AVIVA helps local good causes get the Ladeside Hub ready for opening!

A huge thanks to the two teams of AVIVA volunteers who spent a day helping local Perth charity CheckIn Works and its partner social enterprise Giraffe Trading CIC!

“Without their enthusiasm, humour and ‘can do’ attitude, we would have really struggled to get our new Ladeside premises ready for opening in June”, said manager James Alexander.

Fuelled with bacon rolls and coffee the teams armed themselves with paint brushes and brooms, spanners and spades and endless enthusiasm! We were rewarded with freshly decorated offices, toilets and halls. The waste ground was weeded and transformed with our new polytunnel which was unpacked and assembled.

Giraffe’s coordinator Nick Butcher (who worked with the volunteers each day) said “It would have been nearly impossible for us to get the polytunnel set up and the painting done on by ourselves.”

The ongoing help from Aviva volunteers means a huge deal to us. Our organisations are small and work on shoe string budgets. In all our work across Perth we rely greatly on the enthusiasm and ‘get things done’ attitude of a small team of volunteers. So, to have around 30 volunteers from Aviva with us for a couple of days has helped us immensely.

We are pleased that Aviva volunteers have agreed to help Giraffe and CheckIn Works for the next 12 months. As one of their local nominated ‘good causes’ they will be helping with fundraising, publicity and volunteering events.

CheckIn Works is a local charity that works in partnership with Giraffe, a not-for-private-profit social enterprise. Together we train and support volunteer Buddies to help disadvantaged adults of all ages work towards accessing and sustaining paid part-time employment. We work with people with learning disabilities, enduring mental ill health, autism and other significant hurdles in the workplace.

James states that “Our mission is to lead the way in creating opportunities that offer effective employment support to disadvantaged individuals. Our partnership is committed to helping job-seekers move on and achieve success in their journey to mainstream paid employment.” He said that he was delighted that Giraffe was able to create seven part-time paid jobs last year at its summer café at South Inch Park. For some of our younger job-seekers this was the first time they had ever experienced receiving a wage packet!

The new Ladeside Hub which Aviva volunteers have helped get ready for opening is the next important step in building our capacity to offer employment support and paid employment opportunities for folk who need some extra support in the workplace.
The new Ladeside Hub will provide workshop and office space for CheckIn and Giraffe to expand their employment support activities. The site offers indoor and outdoor workshop space for CheckIn to support job-seekers gain skills in horticulture, office management, crafts, joinery, ceramics and poultry keeping.

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