Cathedral Archer Project

“You’ve done what?” the Project Manager, Tim Renshaw, said.

“I’ve had a phone call asking if we could use 120 volunteers for a day and I said ‘Yes’”.

Tracy Viner is the Funding Manager of the Cathedral Archer Project. She was not quite sure what she would do with 120 volunteers for a day but was reluctant to say ‘No’.

The offer had come from a company wishing to do a workforce development day. In the climate of “credit crunch” School Trends, a local school uniform manufacturing company, had the idea that they could do something that both helped a local charity and fostered a high level of teamwork in their staff.

On Friday 20^th February the workforce descended on the Cathedral Archer Project to find out their task for the day. Tracy had worked with School Trends Human Resources staff to devise a scavenger day. Put simply they had made a list of things the Cathedral Archer Project uses, needs or would like. Each item was given a value, e.g. a pen was worth a point whereas a digital camera was worth 500 points. Having been divided into teams School Trends hit Sheffield City Centre to see what they could get for free.

The result was staggering. It showed that School Trends has a highly effective workforce and that Sheffield is full of generous and resourceful businesses. Even in this difficult economic climate businesses responded with gifts large and small, with gifts of great value to the Cathedral Archer Project. The complete list of gathered goods is below but as a sample how about these:

·        A feature on a gifted service user who has progressed from being homeless in a local paper

·        20 sleeping bags given by one outdoor shop

·        ¼ year’s worth of paper gathered in single reams and boxes of reams during the day

·        two digital cameras promised

·        a photography master class promised to the clients of CAP

·        the support of a Public Relations company for a year to help the CAP reach more people who do not know of the work we do

·        enough paperclips for the next 5 years

·        the promise of office furniture as a local thriving company looks to relocate to new premises

The list goes on. At the end of the day Tim Renshaw admitted to being staggered by the diverse and imaginative ways of giving that the School Trends team had come across. “Not only is the quantity amazing, the support for the project that different companies have offered is beyond what I imagined would come from the day. It’s rather like opening all your presents on Christmas Day only to be told there is another pile waiting for you in the next room.”

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.