PE gives ‘in spades’

Julie Foreman from Doughty Hanson & Co Private Equity tells us about her experience of the 2009 Annual Day of Community Engagement:

On 6th November I took part in the 2009 Annual Day of Community Engagement along with nine of my work colleagues, five of whom also took part in last year’s Community Day at Rokeby, Newham, so we had some idea of what to expect and wanted to help out again this year.

The day is an excellent ‘team building’ exercise. It’s fun to work with your team and to meet new people involved in a project where you feel that you are contributing manpower that would otherwise cost Community Links a lot of money. Not only do you meet other people working in companies linked to the PEF, but more importantly you meet people who have been involved in Community Links or who themselves have benefitted from being able to use centres like Rokeby. It’s really uplifting to see volunteers working with the ‘PEF’ teams, who as young people have been helped through this system themselves.

The feedback that I received from my team is that although none of us are experts in any of the tasks carried out on the day, it’s great to get involved in the physical work and see the transformation of a bare piece of land, bare walls and surfaces coming to life with murals and assembling structures such as picnic tables and archery areas that all come together to make for a better centre for the community to use and benefit from. Donating money is necessary for such centres to be built but being able to put in the physical effort and to see the results at the end of the day is far more rewarding than just making a donation or writing a cheque.