Men at Work: a community project
It all began around six or seven
years ago when EDF Energy started working for the good of the community. This
included work with local schools, charities and local authority groups.
I became involved when a group of
us attended local Primary Schools in Lambeth, carrying out corrective reading
with the children one morning a fortnight for two hours. Other employees would
visit on alternate weeks. There were also opportunities to mentor older
children, to help prepare them for work or further education.
Another company scheme is Helping
Hands where staff are encouraged to carry out charity
work in the community. Some of these projects have included cleaning the
To carry out this work EDF Energy
allows every member of staff two days of working time off per year, with pay, as long as they
give the same amount of their own time. All is totally voluntary and no one has
to take part if they do not want to. On average around 30% of staff participate
in one way or another.
EDF Energy has a scheme called Learning
For All which will provide its employees with £150 to
cover tuition or course fees for any recognisable learning and educational course
offered by a recognised educational establishment. This does not have to be
work related.
There is also a scheme known as
Matched Funding where EDF Energy will match up to £100 of any money collected
for charity. MENCAP is EDF’s charitable partner.
This brings us to our three year involvement
with St Matthew’s. A group of staff and
myself have decorated and provided all the material and carpet for the Church
nursery, painted a cupboard, supplied and revamped all the light fittings in
the Church, repaired some of the fittings and installed several new light
fittings which were beyond repair, carried out several other small electrical
jobs, helped to clean the lower outside gutters and drains and made several
visits to the local dump.
Regarding the St Matthew’s project, I would like to thank Derek Goodger, John Patterson, Brian Bosher, Keith Burton, Joe Borg, Dave Heffernan, Brian Fenton and Lorne Horsford who have all helped on one or more occasions.
William Varlow