Staff volunteering and Community Challenges

Deliver and develop

Did you know that as a member of staff, the University will allow teams one paid day in a 12 month period to undertake volunteering in the community?

This one day team event is known as a Community Challenge. You can incorporate it into a team-building exercise as a department.

Is your team inspired to get together to volunteer in the local community?

Volunteering opportunities will normally take place during a working day, and could be straightforward hands-on, practical tasks such as decorating, gardening or organising/assisting with events. Community Challenges do require advance planning and preparation to ensure success for the University, your volunteering team and for the organisation concerned.

Create a positive impact for:

• Local communities: will benefit from having additional resources where they are most needed to add value
• University: demonstrates publicly to the local community its mission values in practice, underlining our commitment to reaching out to all sections of the community
• You: this is an opportunity to develop and enhance a wide range of skills and competences you may never have had the chance to use before or maybe didn’t even know you had.
• Your team:
  • A project which connects you to the local community
  • Improved team working skills and cohesiveness
  • An opportunity to work together on a common task with a common goal outside the scope of the normal remit of the team Any barriers are broken down as members are placed together on a level footing
  • Individuals have the opportunity to take on new roles and discover things about each other which will benefit the overall effectiveness of the team once back in the workplace.
• Links across the University: teams could be across departments, Colleges with their bespoke Professional Services staff, volunteering alongside our students, or other opportunities.  You can, however, only attend one Community Challenge in a 12 month period.

Staff Learning & Development, in conjunction with Corporate Responsibility, Students' Guild, FXU (Falmouth's Students' Union), Community Liaison and the Safety Office are promoting this scheme.

Dr Claire Lambert
Staff Learning & Development
January 2011