
Phae Jones, Individual Giving Manager at Wales Air Ambulance
In figures: Wales Air Ambulance Giving Something Back Days
- 90 hours volunteered by WWH staff to help Wales Air Ambulance
- 38,000 paper tickets sold and checked for the summer raffle 2023
- £50,000 funds raised for Wales Air Ambulance through the summer raffle 2023
- £11.2 million needed to be raised every year to keep Wales Air Ambulances flying
- 48,000 missions completed by Wales Air Ambulance since the charity was formed on St. David’s Day, 1 March 2001
- 4 Wales Air Ambulance helicopters that attend around 3,500 missions a year, operating out of their airbases in Caernarfon, Llanelli, Welshpool and Cardiff
We gave back 350 hours in 2023
Across Wales 61 WWH staff volunteered 350 hours of their time to a number of projects in 2023. These included the following activities:
- supporting young learners by delivering mock Interviews, CV/job application writing workshops in schools across Wales
- gardening and maintenance work at resident schemes in Cardiff and Chirk
- working alongside our Development Contractors Jones Brothers (Henllan) Ltd to paint a school in Llandissilio, Pembrokeshire
- supporting a senior citizen Christmas dinner in Penparcau, Aberystwyth
- volunteering at a food pantry and community garden in Trowbridge, Cardiff
