CSR comes to life in Stroud

As part of their commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility, British wealth management firm, St. James’s Place offers its staff the opportunity to take part in ‘volunteer days’.

We’ve been working with them over the years to help facilitate their effort to engage their teams in ‘giving back’ to their communities.

In August, over two days, we worked with around 20 financial professionals from the company’s Cirencester offices, who built much-needed outdoor seating as well as food education and workshop facilities for the Grace Network Community Hub.

Located at Brimscombe Mill in Stroud, the teams also created planters and a bike mechanic shed, enabling two new bike mechanic apprentices to start.

Will, who runs The Long Table initiative – a community food café – at the hub, said: “When Steve from Splash Projects tole me what was going to happen, I had to get him to repeat it because I couldn’t believe it was true. It will allow us to grow more produce for our kitchen to feed more people. It’s going to make such a difference to us.”

Sue, a volunteer from SJP, added: “None of us has ever done anything like this before. It’s been an amazing experience. Seeing how it was at the beginning and at the end was just amazing.”

The project will make a massive difference to this social enterprise hub where profits are reinvested into the local community through higher pay, community events and giving away free goods to those who are in need. The hub includes furniture, children’s equipment and clothes banks, cycle maintenance and food education programmes, and free hot meals.